鈥淚n qualifying, I got into the 55-second laps after finding a little space during a safety car-interrupted session, seeing me secure fourth.

鈥淒uring Race 1, I got off the line and on a run into Paddock Hill Bend. Seeing it was going to get a bit close and messy, I tried to keep wide to avoid it all but unfortunately I got smacked in the right rear quarter which sent me into the gravel, giving me my first non-finish of the year and only my second ever in Type R Trophy.

鈥淔or Race 2, we got the car cleaned and repaired, but found the right rear was sitting low. I started from the back of the grid, which was always going to be a tall order, but despite this and after only two or three laps, I found myself fifth and in the battle for the lead.

鈥淎 lap later, the right rear snagged under braking against the inner arch and sent me around backwards into turn one! Luckily, I missed the inside barrier, with other cars and me managing to get back out of the gravel. I shouldn鈥檛 have got greedy and kept it smooth with the issue, so my bad! I got it back out of the gravel and despite a safety car period managed to get it back up to 10th with the right rear being far too low giving me four flat-spotted tyres. Despite this, I was still managing mid-56-second lap times.

鈥淐ertainly a weekend where the results didn鈥檛 show what we had. The car was mega and on rails and the best it鈥檚 been. I personally think I was driving as well as I ever have especially coming through the grid, but that鈥檚 racing!鈥�

Picture courtesy of Mark Jordan.

鈥淲e tested the day before but only managed two sessions, as in session 3, we had a shock fail and snap down Craner Curves. This was the day over and the rest of the day and evening were spent stripping the shocks down. Once the parts, arrived new shock tubes were replaced and built-up. We also found out the other front shock was knackered also, with no damping left. A bigger issue was setting the ride height up with new shocks as they were sitting at a different height.鈥�

Qualifying 鈥� 7^th
鈥淭he first two to three laps were spent scrubbing fresh tyres in and seeing how the balance of the car felt. Although I knew the ride height was out, the car was actually feeling fairly good. My first flying lap was messed up at the chicane by a slower car taking my line and sending me off up the grass. After this, traffic was a nightmare with 30 of us sharing the circuit.鈥�

Race one 鈥� 5^th
鈥淚t was a typical hectic start and few laps off the start. Once settled, I was in 4^th. The lead three cars had already made a break for it and I was leading the next three-car train, however I couldn鈥檛 get it turned into Old Hairpin and had to save a fairly big slide, putting me back down to 6^th. I tagged back onto the back of them and spent about a lap or so diving for 5^th, finally getting through on the brakes into the chicane 鈥� the EBC RP-X pads doing a mega job as usual. By this time, the 4^th-position driver was three to four seconds up the road. With the car feeling good in the second half of the race, I put in some quick and consistent times and crossed the line under a second behind him, taking 5^th.鈥�

Race two 鈥� 6^th
鈥淪tarting 6^th for the second race, I got a really good start off the line and went between the two cars on row two. At the last minute, I got turned into a little and sandwiched in, but managed to get through and into 2^nd place into turn one. It was clear after the contact the geo was out a little and I was struggling to turn into right handers. A bigger issue was both my wing mirrors had been folded in so being able to defend was going to be a no-go as I couldn鈥檛 judge where cars were when battling in the pack. I did manage to hold 2^nd for a good two to three laps with a small gap to the rest of the grid. Knowing I couldn鈥檛 defend well with the mirror issue, as soon as I could I went for a dive on the leader going into Redgate, but he got the undercut back and then I was in the whole pack battling. A few moments going into Old Hairpin also didn鈥檛 help as I couldn鈥檛 get it turned in well enough which kept resulting in time scrubbing off. I managed to bring it home with a comfortable 6^th 迟丑辞耻驳丑.鈥�

鈥淥verall, a mega weekend despite some issues on the Friday and chasing setup on race day, however the car鈥檚 feeling good again during the races. There was some mega racing through the whole field and watching back on the live stream, it鈥檚 generally a mega championship to watch with it constantly getting compared to touring cars which is mega.鈥�

鈥淎 massive thanks to 91传媒 鈥� yet again a weekend where even though temperatures were high, we had no brake fade or overheating issues. Having RP-X across the front axle and Yellowstuff across the rear gives a mega balance and setup鈥�

Thanks to Mark Jordan for the image.

鈥淭he last race weekend saw us at a scorching, red-hot Oulton Park. The Friday test day gave us four sessions to get myself used to the Civic around the fast-flowing roller coaster circuit.

鈥淎 lot of the other teams had been here two to three times testing before, and this showed in qualifying. I put a good lap down, but nine others did an even better one! So, I ended up qualifying 10^th 鈥� not where we wanted to start, but it was clear on the test day we were lacking a bit of pace to some of the others. But with 30 cars out there, it wasn鈥檛 all bad.

鈥淚n race one, I got too much wheelspin off the start and was down to 13^th on approach to turn one. With elbows out and a good line and a few running wide, I came out of turn one in 9^th 鈥� a typical Type R Trophy first corner! Over the first lap, I was tucked in behind Ash Moor and managed a late braking move into the last corner up the inside 鈥� the 91传媒 showing their performance as usual. By this time, the top seven were already a good few seconds up the road, I worked as hard as I could over the race to close the gap but I ran out of laps and was about 0.5 seconds off 7^th at the finish.

鈥淔or race two I started 3^rd on the grid. I knew if I could get a good start and if others started scrapping, we could salvage a good result from the weekend. From the lights I maintained 3^rd and slid up the inside onto turn one for 2^nd, with Connor Murphy in the lead. I chased him down over the first half a lap and spent a good sector side-by-side with him, until I overtook him for the lead.

鈥淥ver the next few laps, I had a train of around 8-10 cars in the pack behind, all bumper-to-bumper. I was struggling to turn the car into the right-handers with the steering wheel out by around 45 degrees 鈥� I knew the front tracking had taken a knock and was out. I was basically having to either get the back end around more to back it into corners or stopp it on the apex to turn. This was hampering my corner speed and overall lap times and creating a massive bottleneck.

鈥淚 somehow managed to hold the lead all race right until the last lap where going down Cascades, I got a little tap and got sideways and lost a lot of drive going down the long straight after this. I had three cars side-by-side in my mirrors and I couldn鈥檛 defend them all and Jake got me and went onto win half a lap later. I was gutted! So close to my first Type R Trophy win but also over the moon as despite being off the pace, we still came away with a podium and some good points.

鈥淚 would like to say a massive thanks to 91传媒 Racing 鈥� the RP-X pads once again helping me massively on the brakes, especially in the second race where we couldn鈥檛 get the car turned in as usual. I was having to drive defensive and brake really late so no one could get up the inside. Despite the high temperatures and Oulton Park being known to cook brakes, the EBC brakes never once faded or overheated and enabled me to brake good and consistent across the whole race.鈥�

Thanks to Mark Jordan for the image.

鈥淏efore the racing began, we had a Friday test day. The first session was all about bedding in the new tyres and brakes.

鈥淟ast year, for the last few rounds, I started running EBC鈥檚 RP-1 pads and found these to be on-par with the other brand of pad I was using, but lasting a lot better and not suffering with fade towards the end of the race.

鈥淒uring some testing over last few months, I switched to the RP-X pad and wow 鈥� they are next level again, with so much stopping power compared to other pads. I have tried a number of brake pads, but no matter how hard you use these, they don鈥檛 suffer from the fade other pads seem to.

鈥淥ne issue I had in pre-season testing was the rears locking up due to not running ABS. This is something that鈥檚 always going to be an issue, but it was like a handbrake being applied. I was running another company鈥檚 rear pad, so after a quick chat with the experts over at EBC, a new batch of RP-X front pads and some EBC rears were ordered and arrived the next day, top service guys!

鈥淥nce they were all bedded in, I did three race simulation runs during the Friday test day and a few qualifying hot lap-style runs. The brake balance was really good. Into sections of the track like Sunny In, Tower and Complex, where you鈥檙e scrubbing speeds of around 130mph down to 40-70mph, I could now trail brake without the risk of it going around on me as the rear snagged like before. Only now and again some smoke would come of the rears, but this was as the outside rear wheel was getting airborne.

鈥淩ace 1: after qualifying, it was clear that Christopher Nylan and Jake Hewlett had about half a second on the rest of us, with 3^rd to 10^th all separated by hardly anything.

鈥淟uckily for me, a good start and a nice move around the first few corners got me up to 2^nd, where a race-long defence was in order to keep this position. Jake had a good run at one point and showed his nose ahead of me into turn one, but luckily, I had the inside line and my EBC brakes were working amazing so we held onto it. I finally crossed the line 0.10 seconds ahead of him, getting second place and my first ever Type R Trophy podium.

鈥淩ace 2: starting 9^th as they reverse the top 10 of Race 1, the start was a messy one for most due to some creeping at the start and some slow starters. I went down the back straight in 7^th behind Ash Moor who was showing good pace and it took me a good two or three laps to finally get past him on the brakes into Tower bend.

鈥淎sh then followed me for a few laps until he tried a move at the same place. Luckily for mem he didn鈥檛 get it stopped enough and ran a little wide on the grass, giving me a gap. By this time the leading five cars were well up the road and with some free track space I got my head down and was matching their pace, but just couldn鈥檛 claw enough back. I crossed the line in 6^th, but after a few penalties, I got promoted up to 4^th.

鈥淎 massive thanks the team at 91传媒 Racing team 鈥� just by listening to a few issues I was having over a quick email chat, they have resolved my issues I was having. I鈥檓 looking forward to the year ahead running EBC brakes and I know at any point I can ask any questions and receive a professional and top reply and service.鈥�

Thanks to for the image.