BGTC: Thruxton: Mike Meadows weekend summary

MIKE MEADOWS MEADOWS SCORES ANOTHER PODIUM IN BRITISH GT AT THRUXTON

British driver Mike Meadows had a mixed weekend at the Thruxton race track in Hampshire this weekend, driving for the CR Scuderia Team in the British GT Championship. Meadows and Team mate James Sutton in the no.14 Ferrari 430 GT3 car were running comfortably in fifth in the first race, but a chaotic pitstop dropped the team back and they finished in 10th place. A strong third place finish in race two, however lifted the spirits of this young duo.

The qualifying session for race one took place in dry and bright conditions on Saturday afternoon, Meadows and Sutton took to the track for the 30 minute session and recorded ninth fastest time for Sunday's first race. The second qualifying session also took place on the Saturday afternoon, and they recorded a seventh fastest time for race two.

Race one was by no means a quiet affair for Meadows and the CR Scuderia team. The race began cleanly with Meadows behind the wheel for the opening stint. On the first lap he made up several places moving from ninth to seventh and then up another place on lap four. When the safety car was deployed after an incident involving one of the Lamborghinis, Meadows was running a solid fifth. As the pit lane opened ten laps later, nearly the whole field pitted at once causing chaos as the lack of space resulted in incidents throughout the pit lane. The no. 14 Ferrari rejoined the track with Sutton behind the wheel, but the team had dropped down the order. When the safety car pulled in and the race came to an end, the Ferrari crossed the line in 10th place.

As the second race of the weekend got underway on the 2.3 Mile Thruxton Circuit, Meadows' team mate Sutton took the start and was off the line well, instantly moving up from fifth to fourth. A few laps into the race Sutton was hit hard from behind by one of the Aston Martins causing damage to his Ferrari, however at the same time an incident involving a Ginetta at the chicane caused a red flag, causing a halt to the race. This gave the CR Scuderia squad time to check the damage to the back of the Ferrari F430 as they lined up on the grid to wait for the restart. With the race distance shortened to 30 minutes, Sutton lined up in fifth once again, and after 10 laps back racing the pitlane opened and Sutton handed over to Meadows. Meadows pushed hard during his stint and moved up the order and was lying third, closely chasing the sister CR Scuderia car in second, but Meadows played safe to cross the line in third place..

Meadows commented after the races, "We've had a real mixed bag this weekend, it's good to have another podium to add to the points tally. However we really suffered in race one during the pitstops. We were running well and were in a strong position to score more valuable points, but the race result was just out of our control."

Meadows and Sutton now lie fifth in the British GT Championship with the next of round of the series at the historic Brand Hatch Circuit in Kent in just under two weeks time.

-credit: mm