After a strong debut for Árón Smith and Team BMR at Brands Hatch, the Irish driver was looking forward to Donington Park. The Leicestershire circuit is known to be favoured by both Árón and the long wheel base Passat CC.
Smith’s weekend got off to a superb start with the fastest time in Saturday morning’s free practice one. He quickly followed this pace up with second fastest time in the day’s second free practice session, a mere one tenth of a second behind the MG of Sam Tordoff.
Qualifying was a very similar affair to that in Brands Hatch. Just one second separating the top 16 drivers, Árón placed his MicksGarage.com supported Volkswagen Passat CC in fifth for Sunday’s opening race and was very happy with the pace of his car throughout the day.
Sunday morning however would present a very different picture at Donington Park. Saturday’s bright dry weather turned to heavy rain before the race making tyre choice easy. However a lack of pre-season wet weather meant the team was forced to venture somewhat into the unknown for the race. A good start off the line allowed Smith to hold his starting position for the first lap. However from the second lap onwards Árón started to loose a number of positions as he struggled with the car in the treacherous conditions. Now holding ninth position, Smith found himself locked in battle with Matt Neal for the remainder of the race but couldn’t manage to find a way past the Honda driver.
Race two looked set to be dry but once again the heavens opened shortly before the race. Making some setup changes to the car from race one, Smith was hopeful of an improved performance starting in ninth position. An early safety car bunched up the field after the start and once racing got back under way on lap four, Smith found himself working his way up to seventh. Once again locked in battle for position with Matt Neal and Mat Jackson, Árón managed to get past the pair and move into seventh. However on the final lap, Smith’s former teammate Jackson managed to regain the position with Árón crossing the line in eighth place.
The final race of the weekend presented a dry track and plenty of optimism for Smith to show the strong dry weather pace of his Team BMR Passat. A good start was hampered at the first corner when contact from Fabrizio Giovanardi damaged the rear of the car. Now down in fourteenth place, Smith began working his way back up the order before the safety car was deployed on lap four. However coming into Roberts corner, further contact from Giovanardi sent Smith into Tom Ingram damaging the steering of his Chrome Edition Passat. When the race got back under way, Smith quickly worked his way back up the order before the damage sustained in the opening laps of the race started to affect the balance and handling of his car. Despite his best efforts, Smith crossed the line in eleventh position but crucially scoring some all important championship points.
Speaking after the race, an up beat Árón reflected on the weekend: “So yeah the weekend started great. I’ve never been fastest in free practice so that was awesome. Qualifying was really good and left us really positive going into the races. We hadn’t driven this car with wets on it before so it was as much a learning curve for me as it was for the team. In race one the setup was good but it wasn’t front running pace. We had a good battle with Matt Neal so at least we were on a par with the manufacturer teams. For race two we tried something in the setup, which worked, but we just didn’t go far enough with it. I really fancied my chances in race three, as it was dry. In turn one Fabrizio ran into me which meant I lost a load of places and the safety car boards came out a few laps later and he ran into me again. It was purely accidental, it wasn’t meant to happen but the damage hampered our pace. Looking ahead to Thruxton, this track is the Passat’s track which was proven there last year so I think we will have a dynamite car around there!”
Árón Smith moves to Thruxton in just two weeks time for Rounds seven, eight and nine of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship with Team BMR.