Estoril VdeV
2010 End Of Term
December 2010
Going into the final round at Estoril in Portugal, Ryan and Derrick had nothing to lose as they have had a year to forget and were looking for a good end to the year.
It started well with Ryan topping the 1st practice session timesheets in the wet and with Derrick putting in some very competitive solid lap times himself. This continued for the rest of the days practice sessions, also all wet. The number 33 car was showing great pace and as a pairing one to look out for in the 6 hour event.
Qualifying was the weekends first dry running and Ryan qualified the car a very competitive 9th out of a 30 car grid and couldn't wait for race day to come.
Race day and 10 minutes before the race started, the heavens opened enough to make all the circuit wet and cause drivers and teams a tough decision, to either put the car on a wet set up, or stay on a dry set up with wet tyres for when the circuit dries and therefore have a better pace in the dry - Ryan opted for a full wet set up which proved to be the right decision, after 6 laps Ryan found himself with a strong pace in 5th position and after 1hr 30 minutes of his 2hr 10 minute stint he pitted for slick tyres as the circuit had formed a dry line. Ryans pace continued to be solid right up to the next pit stop and a clever call from the team spotting that black clouds were coming in and expecting a rainfall, other drivers were doing their driver changes but the team left Ryan out another lap which was a brilliant call, because on the in lap the heavens opened, which meant not only were they doing the driver change for Derrick to jump in, but also putting the car back onto wet tyres at the right time and Derrick exiting the pits in 2nd position with a good gap to 3rd place.
Derrick then drove the next 20 minutes putting in lap times 3 to 4 seconds a lap quicker than positions 3rd, 4th and 5th and then suddenly, the torid conditions caught Derrick out, just getting on the power a little too hard too early and the car spun and brushed the wall damaging the rear left suspension which cost us 7 laps in repair time. The other sad thing being the leader also went out shortly after with a problem, so Ryan would've been looking good for just over a laps lead for when Derrick would've handed over after his stint.
The car was repaired as best as possible and sent back on its way - sadly only for the conditions to catch Derrick out again 10 laps later and beaching the car in the gravel, this damaging the front floor which would later affect the aerodynamics at high speed.
Ryan got in for the final 90 minutes and circulated the best he could with a bruised and battered car to bring the car home to record a finish - everyone was a bit low as this was certainly a podium finish lost and most certainly a race winning opportunity.
Ryan and Derrick are looking to test some other brands of prototypes in January to have a serious attack at the series next year - see you there.