Ryan Hooker grabs pole position In Pau, France taking 3rd and 4th place finishes in the latest round of the British GT Championship
Ryan Hooker (Upminster) had an exciting and eventful weekend in Pau as the British GT
Series visited France for the third round of the GTC Championship in which Ryan came away with a further 11 points to his tally.
This was Ryan's first visit to the French street circuit, indeed his first time racing on the confines of a street circuit. In baking heat, Ryan was thrilled with the location.
"It was very reminiscent of seeing Monaco on the television" said Ryan, "A beautiful back drop though once in the race car you don't notice that. With tunnel vision you just concentrate on the track and the barriers."
Ryan soon proved himself to be a quick learner as he mastered the tricky, tight circuit during practice alongside his new team-mate for the weekend, former F3 driver Danny Watts.
Ryan took part in qualifying on Sunday for the first race of the weekend (the second race taking place on Pentecost Monday, a holiday in France). Ryan knocked over 2 seconds from his best practice time the day before, to capture pole position by over half a second.
Starting from the front of the grid on Sunday evening in the Trackspeed #3 Porsche, Ryan made a good start and had an interesting cat and mouse battle with the Morgan in 2nd place. He held the lead comfortably but as the pitstops loomed at the half way point to hand over to Danny, the car went 'off song', the problem later related to a fuel pump issue. Danny took over and battled hard to score 4th position and vital points.
Monday's race saw the #3 car on the pole once again, this time Danny having put in a lightening qualifying lap. Danny started the race, in hot conditions, and developed a comfortable lead before handing over to Ryan. Four laps into his stint Ryan found the problem from Race One raised its head once more causing a loss of power. Ryan fought hard but lost the lead to the RPM Porsche and as the finishing line loomed, with 'grunt' missing, the Morgan pipped Ryan into third place.
"It is disappointing in one way " said Ryan afterwards, " as we should have walked the win. But, we can take so many positives away from the weekend. As a team we took both pole positions, both race fastest laps and scored a podium. We have added to our points tally and from a personal point of view it has been an amazing experience to drive this street circuit. "
Ryan is now in second position in the GTC Drivers Championship on 23 points, just behind Finnemore, Beighton, Ellis and Mortimer who are in joint first all on 30 points.
The next round of the British GT Championship sees Ryan travel overseas once more, this time to Mondello Park in Ireland to race on 24-25th June.
This was Ryan's first visit to the French street circuit, indeed his first time racing on the confines of a street circuit. In baking heat, Ryan was thrilled with the location.
Monday's race saw the #3 car on the pole once again, this time Danny having put in a lightening qualifying lap. Danny started the race, in hot conditions, and developed a comfortable lead before handing over to Ryan. Four laps into his stint Ryan found the problem from Race One raised its head once more causing a loss of power. Ryan fought hard but lost the lead to the RPM Porsche and as the finishing line loomed, with 'grunt' missing, the Morgan pipped Ryan into third place.