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Silverstone
- 16th April - "Pearson makes a great start at Silverstone"
The qualifying
began in overcast and cold conditions giving teams and drivers
difficult decisions to make regarding tyre pressure and engine
cooling. Ian and his RC97 Tatuus chassis were working well and
at the end of the session, Ian was in pole position for his
class with a time of 58.559 seconds, this was over a second
faster than his nearest class rival. What was probably even
more impressive was that Ian was fifth overall on the grid,
a mere 0.709 seconds slower than the fastest FR2000 car.
Ian made an
excellent start to the race, retaining 1st position in his class
and actually gaining a place overall - moving him up to fourth
at the first corner. But on Silverstones long straights, this
position was going to be hard to keep hold of. It wasn't long
before Ian was involved in a five car battle with three club
class cars snapping at his heels, with Ian being held up by
the FR2000 car in front of him. "Every time I got to the
front of the pack into the corners, the FR2000 car would just
come flying past along the next straight, there was nothing
I could do". In the end, Ian did manage to get a safe gap
from his chasing club class cars when they started to fight
for position amongst themselves, crossing the line first in
class and fifth overall. This was a good start to the championship
with a maximum score for pole position, race win and fastest
lap.
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