Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport is celebrating another positive weekend in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship in which Adam Morgan and Tom Chilton again proved the pace of their BMW 330i M Sports, with Adam taking three top eight finishes at Snetterton in Norfolk.
In hot conditions on Saturday, Adam and Tom’s main focus was the two-part qualifying session, with the top 10 progressing to the final shoot-out. In the first 25-minute part, Adam qualified 10th while Tom finished 13th. With one car subsequently excluded, Tom moved up to 12th on the race one grid, whilst Adam took his Bowker BMW-supported car into Q2 where he battled to sixth and was then promoted to fifth after the disqualification of Gordon Shedden’s Honda Civic for a rear wing infringement.
“I’m pleased with that,” said Adam. “The car has really good pace and should be suited to Snetterton, so I’m optimistic for raceday.”
In sweltering conditions, Adam made a good start from fifth on the grid for the opening race and was soon in a battle with Ollie Jackson (Ford Focus), Dan Lloyd (Vauxhall Astra) and Stephen Jelley (BMW 330i M Sport). On the softer, grippier, option tyre, Adam was fighting hard and had moved up to fifth when he snagged a brake into the Esses and locked up a wheel. That affected his front left tyre which started to deteriorate over the remaining distance around the three-mile lap.
“That really hurt us,” explained Adam. “I was on the radio soon afterwards saying ‘This tyre isn’t going to last’ so I had to back off to look after it. I dropped to seventh but even when I was braking earlier to look after the tyre, I still overtook Dan Lloyd for sixth pace so I’m really pleased. I’m not sure it would have lasted another lap, though.”
Adam’s hard-earned sixth place was in contrast to Tom’s opening race when he was helped into a spin on the final lap, which dropped his Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport BMW to 21st place.
It also meant that Tom had a lot of work to do in race two, starting 21st, but as he charged his Mac Tools backed BMW into the first hairpin on the opening lap, he became a victim of the traffic all stacking up ahead of him. “There is always a concertina effect,” explained Tom. “I was about one car length back from the car ahead at turn two but suddenly the field seemed to stop and I just couldn’t stop in time. It was unbelievable how quickly all the traffic backed up and then it happened again into turn four which broke my bonnet so I was then staring at bodywork!” With damage, Tom was forced to retire the car.
Adam, from sixth on the grid, had lots of understeer early in the race which then became oversteer as the race progressed. “It was difficult to get traction and pick up power,” he explained. “It was very difficult for everyone in the heat, and in terms of pace we weren’t far away, but it was just so hot! I locked up in a couple of corners and we made a few adjustments after race one, but they weren’t quite what we needed. I’m happy with eighth thought because it is more points and shows that we can run up near the front.”
Adam missed out on the reverse grid, seventh being the place that would translate to pole, so he started eighth and Tom 28th for the final race. Again, both rear-wheel drive cars made good starts, with Adam’s car having undergone some more set-up changes. “We made the rear of the car more settled,” he explained, “but we had a bit more understeer in the high-speed sections. It was quite a brutal race with lots of contact, but my goal was a top 10 and I finished eighth, so overall I’m pretty happy.
“I need to manage the tyres a bit better but I am still learning about rear-wheel drive cars after seasons in front-wheel drive machinery, so each time we go out I am making steps forward.”
Tom said: “I was a bit Cautious Charlie after not finishing race two, but we made some tweaks that made the car really fast and I got through from 28th to 19th. I reckon that could have been higher but I was held up in traffic early on and I really didn’t want to risk it too much for fear of not finishing. By the end of the race, the car was working really well and the whole grid was coming to me. I wish we could have race four now…!”
Ciceley Motorsport’s Commercial Director Norman Burgess said: “Everyone’s talking about the weather but we are focussing on the pace of our Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport BMWs. The cars have shown really good speed this weekend and three top eight finishes for Adam shows that we are in the mix and our first win of 2021 isn’t far away. Adam raced hard as usual and did an amazing job of bringing home his car in race one on a tyre that was virtually history! I have included a photo of the tyre in the photos below, it really was phenomenal tyre management in that heat. Tom was unlucky in race two being in the wrong place at the wrong time in traffic, but showed what he is capable of in race three after a mega charge, as soon as Tom’s luck changes, he’ll be the man to beat. We head to the next races full of optimism.”
