The BTCC season kicked off on the 23rd-24th April, with Ciceley Motorsport celebrating a superb start to the season at Donington Park. Adam and George together celebrated a podium finish and two independent category wins!
The last race took place at Brands Hatch over the weekend of 13th-15th May, where Ciceley Motorsport scored three top-10 results, despite having to cope with tricky weather conditions and a technical problem.
During the qualifying session, Adam qualified an outstanding fourth fastest with George coming in a hugely impressive seventh in his second-ever BTCC qualifying session.
Raceday started overcast and rain was falling as the cars came to the grid. Both Adam and George played it safe and elected to run on wet tyres, with Adam having 15 laps of hybrid use and George 22 laps from the total race distance of 24. On a wet track, the two experienced early hybrid system activation issues and the engineering team elected, mid-race, to switch the cars to a different engine map. The hybrid system then came alive allowing Adam (who admitted to making a bad start) to battle to 6th place and George to take 14th after he dropped down the order as others with hybrid power passed him early in the race.
As Adam was leaving the garage for race 2 the car refused to pull away when the first gear was engaged. A bearing had come out of the back of the flywheel causing the input shaft to the transmission to become off-centre, thus jamming the clutch. It meant that Adam couldn’t take the start as the team tried to trace and rectify the problem. George upheld the team’s honour and blasted from 14th to 9th in greasy conditions once again.
“I made a good start again and then the pace tailed off a bit, but some more rain came and that helped us find pace. In the end, though, the rear tyres seemed to drop away and that made it difficult towards the end, but I gained places and it was all good experience,” he said.
For the final race, George started fourth on the reversed grid with Adam 28th. Both charged into battle, with Adam picking off the traffic ahead and catching up to the similar BMW 330e M Sport of Stephen Jelley on the line, missing 13th place by just six-hundredths of a second. In doing so, Adam incredibly overtook 14 cars! George ran fourth early on with a gaggle of front-wheel-drive cars around him and eventually the traction that they boasted allowed them to move ahead, he finished in 7th place and won the Jack Sears Trophy for the weekend.
“That was an enjoyable race,” said Adam, “because it showed what we are capable of and how good the car is. Missing race two was obviously disappointing and as it affected the race three grid it was always going to be tough, but the car was mega in the last race. I’m feeling really positive about things.”
“It was really slippy,” remarked Adam after the opening race. “The track was changing constantly and that was our first time in the wet with this set up so I’m quite happy overall.”
George commented: “It was my first time in the wet and I made a good start but then got caught up in traffic and I couldn’t get through and got roughed up a bit! That was a bit of a welcome to touring car racing I think, but the car felt good.”
Ash Gallagher, Ciceley Motorsport’s Commercial Manager, said: “Yet again we have proved that we have front-running pace. The weather this weekend made the racing a bit of a lottery, but in every session, wet or dry, we were competitive. Adam’s problem was something that our guys had never seen before, but once we had traced it we were able to get him back on track for race three, which considering the very tight turnaround between the races this weekend was a monumental effort from the guys in the garage, so we go to Thruxton feeling really confident.”
Adam lies 8th in the championship standings, with George 9th and Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport is 4th in the BTCC Teams Championship. The Independents Championship has George in 2nd place and Adam 4th, with Car Gods with Ciceley Motorsport 2nd in the Independent Teams title race. The Jack Sears Trophy, for drivers who hadn’t scored an overall podium result before this season, is led by George after three JST wins thus far.
