Ciceley Motorsport’s Adam Morgan scored three top six finishes in the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Silverstone on Sunday.
Aboard his Mercedes-Benz A-Class, Adam bounced back to his early-season form, with a string of niggling reliability issues now behind him.
Adam’s weekend started with a wet free practice session in which he and the team worked through a programme to get a good set-up on the car ready for qualifying. The 30-minute grid-deciding session was a good one for Adam who made minor changes to the car and felt it was better than ever. “It was like it was on rails,” he said as he powered to third fastest time, just 49-thousandths of a second away from pole position, underlining how competitive the championship is.
“That was a mega start to the day,” he said. “It was a bit hairy when the rain came and it is frustrating that I didn’t get a chance to have a go after the safety car, but I’ll take third! It is so good to be racing at the front again. The car was phenomenal and to get fastest lap proves what good pace we had.”
Adam started race two from third on the grid and was involved in an early battle with Rob Austin, which pushed him down to fifth. Adam passed Ash Sutton’s Subaru and he started to attack Turkington’s BMW, only for Sutton to close on Adam once more and the three started battling. Adam was carrying 57 kilos of success ballast for finishing third in race one and the weight started to tell, as he was beginning to struggle against the lighter cars. Adam was hit by Sutton, which forced him wide and lost him ground, eventually battling home in sixth.
“The weight was a big handicap,” reckoned Adam. “Sutton was quicker as the weights started to hurt us but then he hit me and I was forced wide which allowed him and Rob Austin to go by. I reckon I could have done better than sixth and would have done if people hadn’t hit me! Still, after some of the weekends we’ve had, sixth is pretty good.”
Ciceley Motorsport’s Commercial Director Norman Burgess said: “We’re back where we belong, at the front of the grid. Adam raced really well all weekend, with good speed and no mistakes. We’ve had a tough season with reliability on occasions but all our guys have continued to work hard and never lost their enthusiasm nor commitment. We have got a great bunch of lads working on the car and we have all dug deep and pushed on which is evident from podium finishes again. All our Ciceley Motorsport guests had a superb day, cheering Adam on to three top six finishes and we look forward to Brands Hatch for more of the same.”
Adam lies ninth in the overall championship and is fourth in the Independents’ competition with third being the target with just three races to run at Brands Hatch, Kent, on September 30th and October 1st.
