Morgan bids farewell to Ciceley Mercedes with attacking drive

Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship ace Adam Morgan ended his season with three fighting drives to conclude his association with the Carlube Triple R Racing Mac Tools Mercedes-Benz A-Class, which will be replaced by a new car for 2021.
 
Adam’s weekend began with a frustrating qualifying session, run in wet conditions in which the Mercedes has never been overly happy. Adam struggled to find a perfect set-up and struggled to 17^th on the grid, which left him with work to do on raceday.
 
The opening race was also on a wet track, which didn’t offer much promise from the team. However, Adam was in a fighting mood, put his head down and charged!
 
“I wasn’t expecting race one to be brilliant,” said Adam, “but I moved up from 17^th to P11 which was good and part of that was about keeping out of trouble. The car felt better and I was able to make decent progress.”
 
Race two was held on a damp but rapidly drying track, Adam’s Carlube Triple R Racing-operated Mercedes starting 11^th but he flew, charging his way up into sixth place as some drivers elected to start on wets and had an early advantage before falling back as the track surface improved. Adam was on slicks and as the road dried the car came alive. 
 
“The car felt really good in the dry. As the road dried out the car felt better and better and it was a really good race. It’s a good feeling to be able to pick off cars and gain places and that’s what we did.”
 
Adam’s sixth place meant that he would carry success ballast for the third race, the farewell outing for the Mercedes-Benz A-Class. With 30 kilos of success ballast on board, Adam was eager to send the car out on a high, but heavy rain in the last few minutes before the race threatened his game plan.
 
However, after a lot of hard work on set-up, Adam and engineer Steve Farrell found a solution to the problem.

 
“The car was good in the dry, so we thought ‘This is going alright”, but for race three we had to change the set-up again. We had a long discussion on Saturday afternoon into the evening about what we were doing, what other teams were doing and why and where we were losing out in the wet. So, we went for a completely dry set-up, put wets on it and it’s the fastest it’s been in the wet! Amazing, really, to think that it was that easy after all the head-scratching we’ve done. It wasn’t the perfect solution, but it was radically better.”
 
Adam battled up to second place early on before losing out to a hard-charging Tom Ingram (Toyota Corolla) but his third place was scuppered when Dan Cammish (Honda Civic) clumsily clattered into the side of him at Druids hairpin. “Dan came running over to apologise, but I couldn’t see him. Both of my mirrors had been folded in after earlier battles and when he went for the inside, I had no idea where he was! That resulted in a half-spin, but I was able to continue.”
 
Adam secured fifth place at flagfall to send the Mercedes off on a high note. It is a car in which Adam took his maiden BTCC pole position and claimed seven career wins and has been a central point of his career in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship since 2014.
 
“It’s been a great car and even in its last race the Mercedes-Benz A-Class is still competitive. You could come and buy these two cars with a comprehensive spares package, be on the BTCC grid next season and be competitive, that is how good the car has proved to be. I’ve had a win this season and been regularly up at the front, so the car still has pace.
 
“It’s the end of an era after seven years but we’ve had some great days and the first outright win for a Mercedes in the BTCC so we can be proud of what we have achieved.”
 
Adam’s team-mate Jack Butel maintained his excellent finishing record and completed his rookie BTCC season third in the Jack Sears Trophy for drivers who hadn’t scored a podium finish before the start of the season. Out of 17 drivers, Jack’s was the best-placed rookie and impressed many in his maiden BTCC season.
 
Ciceley Motorsport’s Commercial Director Norman Burgess said: “We have ended a difficult season on a very positive note. Adam, as ever, wrung every ounce of performance out of the Carlube Triple R Racing Mac Tools Mercedes-Benz A-Class and as usual was one of the hardest triers on the grid. It was great to see Adam make progress in the opening race and to be running in the top two in race three underlined his ability and the car’s innate pace. We look forward to 2021 now with a new car that we will announce soon, but we have certainly ended 2020 with a reminder of the ability of all of us: team, driver and car. Thanks are due not just to Adam for his never-say-die performances but to Steve Farrell all the engineering staff and mechanics and to our commercial partners, Carlube Triple R and Mac Tools together with all our other loyal sponsors who have made this season possible. I would also like to thank every single member of the team, who have happily worked tirelessly to ensure that we reached the very best performance level at every single circuit for every single session.”  
 
“We are already hugely excited about 2021 and the start of the season can’t come soon enough!”
 
With Adam ending race three in third place, he finished eighth in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship, and third in the Independents’ Trophy. Carlube Triple R Racing Mac Tools finished eighth in the BTCC Teams Championship and fourth in the BTCC Independent Teams’ Championship. 
 
The 2021 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship begins at Brands Hatch on April 3/4 with all the action live as ever on ITV4.