After suffering a wrecked car in race one, British Touring Car Championship ace Adam Morgan turned around his day to take two points-scoring finishes at Donington Park.
Adam’s Mac Tools with Cicely Motorsport Mercedes-Benz A-Class struggled on a wet track during qualifying, with the track never becoming fully wet or dry in squally conditions. With three red flags and everyone trying to time their qualifying runs to coincide with the better conditions, the session became a lottery, but Adam wrung 14thfastest time out of his car.
“It was OK, but I was too cautious on my first run and then on my second I ran the same set of tyres so that meant that I was jumped by people on a second, fresher set, but I am glad that today is dry and we are in the mix to make progress in race one.”
On a dry circuit for race one, Adam ran the harder, option, tyre and was running in the pack until the car turned through the Old Hairpin at turn four. There, contact ahead of Adam turned Andrew Jordan’s BMW sideways ahead of Adam leaving The Morganator with nowhere to go. With Adam accelerating, he suddenly found the BMW sideways in front of him and hit Jordan hard in the driver’s door, leaving the BMW broken and Adam’s Mercedes mangled. A sore and winded Adam climbed out unaided but the frontal damage was the main concern.
The Ciceley Motorsport team had a spare front end ready built and had just under two hours to take the remains of the original one off the car and fit the new one – and check for any other damage. The job was completed in an astonishing 51 minutes putting Adam on the grid for race two”
“It was an amazing job from the guys,” said Adam. “When I got out of the car, I thought I would be a spectator for the rest of the day, but everyone did a fantastic job and my Fuchs Lubricants backed car looked brand new.”
Adam started race two 28thon the grid, but the rebuilt car, despite not having had time to have a proper set-up on it, charged up to 12thplace, Adam working his way through the pack as the race was interrupted by safety car periods that helped to bunch up the field. “The car wasn’t perfect,” explained Adam, “but I’m over the moon to get a result like that given the damage earlier. That was a points finish and the goal was a top 20, so 12this amazing. If we can get the set up right for race three, I reckon we can make more progress from there.”
On the semi-reversed grid, Adam started race three from 12thon the softer tyre and Adam quickly caught up with a pack of cars on the slower, option tyre but progress then became difficult. “I felt like we were lacking a bit of power. I could close through the corners but I was lacking straight-line speed.”
Eighth was Adam’s reward, which was a remarkable turnaround after the events of race one. “When the car was brought back at the end of race one, we all looked at it wondering if that was the end of day,” explained Adam. “To get it back out was a major result and so 12thand eighth is outstanding in the circumstances. Two points-scoring finishes is a relief I suppose – it wasn’t our best day but it could have been so much worse. More than anything it shows what this team is capable of and what the lads in the garage can do.”
Ciceley Motorsport’s Commercial Director Norman Burgess said: “We’ve never had a day like that with such damage and then two positive results. Everyone in the team mucked in and worked so hard to repair the damage and get Adam back on the grid. We achieved that, we didn’t miss the pit lane closing time and were on the grid and that is proof of just what a great team of guys we have. There was a lot of concern for Adam from all of our Mac Tools guests for both Adam and Andrew Jordan, but they were all delighted with the outcome of race three.”
Adam’s results place him ninth in the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship and fourth in the Independents Championship, with Mac Tools Racing with Ciceley Motorsport 10thin the Teams’ Championship and fifth in the Independent teams’ contest.
Ciceley Motorsport’s second car, run under the Cataclean Racing banner for Dan Rowbottom, had a positive weekend, too, with the BTCC rookie taking a career-best of 17thplace in race three, after a snapped earth lead halted his progress in race two. For Dan, mileage and increasing confidence in the car were the positives of his second weekend in the championship.
The next stop for the Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship is Thruxton, Hampshire, May 18/19. The circuit has been a happy hunting ground for the Mac Tools with Ciceley Motorsport squad in the past and all the raceday action can be seen live and free on ITV4.
If you would like to keep up to date with the team’s latest updates – why not send us your contact details so we can add you to the mailing list?
