Rockingham Race reports for Harry Vaulkhard

The North East based rookie arrived at Rockingham hopeful of a good qualifying session to see him move up the grid with a goal of getting into the top ten, after a solid start to his BTCC career at Brands Hatch.

Qualifying again took place on a drying track in tricky conditions, before the session Harry had gambled on a radical setup change to get the car working as he wanted. In the slippery conditions Harry was posting some impressive times good enough to see him in P2 behind Jason Plato in his Leon TDI. As the track dried Harry’s setup was not optimised & he dropped back down the order with times improving in the changing conditions. Harry ended up 17th but was encouraged by the early show of pace.

“Well the set-up we found there at the start was awesome, if we can get it going like that all the time we should be right up there! I just don’t know if it was partly the greasy conditions or all chassis dynamics, either way I’d be pretty bloody happy with a few P2’s. ”

Race 1: The young North easterner was eager to get out on track for race 1 to try & fight up the grid with his new set-up. After a great start Harry had made up two positions by lap one, and was hot on the heals of his team-mate, Matt Allison & the father, son team of the Jordan’s. A four way battle between the s2000 spec Chevrolet’s & the BTC spec Integra’s ensued, as Harry was making a pass up the inside of Andrew Jordan his engine cut out. The twenty two year old had to coast around for a lap while he franticly tried to remedy the problem from inside the cockpit, however there was nothing he could do so unfortunately had to retire from race one meaning he would start race two dead last.

“I’m a bit disappointed as I had the speed to pass both the cars in-front and had a great car under me, but it’s just one of those things, I couldn’t get over 6,500rpm, I think a sensor has gone down or something.”

Race 2: Looked as if the young rookie may have to start the race from the pit-lane as the mechanics had rushed to the RML factory to get a part & it was being fitted as the cars were leaving to join the grid. As the pit-lane closed Vaulkhards Chevvy roared out of the garage and onto the circuit in the nick of time to join the back of the grid in 24th position. The race began & again Harry made a great get-away. In the me lay of the start procedure the SEAT of Jason Plato had been called in for a stop-go penalty & re-joined the race behind Vaulkhard who was carving through the field & had already taken three places. The two Kings school educated drivers worked together to claw back positions taking almost a position a lap. The youngster held the former BTCC Champion at bay for several laps before allowing him through at the hairpin. Again Harry tagged onto the back of Jason to take a few more positions while chasing him through the field. Vaulkhard now in 14th was struggling with tyre wear but still closing in on the car in front for 13th. With 7 laps remaining Harry took 13th position & began to pull a gap until the team received a radio transmission from Vaulkhard saying his clutch had expired. The race was on, Harry had to learn to left foot break & not use the clutch with the car behind battling to take the position back. The race went to the line with Harry managing to hold the position & finish a very creditable 13th from 24th on the grid. After the race Harry said,

“That was mega, good clean racing & we have found something in the car that we didn’t have at Brands, I was glad to see my times were the same as the guy who finished 7th too. Hopefully by starting up here next time we can push to get into the top ten spots. I think we made up 11 positions in that race! I’m sure the team will be-able to mend the clutch for the next race too.”

Race 3: Was shaping up to be an exciting prospect. The cars left the pit lane on slick tyres with the sky closing in & looking like it was about to rain very hard. As the three-minute board came up Vaulkhard & Joe Bradley team manager took a gamble to go on wets and were one of the only cars on the grid to take the gamble for the wet tyre. Vaulkhard nursed the car round on the dry circuit on the green flag lap to look after his wet tyres. As the cars lined up for the race start lots of the cars had peeled into the pits to change to the wet tyres. After a car had controversially lined up incorrectly on the grid the race was delayed at which point it began to race & the race was declared a wet race meaning all of the cars in the pits & all the remaining cars on the grid were allowed to resume there positions & change to wet tyres. The gamble would have paid off for the Robertshaw racing team & driver but unfortunately no longer. As the race began Vaulkhard again made up a position or two running into the first corner to be in 11th position & chasing the car in front hard. The spray from the monsoon conditions made visibility practically nil especially while following a car. Vaulkhard got alongside of the car in front on several occasions but had to back out of the situation to avoid going off circuit. Harry was eager to get into the top 10 positions and only one car stood between him and the goal. On the run to the chicane there was a large puddle to the right hand side of the circuit & Vaulkhard was one of the unfortunate few to hit it & go straight onto the oval. After re-joining the circuit in 14th position it became clear that Harry had been given a penalty for using the Oval part of the circuit while re-gaining control of his car dropping him a lap behind the rest of the field. The safety car came out after several cars were stranded in dangerous positions. The cars behind Vaulkhard had now closed in the large gap he’d built up putting him at threat of losing a position to the two BMW’s behind. By the end of the race Harry had regained several positions but was unfortunate to finish 14th after the car he was passing earlier in the race finished 8th. After the race Harry felt a bit hard done by:

“Well we were robbed on the grid, this could have been a podium for me & then we got robbed again by being deducted a lap. It was survival out there not really racing but we could have had an 8th or 9th no problem if we hadn’t been penalised for using the run-off, seems a touch harsh to me but I will know for next time to just bounce through the gravel or hit the car inside of me instead of avoiding the accident & losing more time than I needed to.”