Copyright © Jordan Gronkowski Racing 2012

08/04/12
On The Edge Of Glory

April at Knockhill and the start of the 2012 Scottish Championship season. Jordan Gronkowski will be competing in his and the team's second year in single seaters; racing for the Scottish Formula Ford 1600 championship honours. Jordan is also eligible for the Newcomer’s championship again this year as drivers spend two seasons as a newcomer. A healthy grid of thirteen cars were present for qualifying and the day’s two 10-lap races.

 

Saturday practice was predominantly dry but with the constant threat of rain hanging over the circuit. The team were delighted to have finally found the cause of their ignition problems in the morning, with some very kindly borrowed parts allowing them to compete. In each of the four sessions, the focus was on re-acclimatisation with the car and the circuit as this was the first meaningful running since October the previous year. Each run saw an improvement in pace, with Jordan ending the day happy with progress and looking forward to race-day.

 

 

Qualifying

The dry conditions persisted into qualifying on Sunday morning as the drivers took to the track on a level playing field in anger for the first time. After the initial few laps of the 10-minute session Ian Munro was sitting at the top of the times with last year's championship runner-up Alistair Dow in second and Jordan third from Keiron Blake and Michael Gray rounding out the top five. On lap five, Jordan started to turn up the wick and moved into second but on lap eight, Dow summersaulted into provisional pole position. A spinner at Scotsman corner the brought out the red flags and a temporary end to proceedings. The session restarted with three minutes remaining but no-one improved their time, and the final order was Dow on pole from Munro, Gronkowski, Ross McEwan and Gray rounding out the top five.

 

"It's obviously good to be at the sharp end of the grid and we should have a clear run at the first race from here.' said Jordan afterwards. ‘The gap to the two guys in front of us is a little misleading though as on my fastest lap I has to back-off for the yellow flags at Scotsman and lost a few tenth's there. So hopefully we'll be a lot closer in the race itself."

 

 

Race 1

As the five red lights went out to signal the start of the 2012 season, Jordan bogged-down in first gear, forcing him to go defensive from McEwan into turn one. Third remained safe but Dow and Munro had made the most of their starts and pulled a gap. On lap four, Munro pounced and took the lead of the race but was unable to pull away with Dow re-taking 1st on lap six. However, some consistent laps from Jordan saw him now right on the heels of the squabbling pair and at the hairpin, Jordan was able to overtake Munro for second, slotting in between the two on the drag-race to turn one. On the approach, Dow hugged the inside to defend his position but Jordan moved to left and snatched the lead around the outside of the daunting Seat Curves. A dogfight ensued between the lead trio of each tried to outmanoeuvre the other. However, Jordan held onto the lead until, exiting the hairpin to go onto the final lap, the engine suddenly lost all power. Jordan helplessly coasted to a halt at the end of the pit-lane and retired from the race just one lap from victory. The action wasn't over yet as the hairpin was again the scene of drama on the final tour; Dow and Munro tangling and taking each other out of the race as well. Eventually, McEwan was the one to take the chequered flag but in yet another shock was disqualified post-race for being under the minimum weight limit. That left delighted classic cup racer Ivor Mairs to claim his first victory.

 

"Well what can I say?' Said Jordan after the race 'Up until the last lap the race was going great for us. I didn't get the best start but managed to hang onto third. As the laps ticked by it was clear that we were on the same pace as the guys in front and I saw they were starting to fight with each other so I just focused on being consistent and caught them relatively quickly. Then I was able to get past into the lead within a few corners which was a great feeling but it was so difficult to pull any sort of gap and it was a real hard fight to stay there. I really loved every minute of it though and it was amazing to be fighting for the lead of a race again. Obviously when the engine stopped it was frustrating but in the heat of the moment you're just trying everything you can to get it going again and finish the race for some points. Unfortunately there was nothing I could do as the problem was internal so this turned very quickly from the best possible result into the worst possible result. That's racing though and now that dad has found and fixed the problem, which was just two small screws coming loose in the distributor and not something that we could have foreseen, we're determined to salvage something from race two."

 

 

 

Race 2

A high attrition rate in race one meant that Jordan's starting slot wasn't as bad as it could have been. He lined up eighth on their grid, with Dow in seventh and Munro sixth after their tangle in the first race. Mairs was on pole after his surprising win, from Andrew Chesher, Blake, Laurie Hughes and Paul Kopec in the top five grid slots. The heavens had opened between races and the track was very slippery. At the lights, Jordan made up for his lacklustre effort in race one but making a stunning getaway and taking seventh from Dow into turn one. Munro, Gronkowski and Dow then started making their way through the pack with impressive efficiency. By the end of lap one it was still Mairs in the lead with Munro in hot pursuit and Blake next, closely followed by Gronkowski and Dow. By the next lap it was the usual suspects from race one occupying the podium positions with Munro in front. Jordan couldn't do more than hold station though and it was soon clear Dow had the fastest car as he began harassing Jordan for second. Dow finally made the move stick at the halfway point on lap five and quickly set off after Munro. Despite setting the fastest lap he had to settle for second and Munro took the win with Jordan rewarding the team's efforts on a hard day with their first podium of the year in third.

 

Jordan commented afterwards; "I'm really overjoyed to take a podium result out of today. The conditions in the final race were very tricky with the rain coming down just enough to keep the circuit greasy, which made the racing quite exciting and it's a good feeling to stand on the podium after all that. We didn't quite have the pace to finish higher up but this is down to our relative inexperience with the car in these conditions. Unfortunately there's not much we can do about that except hope for more wet practice sessions. However, after such a difficult morning in the wake of the first race the podium is a perfect present for us at the end of the day. A massive thank-you to my team for all their hard work over the winter and today. Also to all our sponsors for their amazing support. This weekend we have shown that we can fight for wins and we will be working harder than ever to unlock more speed from the car for the next race."

 

Championship positions after rounds 1 & 2 of the 12-event season will be available soon.

 

The action from both races will be televised on Sky & Virgin Media channel Motors TV at 18:54 on Thursday, 3rd of May. Don't miss what was an action-packed weekend!

 

The next two rounds of the championship take place at Knockhill over two days on the 5th and 6th of May.

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