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The Inside Track with Power Maxed Racing: A look back at Thruxton - the fastest circuit on the calendar

By Power Maxed Racing / MJP Media | 19 May 2015

3rd in the Independent Teams Trophy after Thruxton and living the dream, despite a few bumps along the way.

Meeting fans during the pit lane walkabout

We always look forward to Thruxton, not because it is a great racing facility, it isn't! It's because the circuit is the fastest on the calendar with the fastest corners in the UK. On a hot lap in qualifying we will only touch the brakes twice, average 110mph, top 150mph and all this despite there not actually being a straight piece of track on the whole circuit. You certainly feel alive when you are on a hot lap where you are just inches between being a hero and having a big crash! So far this season Power Maxed Racing have done a great job with the car getting better with every turn of the wheel and that continued in free practice where we turned a decent car into a front runner by qualifying.

We bolted new rubber to the car and headed to the track for our first run. This track is very hard on the tyres - you literally only get two laps on the tyres then the pace drops. So we needed to be on it straight out of the box. On the first lap, slow moving cars were all over the place and we even found ourselves on the grass at one point. The next lap was going well when a huge crash between Simon Belcher and Mike Bushell brought out the red flags to stop the session. As Dave was heading back to the pits, he radioed in to find out where we finished and we were informed that he had exceeded the track limits and his fastest time was taken away. His first flyer was the only one left and was only good enough for P16. We asked the officials to prove that he exceeded track limits. They showed us some footage and paused the car in the middle of the chicane. He was literally two inches illegal! When we looked back at the qualifying footage, we couldn't see anyone going through the chicane legally - Matt Neal was yards over the inside kerb but got away with it. Rules are rules, but still it seems the punishment didn't fit the crime in our case. This left Josh 8th and Dave 18th.

Power Maxed Racing - flying at Thruxton

Full of confidence and eager to get stuck in, we made a good start before Dave was unfortunately taken out by Warren Scott on the first lap as the Team BMR Volkswagen CC broke Dave's rear suspension in the contact. Josh was able to keep up with those around him and brought the car home in 9th, netting us more valuable points and gaining some points for himself in the hunt for the Jack Sears Trophy.

Race two saw Josh start from 8th and Dave plum last in 25th. Josh put in a great evasive move to avoid the Adam Morgan and Andy Priaulx crash but ended up with a Dunlop board stuck to the front of his bonnet and so needed to pit, ruining his race - even with the pit stop he ended up 18th. Dave was on a mission from the start and after a magnificent drive, made up 13 places to finish 12th.

Power Maxed Racing brought glamour to the grid at Thruxton

The final race saw Dave starting 12th on the grid and Josh 18th following the results in race 2. Josh had a storming first lap, making it up to 15th whilst Dave was locked in a battle with Aron Smith. Josh passed Aiden Moffat on lap 4 but accidentally glanced the back of Dave, causing him to fall back to 18th. Josh was in 11th and on lap 7 as Dave clawed back 2 places to 16th. Spurred on, Dave then passed Priaulx to take 15th. Dave pushed hard to finish 13th with Josh finishing 9th.

Adam Weaver, Team Principal of Power Maxed Racing commented: "It's good to see how well we are going in our third ever race meeting. Our pace was well within the top ten, yes we have had more than our fair share of incidents, but that is racing. Between Dave's blistering pace in qualifying and Josh's continued Jack Sears Trophy wins, it's payback for doing things right." Heading to Oulton Park, Josh leads the Jack Sears Trophy and is 7th in the Independent Drivers standings. Dave is 9th in the Independent Drivers standings and the team is a fantastic 3rd in the Independent Teams Trophy competition. Things are certainly looking good, aren't they? We'll see you at Oulton Park in 3 weeks.

Power Maxed Racing

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