A Pre-Race Weekend Interview

For those who need a reminder, at Silverstone two weeks ago Rob Huff was in Chilton’s Astra, finishing Race 3 in second place, and Senna Proctor guaranteed himself the Jack Sears Trophy of the Championship.

 

 

All in all, it was an incredibly exciting weekend for Power Maxed Racing. Now the two drivers, Tom Chilton and Senna Proctor, share their thoughts on the coming weekend at Brands Hatch.

What matters most this weekend?
When asked what matters most this weekend, Chilton replied, “Winning. And not being third, second or first of the losers.” It seems Chilton has discovered a boosted competitive streak borne of his playful feud with friend and fellow WTC driver, Rob Huff, who was driving the number 2 Astra at Silverstone due to Chilton’s medical exemption from the races.

Proctor doesn’t intend to take his foot off the pedal just yet (pun fully intended) despite having achieved what he set out to do at the start of the season by winning the Jack Sears Trophy.

“Now the Jack Sears is in the bag there is a certain amount of pressure off but I still intend to focus and do the job in hand by getting some more points on the board and make continuous progress both in the races and in the car.” – Senna Proctor, Racing Driver for Power Maxed Racing

How do you feel about racing in the rain?
It’s looking likely to be a wet track at Brands Hatch this weekend, and it’s been a while since the Astras have been demanded to race in the rain. “Last time it was wet was at Silverstone Free Practice and even Huffy was slow there. Last time I drove the car in full wet I was almost last too. So, if it is wet we’ll be thinking big setup changes to unlock the car’s true potential.” – Tom Chilton, Racing Driver for Power Maxed Racing

Surprisingly, considering we’re in the UK after all, Power Maxed Racing get fewer opportunities to race and test on a wet track than on a dry one. For this reason, some changes will be required to the setup of the Astras this weekend to achieve maximum performance. Much of this depends on the driver too; some drivers are simply more suited to driving in the rain than others, perhaps depending how well-practised they are at racing vehicles with limited grip.

Senna seems to (so far) be one of those drivers, commenting, “I feel that my car was okay in the wet, however we still have a chunk to find. My results in the wet have always shown to be quite strong so I’m relatively confident going into the weekend, whether it be wet or dry.”

Bonus question for Chilton: What do you think the latest developments to the car during the
Silverstone weekend will do for your performance at Brands?
“I think we have refined a great dry setup on the car since the mid-season break at the Snetterton Toca test where we were able to complete some proper development work,” Chilton explained, “Silverstone was fantastic, especially when in the last race Rob stayed toward the front of the pack on the hard tyre. This is something we thought we might struggle with, which is why we all took an educated guess with a setup change for that tyre. Luckily it paid off.”

The car’s ability to maintain a front-pack position on a hard tyre on a cooler track at Silverstone is somewhat reassuring of its ability to drive well at Brands, on a potentially wet track with a soft option tyre.

“That Astra can still be refined further to go for that Win. Going to Brands Hatch, progress is only going to continue. As always with a new car it's work in progress. But I'm getting very happy with how the car is feeling and performing.” In light of this, viewers can expect to see some very competitive racing over the weekend, with the Vauxhall Astras of Team PMR coming on even further in leaps and bounds.

 

 

Photo © Jakob Ebrey.

For press enquiries, please contact:
Phoebe Kingdon
Power Maxed Racing
Tel - 07714 669318