Positive but Frustrating Start to Race Season for PMR

by Si McNally July 20, 2020

This weekend saw the start of the racing calendar for Warwickshire-based Power Maxed Racing, for the first round of both TCR-UK and the Volkswagen Racing Cup.

In the extremely challenging conditions the weekend started off well, with the Cupra TCR of Dan Kirby, Team Principal of BTCC’s Trade Price Cars Racing, Qualifying in Pole Position for the first race of the day.

Race 1 got off to a good start, with Kirby holding his own against the far more experienced Neal and Kent, until an excursion onto the grass at the end of the first lap dropped him down the order to P5. For the rest of the race, he battled hard with Hart to narrowly miss out on a podium in his first ever race in the car.

Kirby would start Race 2 in P4, but would be unable to mount a charge to regain his place on the podium after an issue with the braking system saw him retire on Lap 1.

The team’s Volkswagen Racing Cup entrant for this round would be Will Butler, piloting one of the team’s 2.0 Turbo powered VW Polos. This was to be Butler’s first ever circuit-based race, having graduated from the world of European rallying, and it would prove to be a baptism of fire for the 22-year-old.

After Qualifying P10, Butler brought the Polo home P12 in Race 1, with the second race of the day seeing him come home in P11.

The accomplished rally driver is looking to make the step up to the ultra-competitive TCR series, and has already logged hours on the PMR Simulator, learning the UK’s circuits and characteristics ready for his assault.

Will Butler – “The conditions were very tricky, and of course driving on wets was another completely new thing for me. Overall, my aim was to collect 2 signatures towards my licence upgrade and that’s exactly what I did, so for that we did our job and the weekend was successful. I’m looking forward to the next round at Silverstone.”

Martin Broadhurst, Technical Director - “With the motorsport calendar having been thrown into disarray this year, we haven’t been able to undertake the kind of testing and development schedule we would’ve liked. The weekend was positive though, and I’m happy with how both of the drivers performed. Dan putting his car on pole on his first outing was a great sign of things to come, and considering this was Will’s first ever competitive circuit race, he did a really good job in the very wet conditions.”