Challenging Snetterton Weekend For Ronan Pearson
Ronan Pearson endured a challenging weekend at Snetterton as his 2024 Kwik Fit British Touring Car Championship programme continued with the third meeting of the year.
The talented young Scot from Dunfermline made the long trip to Norfolk on a huge high having scored his maiden win in Britains premier racing series during the previous meeting at Brands Hatch.
After two solid free practice sessions, qualifying would prove to be a challenge for the Team BRISTOL STREET MOTORS driver as he had to settle for twelfth place on the grid in tricky conditions where the track was neither wet nor dry for the second part of the session.
Working with the team overnight to make improvements for race day, Ronan headed into race one in optimistic mood having elected to run the more favourable soft tyre at the first possible opportunity.
Although shuffled back to 14th on lap one as the field battled through the opening corners, Ronan recovered his way back to through to eleventh place on the grid for race two, which left him a strong position given the drivers ahead would all be forced to run the hard tyre - the slowest of the three available - in race two.
Unfortunately for Ronan, that advantage was taken away from him due to rain before the start which left drivers to gamble on whether to run slick or wet tyres, with Ronan amongst those to pit after the green flag lap to go with dry rubber.
Although that made it difficult in the early laps, conditions were starting to swing in his favour before the rain returned and forced him back in to switch back onto wet tyres - leaving him down the order in 19th place.
The gamble also meant Ronan had no option but to then run the hard tyre in the final race of the weekend and as with the other three drivers in the same position, he struggled to make any meaningful progress up the order as he crossed the line in 18th place.
That meant a single points finish from the weekend to leave Ronan 14th in the overall standings, although he was able to retain second spot in the Jack Sears Trophy.
“I was a bit confused after qualifying as the lap felt really good, so I was surprised to see it was only good enough for P12 on the grid,” he said. “Whilst it was nice to beat my team-mates in the session, I had hoped for more and for whatever reason, we just couldn’t get the car dialled in in the conditions.
“We worked hard as a team overnight and felt confident going into race day, and I was happy enough to score some points in eleventh place as it meant we were in a really good position for race two. I knew everyone ahead would have to run the hard tyre whereas we could run the medium, and it meant we had a chance to race forwards and push for a strong result.
“The rain showers changed all that and we had to make the call on which way to go, and on this occasion, we made the wrong call. You don’t think one decision can make such a big impact but we put our chips on red, and it came up black.
“Not only did we lose out in that race, we also then found ourselves at the back for race three and on the slowest tyre so it was always going to be difficult. We were the only car on the hard tyre that made up places but in reality, I don’t think we could have done much more.
“Scoring a P11 would have been a good result last year but having shown I have the pace to win this season, my expectations have risen and I wanted more from the weekend. However, there are weekends in the past where we have been able to luck into a result and this was just one where it didn’t go our way, so I’ll put it behind me and focus on Thruxton next time out.”
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