Dream Debut for Swag Money

Dream Debut for Swag Money

 An iconic venue  hosted an iconic debut for the swag money motorsport team, who made up half of the top 6 in their first ever race.

A maiden podium for Priyen Karena sees him in 3rd place in the championship after race 1, with Leon in P5 and Thomas, who will likely be referred to here colloquially as Twinkle, in P6.

Qualifying

An impressive lap from Leon put them in P3 on the grid for the race.

Thomas Windle showed signs of pace in Free Practice, especially noting his race pace, but could only manage P13 on the stacked grid of 24 drivers.

Priyen started his season strong with a P6 in qualifying, setting us up for some strategical gaming come the race.

Race

The format for this season sees a 1-stop, 60 minute race at each circuit. A solid start for Leon and Priyen saw the two of them in the podium places by the end of their first stints. Starting high up the grid, they would box within a few laps of one another early on into the race, giving them fresher tyres to hold track position for as long as they could. A botched pitstop for Jenkins saw them come out in P9, whilst Priyen managed to retain his place on the podium, inheriting 2nd from his teammate.

Jenkins would manage the climb back to P5 by the end of the race, and so it was clear that the car itself is capable of a lot, but our pit stops may need some work!

On the other side of things, we were working on a long first stint for Thomas. It was his first ever race outside of karting, and we wanted him to have a clear track to show his full potential. This proved to be the right call, as he saved his tyres at the start, not trying to push for overtakes, and only losing one position to P14 by the time everyone filtered into the pits.

Team radio (Twinkle): "Okay, cars are coming in, track will be much clearer ahead of you, lets make up some time." "Copy."

Well boy, did he make up time! Thomas managed to tail the back of P12 after the car who'd initially overtaken him pitted, and within 2 laps he was past and still looking for more. More clear track gave him an opportunity to send it with no pressure, and he managed to pull a 23 second gap to the car in P6, Jon Southall by the time his pit stop came around. This sent him out around 4 seconds behind, which surprisingly was only P8. Two nail-biting overtakes later and he came home to take the chequered flag in P6, rounding out an incredible debut for the team.