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Qualifying session 2
The team were looking to have two successive pole positions and Stewart started well and in the end missed out on pole position by 0.22 of a second!! So near yet so far.
Race 1
A stunning race, with drama and thrills and spills (literally!). The conditions were wet and windy.. Matt started in the car and unfortunately had no pit to car radio communications - it had been that wet! He was pulling out one to one and a half seconds per lap on the other cars and pulling out a massive lead, even hassling some of the GT3 cars! Unfortunately a spin later dropped him down to third, he started to battle back and then another spin dropped him down to fifth.. He then pulled himself back to second place. The driver change window was open, but the team left Matt out to attack the Rob Austin car.. Suddenly a Safety Car was deployed, literally all of the teams changed drivers.. The number 51 car came in, but the only communication the team had with Matt was the pit board and they’re not easy to see at Rockingham.. Matt had the foresight to see the pit board, knew the safety car was deployed and both Rob Austin’s car and the IMS Motorsport car came in together.. The IMS Motorsport team performed a faultless change and got the car out ahead of the number 55 car.. By this time they’d also made ground on the number 51 car and so Stewart was released in the GT4 lead. A few laps later Rob Austin did manage to get past Stewart, but Stewart held him in his sights and started to reel him back in and then overtook him and maintained his lead to the chequered flag. A great win for the team!
Monday
Morning practice, the team were looking to give both drivers time in the car to ensure that they had a good feeling for the car in a dry set up. With quite a large amount of fuel in the car and set about making sure that if the race later on was a dry one that they had a set up for the conditions that could win the race. The team ended up heading the times and finished the practice more than happy.
Race 2
The team sensed that from second place on the grid that they could possibly put together a double win on the weekend, but the conditions were literally changing every fifteen minutes and eventually the car didn’t have quite enough grip for the first half of the race.. With some teams coming in for wet tyres and then coming in later on for slicks again, IMS Motorsport made the right decision by staying out on slicks and not losing valuable time on the track. Stewart started the race and kept the car out of trouble. He dropped down to third place but he started to gain on the leaders towards the end of his session.. The driver change was left until the last possible moment, so as not to lose out on any possible needs for tyre changes. Matt took over the car and set about chasing the number 52 car. He hooked on to the back of it and put it under so much pressure that it fell off the track. Unfortunately as he was now catching the leader, the Safety Car was deployed, so that number 52 could be recovered and then the organisers end the race early, as the conditions were worsening.
A great weekend, with two more podium finishes, the team have so far finished first and second at every round and extended their championship lead even more.
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