Race report from Rockingham

Written by Paul Golder in Local sport👁 8,769

Tuesday 17 May 2016, 9.28pm

Phoenix FM racer Lochlan Bearman was at Rockingham Motor Speedway at the weekend contesting Rounds 5 & 6 of the Ford Fiesta Junior Championship. The 14 year old from Epping is in his first season of full circuit racing and is competing in the Junior Class for 14 to 17 years olds.

Prior to this weekend the team discovered faults in the suspension and these were only fixed by 1.30 am on the morning of practise. “The car was transformed” said Bearman. “I’d been struggling with balance and the car was unpredictable on the limit. I could feel the difference immediately”.

Practise went well, and in the session before qualifying Bearman was 4th fastest. “This gave us high hopes as we had new tyres to put on for qualifying and because my tyres in practise were finished I was confident of going much quicker in qualifying” he said.

Sadly this did not turn out to be the case and the youngster could only qualify 9th out of 18. “The new tyres completely changed the dynamics of the car, I was surprised how sensitive to tyres and pressures the car was here at Rockingham. This is part of the challenge when you are a new driver and a new team without the experience and the budget to test. Starting race 1 from 9th on the grid Bearman made a reasonable getaway. As the cars powered through turn 1, which uses part of the banked oval circuit, they were 4 a breast and the No 4 car was hit into a spin right in front of Bearman who had nowhere to go. The contact ripped the front bumper off his car and although delayed, he carried on. He made up 2 positions on lap 2 with a stunning move around the outside of Gracelands.

As the race settled down he was embroiled in a 4 way fight for 4th to 7th with places changing all the time. Bearman seemed to know exactly the right speed as time after time the competitors got through under braking, but Bearman was back in front coming out of the corner using the ‘undercut’. “I knew where the braking limits were so I was always confident I’d be able to get back passed. Unfortunately we slowed ourselves down and the leaders got away, but it was a fantastic racing and I really enjoyed it”. Bearman survived a late race scare when the No 17 crashed into the side of his car after Bearman has passed him and went on to claim a solid 4th place.

Starting race 2 from 4th on the grid they headed to turn 2 with Bearman in 4th, He made a super late move down the inside and exited turn 2 in second place. With hopes high the CooperMotorsport Team watched on as Bearman ran in second but it was clear he did not have the pace. He was reeled in by the 2nd and 3rd placed drivers who were passed by lap 4. Unbeknown to the team the Essex racer was struggling with massive understeer and ABS coming on. “I just couldn’t get the car stopped or turned in, and knew I was in trouble”. Driving around the issues he worked to control the tyre temperature and drove as smoothly as possible. This began to work and he started to go faster setting his fastest lap towards the end.

However, he was still over a second a lap slower than the No 76 car who caught and passed with a lap and a half to go. “I knew there was no point trying to defend the position he had so much more speed and I did not want to fall back into the group behind”.

“We’ve learnt so much this weekend. As a new team we have no data, so to experience the unique challenge that is Rockingham and come away with a 4th and a 5th against multi car teams with lots of experience we’ve done fantastically well. I’m still frustrated because I know with the right set-up I can challenge for wins. We really need sponsors to come in and be part of the story, then I am sure the ‘underdogs’ will succeed.” commented the tired, but happy driver.