15 year old Fiesta Junior Championship hopeful Lochlan Bearman endured yet another weekend of appalling luck which has effectively ended any hope of winning the Championship or even finishing in the Top 3 this season.
The Debden schoolboy said ‘it’s been very frustrating. The first 2 rounds we were down on power, I was taken out by a competitor at Brands. At Cadwell we were still down on power but scored two 3rd place finishes. We then went to Silverstone where the power issue had been solved an qualified 2nd, and I was running in 2nd when the gearbox failed. In Race 2, I came from last to second showing that with the car working well I can produce the performances. That gave me hope for Rockingham where a good result would have put me back into the battle for 2nd and 3rd but again we were down on power. This time because the catalytic converter had collapsed which was impacting power output by around 15 bhp. I also got taken out by a team mate in Race 2.
And so to Snetterton, with the car running well again. Practise went well and the plan was to run our proposed qualifying set-up in the final practise session. However, that was cut short by a nasty looking accident on lap 1 which resulted in the session being cancelled so I never got to try the set-up.
We went into qualifying not knowing how the car would be and qualified 5th. This was just 2 tenths off 2nd place and I knew I’d lost 4 tenths through a mistake so in reality I was closer than it appeared.
Race 1 started with a frenzy in the first few corners, and I’d dropped to 6th. I managed to re-take 5th and build up a gap. It was looking like a 5th place finish and I entered the last lap about 10 car lengths behind 4th and about the same margin back to 6th and 7th when the motor just stopped. A wire for the fuel pump inside the fuel tank and broken and this meant I did not finish.
For race two Phoenix FM driver Bearman was hoping for greasy/wet conditions as he excels in them and that is exactly what greeted the drivers as they were waiting in the assembly area. Following frantic activity by the mechanics the cars were fitted with the wet tyres just in time and the cars streamed out onto the circuit for the green flag lap ahead of the start.
As the lights went out Bearman got off the line well but the driver in front had stalled and with the driver on the left coming across Bearman had no choice but to try to stop and get between the stalled car and the pit wall. There wasn’t enough room and Bearman suffered suspension damage in the resulting smash and had to stop and retire at the end of lap 1.
It’s motor racing and I will come back stronger said the Epping youngster. It’s really hard to take and so frustrating that I cannot show my speed. We only entered this Championship to win it so we now need to make a decision on whether or not we continue or pull out of the Championship and focus on next season.
Watch this space
