Ten 10 return to the track for Sam

The 18-year-old, competing with Dan Woodrow’s 23 Racing, was taking in his first competitive race for more than a year after spending last year concentrating on his studies.

He had a tough start to the weekend with an engine problem curtailing his running in practice. Nevertheless despite less mileage and time to dial the car in, he still managed to qualify 13th in the highly competitive 28-car field, before battling his way through to tenth position in the first race on Sunday and eighth in the second, after a brilliant start in his front-wheel drive Class C 2.0 litre Fiesta ST.

“The end result, given how we started and given the issues we had to get through, was very good,” said Sammy. “The team was very happy with my performance but we also want me to move forward from here. There is another big jump that needs to be made.”

“We were very unfortunate that we missed some running on Friday and then had an engine issue. We had to get a new engine for Saturday and I missed nearly all of first practice and then we had an overheating engine in qualifying,” added the Milton Keynes-based youngster.

“That put us further back on the grid than we should have been, but I had great starts in both races, especially the second, which was very dramatic. Given the issues we had through Friday and Saturday then, as I said, we did extremely well.”

“I have taken a lot from the weekend in terms of getting more experience with the car and I have also taken a lot from being out there with the other drivers and seeing how they handle the cars. Overall in terms of experience gained, it was very good,” continued The Webber Independence School* pupil, who is backed by E&S Consultants Ltd.

“I am very much looking forward to the next event now at Silverstone later this month (April 23-24). We haven’t been on the track there yet, but we have done some simulator training, which will be very crucial to how we perform when we get there.

“Finally I want to say thanks to the team for all their efforts this weekend and I want to thank The Webber Independence School for supporting me through this time when we are away racing.

“We have taken a big jump forward this weekend and I have no doubt we will make a big jump forward next time out too.