Spa Francorchamps played host to round two of the 2023 Mclaren Trophy Championship. It holds some very special memories for all of the team and the 24 hour race, the biggest GT3 race in the world was on the same weekend which made it feel even more special. Bobby and I were able to win GT4 Pro AM in British GT here in 2022.
I came here having worked with a sports psychologist for a few weeks since the last race. I really struggled with self confidence at Paul Ricard following the crash I had at Silverstone which had a big impact on my speed on the French coast. I came to Spa with a number of interventions to do to get my mind in the right space. However when in the car in FP1 I forgot all about them and returned to being significantly off the pace. I only managed four laps during the session before a minor problem with the car forced me into the pits. The fault was quickly cleared and Bobby got behind the wheel for the remainder of the session. This spell I was going through was proving to be one of the most difficult of my racing career. I went into session two overthinking my driving and again my pace suffered again. I was able to match my time from the first session but was still someway behind the leaders, and my pace from a year before. I was not maximizing the width of the track which was a large part of my problem as well as not getting back to full power quick enough.
Bobby took part in qualifying for race one and did an amazing job, posting the fastest 570 class time of the session. There is no better place to start the race from than pole position! As he did qualifying it also meant that he would start the first race.
The lights went out and Bobby made an amazing start to the race. Gaining positions off the start and mixing it with the faster Artura cars in the opening laps. Due to the race structure I would be in the car for the last 15 minutes of the race. Bobby entered the pits in the overall lead of the race, but was also reporting that the rear tyres of the car had little grip. By this time I had worked myself up so much that I was over focused. On my opening lap I had a huge slide around the fast left hander at Pouhon and a spin at the start of the next lap. This cost me multiple positions and did nothing to help my confidence. I settled back into my safe pace for the remaining few laps and crossed the line second in the 570S class. This was an amazing achievement and one which I should have been incredibly proud of, but given the weekend I had it felt like a win that got away. Bobby and the crew had been on their A game all weekend as always.
I geared up to take place in the second qualifying session on Sunday morning but a tragedy on the track mean that the session and race was cancelled. Dilano van ‘t hoff lost control of his car at the top of Eau Rouge and was hit by another car. It was a striking reminder of the ultimate price we can pay every time we take to the track and made my on track struggles seem very insignificant. My deepest condolences go out to his team, friends and family members for their loss
I still had some work to do though ahead of the Nurburgring to find my best self and I knew this. It is such a simple thing to say, be more confident but doing it was proving very difficult