MARK Kimber admits that he can only take positives from his first appearance at Spa-Francorchamps, in the latest round of the British GT Championship.
The Solihull racer returned from the famous track in Belgium with renewed confidence after finishing first in qualifying, building on promising practice sessions with teammate Jacob Mathiassen.
However, despite the achievement to start in pole position for the two-hour race, Kimber was unable to back up his performances to that point, instead having to settle for tenth in class.
“It was difficult, the car felt quite unstable and that made it hard to push,” he said.
“I think the balance of performance wasn’t quite on our side today and we knew it was going to be a struggle.
“It’s frustrating but there was a lot of experience learned and that can only help us at Brands Hatch in two weeks.”
Kimber’s qualifying session that brought a first-ever pole position was achieved thanks to the biggest winning margin of the season.
He raced home in a combined time of 5:19.444, over two seconds faster than the rest of the field, after a call by his teammate Mathiassen to race on slick tyres.
“I was really happy to get pole,” said Mark.
“Jacob did an amazing job, it was a difficult call to make but it paid off massively, and the team also did a great job to get the car spot-on for the wet/drying conditions.
“It was good to finally get that result, I think we’ve both showed we’ve had the pace for the whole season but it was just getting everything to come together and go our way.”
The 17-year-old next takes part in the third round of the IAME Euro Series in Wackersdorf, Germany, before returning for the seventh round of the Championship at Brands Hatch on August 3 and 4.
