Silverstone trip is mixed for Crawley star Hand

Charlie Hand had mixed fortunes at Silverstone, where he was hoping to keep his Junior Saloon Car Championship title challenge on target.
Charlie Hand in front at SilverstoneCharlie Hand in front at Silverstone
Charlie Hand in front at Silverstone

The Crawley teenager’s Westbourne Motorsport Citroen Saxo had its first problem in qualifying. “I lost third gear early into the session,” he said after qualifying seventh, “but at the end I only had fifth.

“The gearbox had gone I think, but I didn’t really manage to get any clear laps as I was in traffic.”

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The Westbourne crew had to set about fitting a gearbox before the first race.

When the action race got under way, Hand was straight into the thick of the action and on the second lap he already reached the head of the chasing group in fourth, closing on the trio ahead.

The battle for the lead began to help Hand edge closer, and as he had his own battle with Harry Rice, they both closed on third-placed Deagen Fairclough.

The gap came down and down, but he still hadn’t been able to find a way past Fairclough for third. Inches were separating the duo, but on the last lap Fairclough suddenly slowed with mechanical issues and Hand was finally through to complete the podium finishers.

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“That was really hard work, the tow on the straights was critical here, but once I got clean air I could get clear and latch on to Deagan. He had defended hard until his problem, but I chipped away, keeping the pressure on him and it was a good battle.”

The second race started with another frantic opening, where Hand immediately made two places from the off and was hanging on to leaders Alex Solley and Lewis Saunders.

As he was forced to defend third place from Fairclough, he gradually started to lose ground on the lead duo.

With Hand forced to go on the defensive, their duel started to be caught by the pursuers too, but he was still third.

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On lap eight Fairclough tried a different attack on the Vale, which allowed him to slingshot by on the exit.

Roles were reversed and Hand was on the attack, with Fairclough defending running nose to tail out of Stowe two laps later, Hand got a run and was able to retake his place at club.

It was still close and could have gone either way, but as in the first race, mechanical woes settled it. “I had felt the clutch starting to go when Deagen got me at the Vale. It was okay double clutching for a while and then I lost all the gears going into the hairpin and the race was over, just as we’d started to close on the leaders again,” he explained.

The penultimate round is at Oulton Park on October 31.