as he threatens the front-runners at Donington Park
He might have only four car races under his belt, but already Ash Hand is making his presence known in the fiercely-contested Renault UK Clio Cupeven if a second consecutive top ten finish at Donington Park did not tell the full story of a performance that saw the talented young Nuneaton karting graduate threaten the established front-runners with his astounding raw speed.
Hand travelled to Donington buoyed by an impressive debut in the ITV4 live-televised, British Touring Car Championship-supporting Renault UK Clio Cup three weeks earlier at Brands Hatch, where he had turned heads by both qualifying and finishing inside the top tenpulling off some brave and incisive passing manoeuvres along the way.
I felt really optimistic, acknowledged the highly-rated Maple Park hotshot, revealing that his goal was to step it up another gear. Pre-season testing at Donington had been encouraging, and I carried over the confidence Brands Hatch had given me.
I had been really pleased with my overtaking and racecraft thereobviously you cant measure those factors when youre running around on your own in testing, so it was good to see how I stacked up in that respectand my pace clearly wasnt too shabby, either. Although we had struggled at the beginning of the weekend, we worked hard, made a big step forward and gained ground really quickly.
In qualifying for Doningtons two races, Hand briefly held pole position amongst the 24-strong Clio Cup field, before settling into an excellent fourth place in his Team Pyro-prepared Clio Renaultsport 200 and lapping consistently up at the sharp end of proceedings.
That was until he bolted on a fresh set of tyresa move that according to all conventional wisdom should have boosted his chancesand his lightning-fast form suddenly and unexpectedly evaporated, leaving him to line up tenth for Saturdays outing and eighth on Sunday, albeit on both occasions alongside the championship leader.
That was obviously disappointing, considering we had been looking good for the top four, the 18-year-old conceded. As soon as we changed tyres, though, the back end felt loose and I picked up a whole load of oversteer. It was impossible to extract the maximum out of the car as the grip just wasnt there anymore. I think because my rears were quite used, putting new tyres on the front may have upset the balance, and the upshot was that I was nowhere near the lap times I had been setting earlier.
In race one, I probably wasnt quite aggressive enough at the start and lost a position, but I regained it at the end of the first lap. The trouble was, there was then a gap to the pack in front and once they broke clear and dropped me from their tow, I lost four tenths of a second per lap. They dragged each other away from me and I was under no real threat from behind as the next group back were all scrapping amongst themselves, so it was quite a lonely race from that point on, to be fair.
A second top ten finish from just three starts in cars was nonetheless a laudable accomplishment, but Hand was hopeful of a better result in the following days 14-lap encounterand for the first third of the race, at least, he looked well on-course to achieve it.
There were a few early battles that cost me some ground, but after things had calmed down our pace was good and I worked my way up to seventh, recounted the Warwickshire teenager. I was quite happy there and just keeping my nose clean and trying to take advantage of any opportunities that presented themselves.
Then, all-of-a-sudden, the drivers directly in front of me tried to go three-abreast into the Old Hairpin, which was never going to work. Two of them went shooting off across the grass, and as one rejoined the track, he did so right in my path, which forced me to swerve onto the grass myself or else he would have collected me.
That dropped me down to 16th, and with so much dirt on my tyres it was difficult to fight backmeaning I could only recover to 14th at the chequered flag. What was most frustrating of all was that had I not had to take avoiding action, I would probably have emerged from the Old Hairpin mle in fourthit was just a case of wrong place, wrong time, and such a disappointing way to end a race that had promised so much more.
His true potential masked, the seventh-best lap timebarely three tenths adrift of the outright benchmark and faster than the driver who finished fourthwas a far more representative yardstick. There remained, moreover, a whole clutch of positives to take away from the weekend, not least of which the fact that the Sigma and QTS-backed ace is still the leading car racing rookie in the points standings in 13th position, ahead of a number of more experienced adversaries and even race-winnersand a mere seven markers shy of the top eight.
His sights are now set on the next round on the calendar around ultra-quick Thruxton at the beginning of May. It might have a reputation as the most fearsome circuit in the country, but that characteristically fails to faze the ever-unflappable Hand.
I learned a lot again at Donington, I honed my racecraft a little bit more, my understanding of how to get the best out of the tyres improved and my speed was good, too, so we need to take that form on and continue to move up the grid, he concluded. Thruxton is definitely my favourite circuit Ive been to, and its fast-and-flowing, balls-out nature seems to suit my driving style. We went well there in pre-season testing, so Im really looking forward to going back, to be honestand hopefully it will play to my strengths. Bring it on!
