Young up-and-coming racing driver Ollie Pidgley secured three more important race finishes on only his second outing in the MSA Formula championship over the weekend, 9th/10th May, at Thruxton in Hampshire – an event which marked his first ever competitive mileage at his local track.
Having only visited the ultra-fast circuit on one previous occasion, a rain-lashed test day back in February, the Downton teenager had a huge amount to learn during rounds seven, eight and nine of the campaign.
Additionally, his second race meeting in MSA Formula was also Ollie’s first at the wheel of his own Ford EcoBoost powered chassis as during his series debut at Donington Park three weeks ago he piloted one of the cars owned by the Richardson Racing team.
Taking all of the above into consideration, the 17-year-old made more solid progress with the particular highlight being his performance in race two on Sunday morning – lapping within a mere 0.2 seconds of podium pace.
“I am pretty satisfied with the weekend, I was more competitive than at Donington and race two was definitely the strongest for us”, explained Ollie, “Unfortunately, whatever we did right with the car in that race didn’t translate to race three. We’re unsure why so we need to look into that a bit more, as I was around 1.5 seconds faster in the middle race. Overall it was positive though.
“This was my first weekend in my own car, the last time I was behind the wheel of it was back in February in torrential rain so there was a lot to learn. Qualifying was my first time on the track in the dry, it was challenging but taking three race finishes and getting as much mileage as possible under my belt was the aim and we achieved that.”
Beginning round seven from 20th on the grid, Ollie managed to avoid a multi-car collision into the complex to gain four places and following the resulting Safety Car period he maintained position at the re-start on lap six.
Moving up into the top 15 following problems for Josh Smith, Ollie ran closely behind the next group initially and then gained another place on the 13th and final lap when Sennan Fielding was forced to retire after contact.
Round eight on Sunday morning was the highlight in terms of pace and performance, although Ollie’s getaway from the line was compromised by ongoing difficulties with his clutch. Despite slipping back to 17th position, having started the race in 14th spot, he ran competitively in a tight group during the first half of the contest which including front-runners Smith and James Pull.
Although edged back to 18th on lap nine, his pace was notably quicker than in the first of the weekend’s races with a best lap time 1.2 seconds faster than in round seven – just 0.2 seconds outside podium pace.
In round nine, Ollie intended to build on the big performance gains made earlier in the day but ended up somewhat vexed when the pace instead reverted to what had been experienced in Saturday’s outing.
Still racing strongly, he ended the third encounter in 16th position – a gain of four positions on his grid slot – having spent the majority of the contest glued to the rear wing of BRDC Formula 4 podium finisher Ameya Vaidyanathan’s car.
“My starts were difficult as we had a bit of a clutch issue, with the car being so new though and with so few miles on it there are still teething problems”, added the MSA Academy racer, “My engine has hardly had any running as well and at a place like Thruxton, that’ll always show. We definitely made a step in the right direction this weekend, but there’s much more to come from me and the car.”
Ollie now has a four week break from racing ahead of rounds 10, 11 and 12 of the MSA Formula season which will take place at Oulton Park Island Circuit in Cheshire on 6th/7th June.
