The Manxman was optimistic ahead of his maiden visit to Knockhill, a track which has become an iconic fixture of the ToCA package over recent years, but admits that he was left bitterly disappointed with the way his weekend panned out.
"We really don't know what happened at Knockhill; I did a lot of hard work and preparation ahead of the weekend to make sure I was where I needed to be for Friday practice, and with it being a new circuit to me I knew there would be a lot of challenges and techniques I would have to learn. Towards the end of FP1 I made a mistake at the chicane and my rear suspension got damaged which caused me to spin off into the gravel - I think at the time it was called finding the limits".
He added: "The first race was particularly tricky with the weather, as we had short blasts of rain every few minutes just before we went out on track which made tyre choice difficult; in the end we went out with wets on which was the right call at the start of the race, but towards the end half the track was wet and the other half was dry which made it tough, but it didn't help that I stalled at the start of the race, my first bad start of the year. Trying to keep the wets alive for when we hit the water was another challenge, but I was reeling in the pack and just ran out of time unfortunately".
Despite his run of bad luck at recent rounds, Chris is still confident of a strong finish to the season, and aims to bounce back at the next three rounds at Rockingham. "It's a track that holds good memories for me there even though I've never raced around it before, as it's where I completed my maiden test in the Formula Ford Ecoboost car and with my team Falcon Motorsport - I can still remember begging for another go but at the time I couldn't, however one thing lead to another and here we are nearly a year later coming back".
With the season coming down to the last few rounds, Chris explained what he hopes to get out of them and what he is aiming for; "I think the main aim is to have fun, enjoy them and get everything I can out of these last 9 races, it's gone quick but I've learnt so much. We've had lots of ups and downs over the course of the season but the last three tracks are the ones I'm looking forward to the most - Silverstone has to be the special one really with it being my second home race as I live 20 minutes down the road, and after my huge crash at Thruxton earlier on in the season we all know how I bounced back at my local track Oulton Park so who knows what lies ahead".
Written by Alan Faulkner
Photo Credit: Alan Faulkner
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