Jo Polley had her latest rounds of the Mini & championship at Thruxton recently where it was a support race for the BTCC.
Jo has gone well at Thruxton in the past and was hoping for a good weekend. It was straight into qualifying for her on Saturday morning just after the BTCC practice session had ended. She was quickly up to speed and setting some quick lap times in her class as well as being faster than several of the theoretically quicker cars in the class above. She ended up third on the grid in class an excellent result and one which could easily provide her with a win if the race went her way that afternoon.
Sadly the race did not go her way at all! After making a good start Jo found herself pushed off the track heading into the complex. The damp grass spun her around and she slid back onto the track where she was collected by another car. She was out of the race and there was heavy damage to the rear of her car. It would need a huge amount of work by the team if she was going to be able to race in Sunday’s race which was to be shown live on ITV4 as part of the BTCC coverage.
Fortunately the team were miracle workers and by the time the race got underway on Sunday, Jo was on the grid. The car was by no means perfect as a full repair would need a total rebuild but it was driveable. Now it was time to see what she could do from the back of the grid.
A good start was made once again and Jo set about passing cars as she moved up the field. She also found herself catching some of the cars from the class above once again. The car wasn’t handling quite right (understandably so) meaning she couldn’t quite get on the pace of the class leaders as she normally would be but by the chequered flag she had made it up to an excellent sixth place. Jo spoke about the struggle to get her weekend back on track after Saturday’s crash;
“After sustaining a lot of damage to my car yesterday our guys worked their socks off to pull her as straight as they could and got me back out for today’s race, starting from the back of the grid I managed to drag her round to finish sixth. I think we put on a good show for the crowd and TV cameras as always the racing was mega! It was great to be back in the BTCC paddock for the weekend. A huge thank you to Jeff and the team Icon Autos Limited and everyone who came and supported us, it wasn’t mine and Jeff’s weekend but that’s racing. Well done to my team mates Scott and Connor who had some good results. “ By Marc Waller
