A remarkable comeback drive from Will rewards him with his equal best finish in his Motorsport Career after the #21 Scorpio SR1 Driver delivered in challenging conditions to bring home a 2nd place finish at one of the most toughest circuits on the calendar.
Qualifying: - Throughout testing and into Qualifying the team struggled with setup issues which prevented Will from getting the best possible time. The Lincolnshire based Circuit dubbed the ‘Mini Nurburgring’ requires a strong qualifying position with overtaking being one of the greatest challenges in the race. Sadly for Hunt the setup issues dragged on and, despite pushing his car to the ragged limit, could only achieve 6th for Race 1, and 5th for Race 2.
“A really tough session for us this Morning; we have been struggling with setup all of yesterday and I really couldn’t get the car to hook up how I wanted it to. This isn’t the circuit where we want to be starting mid-pack, but I do fancy a challenge so I’ll be looking to make my way up the order.”
RACE 1 (Qualified 6th, Finish 4th):- Starting on the outside into Turn 1 proved to be beneficial to Hunt as the lights went out as the Scorpio Driver held line to the outside giving him the inside for Turn 2, a dive into Park Corner on Mark Williams moved Hunt into 4th and baring down on the rear of 2018 Rookie Cup runner up Chris Short.
It did not take long before Hunt was breathing down the neck of Short and so the battle raged on for the duration of the 20 minute race.
With only one lap to go Hunt sized up his opportunities coming into the final sector and went for a move in to the Hairpin, a corner not necessarily known as an overtaking spot…Sadly it wasn’t to be as Hunt aborted the move when Short began to turn for the corner, conceding a hard fought 4th.
“I’m overall happy with the finish, on the times we were faster than Chris everywhere but he was defending for his life and it paid off. I had to try something on the last lap and had noted for a few laps he was going wide for the Hairpin so knew that was where it was going to be. Sadly I couldn’t get far enough alongside to claim the corner so had to abort and have a little excursion off circuit but we have to be happy gaining the places we did and also being up on podium pace.”
RACE 2 (Qualified 5th, Finish 2nd):- The rain began to arrive at the Lincolnshire Circuit shortly after the cars headed out for the rolling start, immediately compromising every driver as the teams had all decided to go out on the Hankook Slick Treaded tyre.
Will had made public on many occasions his appeal to a wet race and this became apparent as the lights went out as by the time the pack had arrived at Turn 3 (Park Corner) Hunt was already in 4th Place, a lap later Hunt put a bold move on the inside of Julian Lay into Mansfield Corner to promote into 3rd.
A few laps later Deja Vu occurred when Hunt was back on the rear of a struggling Chris Short. Surely the highlight of the weekend, Hunt outdrove Short out of Mansfield Corner on lap 5 and went for a committed dive to the inside on arrival into The Mountain promoting the #21 SR1 into 2nd. Finding a grove in the wet, Hunt begun to close the gap down to Championship leader Shane Stoney lap-by-lap taking seconds out of the lead however the Checkered flag would come just a few laps too early to deny Hunt of possibly battling for his first ever race win.
“I was a bit emotional coming across the finish line; I had to give it 110% out there to bring the car home whilst also pushing to go quicker. The rain came down heavy and the slick tyres were struggling to clear the water, it really was like driving on ice in parts! - What’s important from today is that not only have we got ourselves back to where we should be but we have also cut the lead to the driver above in the championship. As long as we are still mathematically in with a shout, I won’t stop pushing to deliver every weekend. I feel like I have learnt a lot this weekend about driving on the limit and feel a lot more mentally positive going to Brands Hatch on 8th June.”