Chris Hodgen powers to a 2nd podium place in 3 races at Brands Hatch
Following on from Castle Combe, round 3 of the British Formula Four Championship took place at the world famous Brands Hatch circuit in Kent and Chris Hodgen from Bolton once again powered to a victorious podium position.
Absolute Racing was met by glorious sunshine for the Friday pre-race test day at Brands. The team worked hard on finding the right setup for the conditions and the weekend race ahead.
The test day proved a long and hard day, with numerous red flags and at times the track seemed too busy to put a clear lap together, but once the team were happy the balance and the gear ratios were right, the car was put away for the weekends racing.
The weather leading up to the qualifying session created a stir in the paddock amongst the drivers as to whether the track would stay dry or would the rain finally come that was causing chaos on the M25 just a few miles away! Fortunately for each of the team’s decision makers it stayed dry.
Absolute Racing’s driver Chris Hodgen led the cars onto the track for the start of qualifying in the hope of getting some clear track and Chris managed this with a blistering time on lap 4. He then bettered this time, again and again, until finally pitting while holding pole position.
Chris comments “I managed a 48.0 and was happy with that so I decided to come into the pits and save my tyres for the race, than risk the car any further. But unfortunately for me the gamble didn’t pay off as David Marshall and Robbie Watts managed to better my time as the session finished! Although I was happy with 3rd on the grid as I knew I would have the pace to race the 2 in front”.
The start of the race was also run in bright sunshine but this time there was no threat of rain. As the cars powered off the line Chris Hodgen managed to make the jump on Robbie Watts and tuck in behind the leader David Marshall as they powered through Paddock Hill Bend. As they entered Surtees for the first time, a jet of fluid started to come off Marshall’s car. Fearing the car was about to break down with a mechanical failure, Chris dropped back slightly to avoid any contact should the inevitable happen. As it turns out it was just fuel coming out of the overflow as David’s car was close to the weight limit they had used extra fuel to be safe. Unfortunately for Chris that meant depositing it over his car and helmet!!! After a few laps the fuel leak had stopped and Chris pushed hard to get back on terms with David as the gap had extended to 2 seconds.
Although the pressure was off from Jonathan Weston Taylor in 3rd, David Marshall had managed to make a break and pull away from the battle for the final spot on the podium, but slowly and surly Chris managed to get the gap to Dave down as the leaders caught the back markers.
Commenting on the battle, Chris says “David and I were very evenly matched so I knew my best opportunity to overtake was going to be in traffic so I pushed hard to get close enough to benefit from any mishaps!”
Entering the final lap Chris was under the rear wing of Marshall with both cars having to overtake one more group of back markers before the line. As they entered Clearways for the final time David got a little delayed and Chris got a run on him down to the line, but this was not enough as Chris came 2nd by 0.39 seconds for a well deserved podium finish.
The Championship now enters a 6 week gap before another double header at the picturesque Anglesey circuit in North Wales.
Chris is sponsored by www.Parcel2Go.com - remember you can keep in touch and follow the Chris’ season by logging onto www.parcel2go.com where the team will be updating a blog with news and info on the races, as well as opportunities to win trips to join the team for the races at Oulton Park in September.