It Finished With a Podium
27 June 2023
Having drawn a fourth row grid slot for the first of the Fun Cup Endurance races at Anglesey, Mark Holme was soon making progress in the Viking/Ursus car.
Being fifth after a couple of laps, before reeling in Chris Weatherill’s AxiaMetrics car.
As progress continued he was third after 11 laps, but the lead duo had already made their escape.
“The car felt really good, we dialled out some oversteer, but I lost a bit of ground when Gary Bate’s Greenheath car spun. But then I got Chris into Rocket and we were flying,” said Holme.
Pitting from second at the first stop, Colin Kingsnorth took over and took them to the first hour in third place, before the second window arrived and coincided with the first safety car intervention of the weekend.
Having retained a strong second place in the second hour, 10 seconds off the lead, it all went wrong for Holme with 30 minutes left on the clock.
“I was coming through the Corkscrew and was caught off line as I was passing a backmarker. “It was a rookie error as I was then off line for the final turn and spun.
The car I had passed then hit me and it was a big impact,” he explained as the car was returned to the paddock for the damage to be assessed.
With repairs complete it was Kingsnorth starting race two, “Into the Night.” It was another strong opening stint again too, working through the order into fourth by lap 14 and closing in on third again.
Pitting from third, Holme rejoined fourth but was into third just the first hour was up, having demoted PLR’s Neil Plimmer.
The charge continued and third became second as Greenheath pitted early, before Holme pitted after 51 laps with enough in hand to allow Kingsnorth to come out having retained third place.
Two hours in and only four cars remained on the lead lap, but Olympian had a 1.763 secs gap over the Viking/Ursus duo, who in turn were almost 20 secs up on fourth placed MJ Tec.
“We couldn’t catch Olympian for P2, and had hoped for an incident or safety car to move up. But we managed a podium, the car drove well, Colin drove well and thanks to the team for the repairs as we celebrated our first overall podium of the season,” Holme concluded.