2017 TITC

Race report from Nicholas Lee

TITC 2017 is in the books and it was a great race for me.

I arrived late on the night of 10th with Meen and Ronald picking me up at the airport. A long week of practice started and it wasnt easy at all with the ever-changing track conditions proving hard for even the top drivers. My car was not always the fastest but it was consistent for the 5 minutes run.

A maximum of 4 sets of tires were given for the 6 qualifying rounds. I've also found that used tires were alittle quicker for me during the 5 mintues race and this allowed me to break in 3 sets of tires during practice and controlled practices.

Day1

Q1- I took a safe approach in the setup and drove safe and could finish 4th in that round.

Q2- I finished 3rd in that round

Q3- I finished 2nd in that round with my car feeling really good

Day2

Q4- I pushed alot for this round and made a mistake with me finishing 6th.

Q5- The condiitons were alot cooler than q1-q4. We changed to the "night car" as it was very fast during CP2 and also put on new tires. However, the balance of the car was somehow "off'. It was difficult to drive and I did not drive well too. I would finished 8th for the round.

Day3

Q6- I decided to use both rear tires from Q2 and Q3. The balance of the car felt not so bad and I would finished the round with a 3rd.

With these results, I would also qualified 4th overall.

Final 1

The starting grid this year was very close to one another. I had a decent start and was overtook Alex midway through the race. With my car feeling alot faster than the rest, I could close in on Jilles and tried a pass on the last corner. Unfortunately I crashed him and thought the race was over but there was another lap to go. In the end I would finish 2nd for the round.

Final 2

Again, decent start and I can put pressure on the front guys. Bruno, Jilles and Alex all made a mistake and I could pass them. Having a decent lead over Andy, I was driving safe and did not push to get a bigger gap to Andy. However, I did not think that this could prove vital to my title challenge.

Final 3

Again a decent start, but i couldnt pass Hagberg this time round and went on the roof. But the time i regain my position I was fighting with him again and there was no way pass him. Ronald won the round with bruno taking 2nd spot. This puts me and Bruno in a tie-break situation and i lost out by 0.79s.

I am still happy finishing 2nd. I will come back stronger for the next races.

I want to thank the Sweep team for the amazing support and trust in me.

Best regards