Podiums in Portugal, but what if...
2003 CIK/FIA European Championship - Braga, (POR), Rd 5 & 6

Report & Photographs: Mike Hayden
10 July 2003

What if Angerville had gone to plan and David had obtained the results he fully deserved? And what if Alaharma had not resulted in some frustrating problems, at a time when David had been the quickest driver in the place? Rounds 5 and 6 of the re-arranged Portuguese meeting at Braga were the evidence, if it was ever needed. For the record though if David had achieved the same results in France and Finland, to those he did in Portugal last weekend, he would now be lying in 2nd place in the European Championship, just 5-points behind the driver at the top of the table. If ever evidence was needed of the Strawberry driver’s pace, without flattering to deceive, than Braga was the place where the youngster delivered the goods! As David left the Portuguese circuit he was left to reflect on his name in 5th place in the Championship table. With 45-points to his credit, he was only 4-points behind the Dutch champion Carlo Van Dam, and 11-points adrift of Salvatore Gatto. With Mariembourg the final event on the calendar in September, David is aware that 50-points will be up for grabs, which technically speaking also means that Davide Fore, 47-points in front, is a target, although David himself remains realistic. A top 3 placing in the 2003 European Championship, at his first attempt, remains a very realistic proposition. Timed qualifying went reasonably well, with David setting a time only 0.35s away from pole position, although that slender margin was enough to make the difference between 1st and 28th overall! In the heats David had two rough races, with an ‘off’ leaving him 19th, and the other with only half throttle to play with, but this was more than made up for in his two other heats, where he recorded a 1st and a 2nd place finish. This was enough to leave him 13th on the grid for the first final, comfortably inside the top 34 qualifiers, and from where he continued to “rock the boat”, a situation that he is starting to become comfortably familiar with. Whilst the heats on Saturday had been held in the dry, race day dawned very wet indeed. From 13th place David surged forward and was in the lead of a European final within the opening 5-laps, which he then led comfortably until lap 18.  “I was very happy with the position,” he said after the race. “I knew I had the pace from the two heats where I was 1st and 2nd, although I did not expect to be able to get to the front quite so easily. These are the best drivers’ in the world, and yet I was able to lead them for 15-laps of a European final.” In the closing laps though David hit a puddle in one of the corners, which threw him off-line, and in that moment the championship leader Bas Lammers sneaked back ahead of him. “He made a mistake of his own on the last lap,” David observed, “although he just had enough to get to the flag ahead of me.” It was indeed close with Lammers taking the win only 0.940s ahead of the Strawberry pilote, with the Tonykart team leader Davide Fore 3rd around 7.3 seconds later. David: “This was my first ever podium at this level and I was very happy with it. It could so easily have been my first win as well!” The second final also saw David lead from the start, as he revelled in the poor conditions. From lap one the rain was falling hard and this worked into the teenager’s favour, but as the race ran over its 20-laps duration, the rain eased and started to leave a drying line. “I led for the first 13-laps, although Lammers had stuck with me from the start,” David recalled. “As the rain eased the Vega tyres got better, which was when Carlo Van Dam then started to join in the fight for the lead. I had a good chance of winning up until then, but it meant that I lost the lead around 7-laps from the finish, as Van Dam on the Vega’s went ahead to win, with me finishing in 3rd place behind Lammers.”  It did mean though another podium for David and with it another 16-points to add to the 20-points he got from race one. With the points he picked up in Finland, David’s total now stands at 45 overall, which leaves him with that 5th place in the points table as noted earlier, after having overhauled a significant number of experienced European class drivers who had been ahead of him prior to Portugal. The final two rounds at Mariembourg in Belgium come September will be next. “I think that a 3rd place in the Championship is a realistic possibility, “David said, “although I was just glad to be on the podium in Portugal at last.” Twice… naturally!   Report & Photographs: Mike Hayden

top