Palmer praises Paras' effort 04 | 04 | 2015
SCOTS BTCC ROOKIE Derek Palmer admitted today his brand new Infiniti Support Our Paras Racing Q50 was good enough for a top 16 slot on the grid for tomorrow's opening triple-header at Brands Hatch.
But the Scot's final flying lap was ruined by a last-corner traffic jam which cost him precious time, resulting in him starting 24th.
The 28-year-old from Linlithgow, who previously had only driven the Infiniti Q50 for half-a-dozen laps at Mallory Park earlier in the week, is confident the Q50 has plenty of potential left to unlock once the mileage builds.
“To be honest, we're not too far away from the guys the in front,” Palmer, whose best time of 50.609secs was just 2.198s off the pole set by Andy Priaulx's BMW, stated. “To be honest, I think my ideal lap would have put us around 16th.
“On my final lap at the end – I'm not sure what happened – I think someone might have thought the session ended early coming out of Clearways, so it all kicked off in front of me.
“I think we're there or thereabouts. We're definitely not disappointed with how it's gone so far. We could have been a bit further up if I got the lap together – the speed is there though. Honestly? I reckon we could have done a mid-49 without too much hassle.
“There's no doubt we've really got potential. I'm so proud of the guys, to see how far they've come over the past four/five months is awesome. They were so professional today.”
Related: Infiniti teams join forces
Palmer's car is prepared by a crew compiled of seven injured ex-Paras from the Parachute Regiment.
The Scot set a series of new personal best times during qualifying highlighting the team and car's potential. After a previous best round the Brands Hatch Indy Circuit in the morning's Free Practice of 53.378s, he immediately ducked below the 53s barrier, clocking 52.321s.
Soon after, he dipped below 52s for the first time, setting a personal best of 51.777s, before a scheduled pitstop after eight mins.
A tyre change and five-minutes later, Palmer instantly reported vibrations coming from car and pitted. Two new rear tyres were fitted, but soon after rejoining the track the session was red-flagged with 10mins 44secs remaining after the Honda of Martin Depper shed a wheel.
After a lengthy delay, the session restarted and again Palmer improved, clocking 51.695s: next lap he went even quicker, halting the stopwatch on 50.750s, then 50.696s, before setting his fastest time of the day, 50.609s to finish the session just 2.198s off pole. The top 18 drivers were covered by less than a second.
Earlier in the day, Palmer had to cope with tricky damp, greasy conditions as he drove the new ISOPR Q50 in a BTCC Free Practice session for the first time.
“Those were probably the most difficult conditions – combined with not knowing the car – I've ever had," he admitted. "But we kept at it in FP2 and kept improving in time for qualifying, where we made another step forward.
“The balance is good. Also, I'm still learning the car as well. I'm trying different things to get faster. Every time you go out it's a bit of an adventure right now to see how you can make the car work for you. But it's been getting better and better and that's what we want to see.
“We want to keep improving, get inside that top-20 and get racing amongst the pack.”
Related: Honda opts for BTCC Type-R
Keep up-to-date with all the latest news by following us on twitter.com/Scotcars
Jim McGill
Photo by Jakob Ebrey