Rounds 1 & 2, Brands Hatch (4th/5th November 2006)
In the first two rounds of the winterseries Neb did not have a lot of luck due to various circumstances. Neb lost the important day of testing and the track time due to an incident that happened early on Friday morning in the first session. He lost all day of track time on Friday and had to go straight to the 20 min qualifying on Saturday. No track time and no time spent to set up the car, were hard times in the busy 20 minute qualifying session where Neb managed to qualify only, 24th and 26th for race one and two respectively.
The race one started really well, when Neb got off the start well and overtook about 4 cars by the first corner. By the second corner at Druids he was down to 17th place where he came across a car that spun in the middle of the corner. He still managed to avoid the car, however, luck was not on his side, when he got hit by another car from behind and as a result picked up damage on the rear of the car. With the damaged rear and a bent rear wing Neb could not fight anymore but instead just try to finish the race. He finished the race in the 22nd position.
Neb commented after his first race, “What can I say…I made a great start, overtook a lot of cars on the outside in the first two corners, but then I just saw a car that stopped on the circuit in the middle of the corner (Druids). I tried to avoid and not hit the car, but someone just could not stop behind me and hit the rear of my car and caused a lot of damage. The car lost its balance and driving with the bent rear wing was not easy at all. I was thinking about coming into the pits and maybe retiring from the race, but I decided that it was safe enough to carry on and at least get some mileage in the car…”
Race 2 started well for Neb, where he made up 4 places by the end of the first lap. The car seemed to have improved a little bit but there seemed to be still some problems with the car that was probably a result from the first race accident. Neb was pushing hard and catching the cars in front, but on lap 4, he spun. He still managed to carry on, however, the short race distance and the spin did not give Neb a lot of opportunities to recover. He finished 23rd.
Neb said after the second race, “Even on my warm up lap I felt that the car did not feel 100% right and that there still was some problem with the balance. I tried to push hard from the beginning and overtook a few cars but on lap 4, I was pushing a bit too hard and I spun. A tough weekend for me and the team, and a lot of drama since the beginning of the weekend. Everyone was working hard to fix the car for Saturday and for race 2, and I want to thank the whole team for their great effort.” Neb continued saying, “I am looking forward to the next weekend where I know it can only get better!”
