WORDS BY ROB HANSFORD | IMAGES BY JAKOB EBREY
For those of you that read The Pit Stop, you will be aware of Toby's Diary. Essentially, we are following Toby Trice's racing career, as he carves his way up the motorsport ladder.
In the first of a new digital series, we will closely follow each of his races within the Porsche Visit Cayman Islands Sprint Challenge GB.
And what a perfect place to start than last weekend, when Trice secured a double podium in just his third race weekend at Croft.
Having spent Friday taking part in practice, Trice was excited about his prospects ahead of the weekend, despite having never raced around the 2.27 mile circuit before.
That optimism was damped slightly after qualifying however, with Trice only able to claim sixth on the grid. But despite the frustration, there were positives to take.
“I finished P4 in Friday’s first practice and then P6 overall for the second session, but we used just one set of tyres for both sessions. So the pace looked really good from Friday into Saturday,” Trice said.
“Quali, I feel a little bit frustrated. I managed a personal best by five tenths from my fastest lap in practice, and I think we are making really good progress. The car feels nicely balanced, and I’m really happy with where that’s going.
“I just now need to pull more time out of the car and carry more minimum corner speed and I think just a bit more seat time is required.
‘We’re getting there, it’s coming, but P6 in qualifying doesn’t really reflect that. So very happy but also a little bit frustrated.”
However, on race day, it was an entirely different story.
Trice managed to get himself up into fourth early on, but was slightly detached from the leading trio. That was until Steve Roberts and Harry Foster came together in the latter stages of the race.
That incident forced Foster into retirement and allowed Trice to jump into third to claim his maiden podium result of the season.
“I was so happy to get a podium finally in the Porsche Cayman Sprint Challenge. It was obviously an amazing achievement.
“But it was kind of given to me. We’ll take it, but two cars went off the road ahead of me which promoted me up to third place.
“It would have been nicer to get third place by merit, so the challenge was on into race two.”
It was a challenge indeed, but one Trice refused to let slip by him.
When the second race got underway, Trice spent the early stages vying for second before slipping back slightly after touching the grass, and a few laps later he had his rear mirrors full of series debutant Sam Smelt.
But Trice put up an impressive defensive display to fend Smelt off, and after a few laps battling away, he managed to pull clear to consolidate third and his second podium finish.
“It was a super achievement this weekend. We’ve made massive strides with the setup, we’ve got the balance spot on since Thruxton, but we got to properly test it at Croft.
“The pace is coming, I’m getting braver in the car. Now I’ve just got to focus on the smaller stuff to refine my input.
“I’m so pleased. The team’s happy, the sponsors are happy. We’re all having an amazing time. Two really awesome races live on ITV4. It’s a hugely proud moment from the weekend.
“I’m absolutely buzzing and looking forward to the challenge of Oulton Park in a few weeks time.”
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