KMR Sport’s Alex O’Grady should be amongst the championship leaders, had things gone to plan at Donington Park last weekend.
The Irish racer had qualified sixth and third for the opening two races of the year, but when his car was found to be non-compliant in scrutineering after the 15-minute session on Saturday, he was forced to start from the back of the grid.
From 25th on the grid in every race, O’Grady simply sliced his way through his rivals, gaining a combined 35 places across the three contests, and somehow leaving the East Midlands inside the top-10 in the championship standings.
“The weekend turned out alright in the end” he summarised at the conclusion of the event. “The qualifying had been really good, we put it P6 overall and P3 for race two, so it was looking good but then obviously we got excluded from qualifying.
“We had to start every race from the back and it was just damage limitation, keeping it clean and making moves as much as I could. We made up a lot of places over the three races, so not a bad weekend in the end.”
For O’Grady, it was a first time starting at the back for every race in a weekend, but he was obviously satisfied with his progress to end up ninth in the championship standings.
“I’d never started dead last for all three races before, so I did what I could, and it was alright.
“I’m actually quite happy to be that far up in the standings to be fair, it’s not too bad. I think most people seem to have had one good race then a couple of bad ones or have crashed, and I think we kept it clean and picked up some good points in the end, so I’m quite happy.
“To make up so many places and not to have any crashes in the process, and to get two P12s in the last two races I think was a good job.”
O’Grady now sees Silverstone in a couple of weeks time as a chance to reset and claw back more ground on the leading contenders at the top of the early standings.
“I’m looking forward to Silverstone, we’ve done one test day there so some preparation at least. It’s going to be difficult with qualifying, obviously there’s 15 minutes in the session and a lap there is two minutes, so getting a lap in in qualifying is going to be the main thing. There’ll be lots of slipstreaming and lots of opportunity at Silverstone, so I’m looking forward to it.
“If we can qualify well there I think we should have no issue with the racing and hopefully we can pick up maybe a win or some podiums.”
