KMR Sport’s Alex O’Grady just about remains in title contention ahead of next weekend’s Donington Decider, but knows he needs to maximise his score from the four races while also relying on those ahead encountering difficult events.
The young Irishman has led the reigning team champions’ charge all season, with a breakthrough victory at Oulton Park backed up by a further podium at the Cheshire circuit, as well as regular top-six results in the latter half of the year.
Having netted fifth and sixth place finishes at Brands Hatch, O’Grady admits he was fired up ahead of the final race at the Kent venue, which has now been pushed back to the deciding weekend after a support race incident rejigged the schedule.
“I would have liked to have had race three at Brands Hatch, but it’s going to be interesting having four races at Donington Park. It’s going to be good fun there.
“Brands Hatch was good for us, and compared to Silverstone we did a lot better, scored really good points and pulled a gap to the people behind in the championship. It would have been nice to have been able to score more points at Brands Hatch but realistically we’re fighting for P4 [in the championship].”
O’Grady is 110 points behind championship leader Dan Guinchard heading to Donington, but has 126 points to play for across the quadruple header, and knows anything can happen at the final event as the nerves begin to fray.
“It’s cool to still be in the title fight, just about I think. Really I need everyone to crash and for me to win the races, but I suppose you never know what will happen. It’s great to still be in the top-five and have an outside shot.”
He has a score to settle at Donington Park too. A qualifying disqualification at the opening round left him fighting from 25th on the grid in all three races, having qualified sixth and third. But he showed his pace and excellent race craft to gain 35 positions across the event to salvage his weekend, and heads to the East Midlands venue knowing he’s made improvements to the car with the KMR Sport team.
“I think we’ve improved our car a lot over the season. At Donington we could do three laps quickly and then the tyres would just start to destroy themselves. Definitely now our long runs are a lot better so I think we’re going into Donington in a lot better place than we were last time.
“I’m not sure yet where we’ll be [in comparison to the rest of the field]. I think somewhere like Brands Hatch or Oulton seems to suit us a bit better than Donington but realistically to still be in the top-five, fighting for the big points is the aim.”
