It’s been one hell of a six months for Tsuki and the Tegiwa Racing team. We’ve fought hard all season long to be right up there in the points and be in the mix at the end of the championship. So, heading to round 8 at Snetterton with a one point lead over Alfie Threlfall (after dropped scores) in his supercharged Ariel Atom meant it was still all to play for.
We’d suffered with a couple of small niggles throughout the warm up and practice session but had managed to rectify them by the time qualifying had arrived. We also knew we wanted to smash the lap record of a 1.16 which had stood since 2013, so Luke had to bring his A game.
In qualifying, Luke got a banker lap in early doors, but then had to pit as he could hear something banging underneath the car. The crew checked Tsuki over but couldn’t find the issue immediately so decided to call it a day. This meant that Luke couldn’t go for his final push run of the session. We then saw Alfie go a tenth and a half faster than us with a 1:12.040, securing the lap record in the process too. This meant that he was now sitting six points ahead of us in the championship heading into the final, but with how the Time Attack points are awarded, it would mean that whoever set the fastest time in the final would claim the win and the championship!
It was pretty exciting yet extremely nerve-wracking that the past 6 months had all boiled down to the final 20 minute session of the season. As the session started, it all appeared to be going wrong for us from the get go. We missed the initial first two minutes so we could make ourself space on track. When Luke finally managed to get out, Alfie had set a blisteringly quick lap of a 1:11.5.
After Luke’s first lap of the session we could see that something wasn’t quite right with the car. Luke had also told us over the radio that he could feel a vibration too. A steward quickly appeared in the garage and told us that we needed to pull Tsuki in to investigate.
Luke dived into the pit lane and we could immediately see that the rear diffuser was hanging off. This was because the car was travelling so fast, it’d created so much pressure that it’d ripped its own bolts off! There wasn’t much that we could do other than completely removing the diffuser. It felt like the odds were heavily against us now with a major component of our aero package missing and Alfie way ahead of us in terms of time. 10 minutes remained of the session so Luke headed back out to the track, ready to give it everything he’d got.
As the morale had taken a serious dive in the pits, the atmosphere was very doom and gloom. This soon changed though when we saw Luke put in a purple first sector on the TSL timing screen in our garage. You could literally hear a pin drop as we waited in anticipation for him to finish the lap.
Moments passed and the screen updated and showed Luke had put in a blinder of a lap with a 1:10.678, absolutely destroying the lap record too! It was now a case of sitting tight and watching the clock run down, hoping that Luke had done enough to get the job done and sure enough he had.
It was a crazy day of ups and downs but we’re super proud to now be 2023 Pro class champions. We’ve got to give credit to Alfie for pushing us right till the end, it was certainly a season we won’t forget in a hurry and we hope for more of the same in 2024. Once again, a big thanks goes out to our sponsors and affiliates who play a vital role in creating Tsuki. We can’t do it without you and your support is most appreciated.
We’re now looking ahead to next season and already have a plan in place for winter developments. If you’re looking for an opportunity to get onboard in 2024 then don’t hesitate to contact us!
For now though it’s goodbye to the 2023 race season and we’ll see you back on track next year!
