Banff racer back on Knockhill track
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Banff Scottish Formula Ford racing driver Jordan Gronkowski has returned to the circuit at Knockhill for the first time since February in preparation for upcoming events.
That session six months ago proved to be catastrophic for him after his engine blew and it looked like a mammoth effort would be required to be ready for the start of the 2020 season.
However, the coronavirus pandemic then hit and the championship was postponed with no cars taking to Fife circuit.
Gronkowski and his team carried out extensive work on the car over lockdown and was able to virtually launch it online at the end of the July.
He has also been honing his driving skills over the break taking part in virtual championships.
This past weekend though he was able to carry out the first test on the car and put some miles in.
Four 15-minute sessions were the order of the day as the limited number of Formula Ford and Legend cars combined to share the circuit.
The team's day started with some problem solving as Gronkowski pitted after just a single lap reporting a lack of power. Analysis of the issue eventually resulted in a spark plug problem being identified as the cause.
The spare spark plugs were fitted for the second session and the remainder of the day unfolded without any major issues.
It proved to be a successful and enjoyable return to the circuit after such a long enforced break.
Gronkowski said: "It was absolutely fantastic to be back out on a real circuit in a real racing car. I've had to content myself with simulator racing during the break and while that is great fun and a huge challenge in itself, nothing compares to the feeling of driving around in an open cockpit racing car for real.
"We had a bit of a hiccup at the start of the day on the engine side, which I have to say was a bit heart-in-mouth for me after our experience in February, but it turned out to be a relatively simple fix and my dad did a great job of identifying and remedying the problem in time for the second session.
"Ultimately these things are why we go testing and thank goodness we had the day."
Gronkowski is preparing for the recently announced Scottish Formula Ford Renegade Cup, in which he will only be racing in the first round.
It will be held at Oulton Park in Cheshire from August 29-31 racing as part of the Historic Sports Car Club's Heritage Formula Ford Championship with a separate Scottish Renegade class.
The weekend before that he will race in the Champion of Cadwell event at Cadwell Park in Lincolnshire.
He is hoping at least one more outing before the end of the season year a bit closer to home at Knockhill.
Gronkowski said to get the recent test day was hugely beneficial.
He added: "Missing a session down at Oulton Park for the first round of the 2020 Scottish Formula Ford Renegade Cup would have been a bit of a disaster given that we're going to need all the track time we can get to learn the circuit.
"As for the rest of the recent test day, we pretty much just picked-up where we left off in February. We've got a number of changes on the car that we made over the winter, so we ran through our planned evaluation programme on those and definitely have some good data to look over now.
"We couldn't have asked for better weather or track conditions to get all the work done, so I'm very happy with that.
"Personally, it was great to be able to start pushing the car a bit more in the final session and I really enjoyed just being out there again."
