2020 Trofeo Vega - Round 5, Vesoul, Haute-Saône, France, 17-18th October 2020
X30 Junior category drivers came to Vesoul for the last weekend of Trofeo Vega in mid-October, amongst them Roy Shaw competing in his last X30 Junior race of 2020.
Saturday 10th October 2020
Practice
After the setup and tyre pressure mistakes from Roy’s team during the race weekend at Château-Gaillard, it would have been useful to practice in wet conditions. Unfortunately, none arrived, despite the overcast conditions.
Roy was straight onto the pace, and during the afternoon turned in some fast laps, getting within 0.1 seconds of the pole time from the previous year, and verifying the dry setup to use. His good speed throughout the day led Roy to feel optimistic for the race weekend.
Friday 16th October 2020
Practice
Roy practiced only during the afternoon, and worked on setup with remote input from his UK-based coach. Roy’s times were fastest of the day, matching the pole time from the previous year. At the end of the day we got the not so good news that Seb, Roy’s German mechanic, would be prevented from attending by new COVID restrictions imposed on France by Germany…
Saturday 17th October 2020
Practice
With Rafael, who had looked after Roy's kart the previous day, standing in for Seb, new tyres for the first session enabled Roy to go quicker again despite slight dampness around the track from overnight rain. However, one of the other teams put in their race engines for the second session, and three of their drivers, two of whom are seldom amongst the leaders, immediately upped the pace to within 0.4s of X30 Senior laptimes. For the session after lunch, Roy’s race engine was also mounted and he too matched the best times, so all to play for.
Race day, 18th October
2020 Trofeo Vega - Round 5, Vesoul,
X30 Junior category at Vesoul over the middle weekend in October, amongst them Roy Shaw competing in his last X30 Junior race of 2020.
Sunday 18th October 2020
Qualifying
Initially overcast on Sunday, later under bright sunshine, unfortunately, Roy was again betrayed by his equipment.
Roy had his accelerator cable break as he finished the first lap of qualifying, when he was right behind the eventual best lap driver, so had to start on the last row in the pre-final.
Pre-final
At the first turn Roy saw his two teammates stopped in front of him, both hit by other drivers. To avoid a worse collision Roy headed into the gravel trap where he was stuck for one lap before getting out with the help of his teammate, who had suffered a thumb injury.
Final
In the final, Roy again showed his determination and ability to create overtaking possibilities by climbing to 8th place by the 8th lap of 20. Already there was a significant gap of over 7 seconds to the lead group, so little chance of gaining further places. That was partly because Roy had been blocked by an ex-teammate for a couple of laps, until he invented a spectacular pass in the S-bends, which was acclaimed by all the mechanics watching from their stand (even the boss of Roy’s previous team!). Those manoeuvres had somewhat overheated Roy’s tyres, which combined with having a slightly under-geared setting to help with overtaking in corners left him vulnerable. After a good battle with another driver who had lost many places from the first corner, and whose gearing was better for the straight, Roy finished 8th.
Roy was 6th in the final championship standings.
Results : https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Events/1819392
https://speedhive.mylaps.com/Organizations/70780/Championships
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