29 June 2010 | Evesham driver Cassey Watson continued her rich vein of driver performance after steering Thames’ entry to a podium finish at Snetterton in the fourth round of the Zing Trofeo Abarth 500 GB.

For 18-year-old Watson, who is also one of the youngest qualified track day instructors in the country, her placing at the Norfolk circuit on Sunday means that she has now scored a podium finish in every vehicle that she has competitively competed in.

The weekend started off well enough for Watson, after she qualified on the third row of the grid -only to be piped to the chequered flag by Ben Winrow, Stephan Hodgetts and Josh Wakefield at the end of race 7 [Saturday].

But in true girlpower style, Watson made certain that the fruits of her labour were just around the corner as recorded Thames’ first podium of the season on Sunday. It was nothing more than Watson deserved, after she saw off many of the front-runners during race 8 to finish second in a time of 30.32.232 – just 8.558 seconds short of leader Winrow.

“The team made a slight change to the set up of the car after qualifying, which made the car about four-tenths quicker in both races,” explained Watson. “After starting fifth on the grid on Sunday, I was able to put my foot down and move through to second coming out of the first corner. I suffered some contact, as did Stephan Hodgetts and Charlie Butler-Henderson, which meant that I had to concentrate on bringing the car home.

“Drivers had been warned previously that, if they ran off at Sears bend, they would be penalised, so it was pleasing to know that I was the only driver not to receive a warning or penalty drive- through,” she added. For Watson, the attention now moves away from picking up a podium finish to closing the gap on the quickest lap times set around the track at Silverstone next month (July) and Brands Hatch in September, before heading off to Monza (Italy) for the finale to the race season.

For more press information on Thames, or to arrange an interview with Cassey Watson, please contact Andrew Fitzsimons on 07967 373039, or email news-pressdirect@virgin.net.

Alternatively, please go to: www.casseywatson.co.uk.

Pictures © Marc Waller