Caitlin May showcased excellent speed and consistency in the AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship season finale at Silverstone, starting from a strong qualifying performance and achieving a top-10 overall finish in race one before a high-speed collision in race two ended her weekend early.
Caitlin May displayed excellent speed in the AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship season finale at Silverstone. A strong qualifying performance set May up for a weekend in which she was battling in amongst the Pro class drivers.
Starting on slick tyres on a damp track in race one, Caitlin was able to make a number of late-race overtakes to finish inside the overall top-10, while narrowly missing out on an Am class podium.
May was running solidly inside the top-10 during race two, before contact from a competitor at high-speed resulted in a sizeable impact which ruled her out of the remainder of the weekend.
Arriving at the final round of the championship sixth in the Am class of AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship, May was aiming to end the campaign on a high. With just one retirement throughout the season prior to Silverstone, Caitlin held the joint-best finishing record in the Am class and this statistic has underpinned her consistency. Having achieved two eighth place overall finishes in 2024, May was targeting a season’s best result to end the campaign while searching for a return to the Am class podium.
Saturday morning brought the final qualifying session of the season with May looking to start the event on the front foot. Lap times were extremely close round the Silverstone International layout and Caitlin was consistently within half a second of the Am class pacesetter.
May ended qualifying with one of her best results of the season, finishing the session tenth overall, while setting the third fastest time in the Am class among an expanded grid of 22 drivers.
A decision from the stewards between qualifying and the opening race saw May lose her fastest times due to failing to slow under yellow flags and therefore she lined up from 16th position overall, sixth in the Am class. Conditions were also different to the earlier session with rain leading to a damp track and a difficult decision over both tyres and setup.
Caitlin made a clean start and negotiated a number of first lap incidents to hold her position on the slick tyres which she hoped would prove effective as the race progressed.
With cool ambient temperatures, generating heat into the slick tyres was difficult but May was building up her speed.
After falling as low as 18th overall, ninth in the Am class during the early stages, May was back inside the top-15 by lap eight and she was beginning to catch the group of drivers ahead as her slick tyres were now proving the correct choice. Her progress was then halted following a sizeable crash for Pro class driver Simon Horrobin and this necessitated the race was stopped with the red flag displayed.
Following good work from the marshals, the race resumed for a duration of seven minutes with the track continuing to dry further. After lap one of the restarted race, May was up to 12th overall, sixth in the Am class and was now targeting a late-race charge for an Am class podium position.
After passing both Marco Ricci and Chris Blackburn, May was up to fourth and lapping faster than her Am class rivals ahead. A nice last lap pass on James Pope saw Caitlin finish race one inside the overall top-10, while finishing fourth in the Am class when taking into account guest driver Graham Colfer.
Grid positions for race two of the weekend were based on the results from race one and this meant Caitlin started from inside the overall top-10. May had a great initial launch off the line and immediately gained positions on the run down to the opening series of corners. At the end of lap one, Caitlin was up to seventh position overall while holding down a podium position in the Am class.
May continued to show good speed in the initial stage of the race and was breaking away from the group of drivers behind. Misfortune then struck when Daniel Lewis was unable to stop his car into Village and made heavy contact with May. The impact was significant and Caitlin received medical assistance before getting out of the car with the race subsequently brought under red flag conditions.
Following the accident, Caitlin was unable to line up for the season finale. Although this was a disappointing end to a good campaign of racing in the Am class, Caitlin enjoyed one of her most encouraging meetings at Silverstone.
May was solidly running inside the top-10 before the race two incident and a smart tyre call in race one saw her end the opening contest on a high. Having established herself as both a fast and consistent driver in the AIRTEC Motorsport Fiesta ST240 Championship in recent years, May will be aiming to continue her motorsport journey into the 2025 season.
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