Abu Dhabi: Gulf Radical Cup Series. 21-23 February 2025.
Harry Gets The New Season Off To A Flying Start.With a frustrating few weeks still to go before the 2025 European race season gets under way, the choice lay between America’s sunshine state of Florida or the United Arab Emirates, specifically, the Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi. As it turned out UAE was a good choice. Well organised by an incredibly enthusiastic team, the highly rated F1 track offered two days of very competitive motoring where Harry was allowed to test his skills against the best Radical drivers in the business, helped no end by latest recruit to the Barton squad, David Pittard, top Le Mans and Aston Martin ‘works’ sports car driver.
The long weekend began for Harry on Thursday 20th February with three hours of testing and familiarisation, followed by the same again next day. Friday evening then saw thirty minutes of official practice prior to Saturday morning qualifying. Radical Racing is a tough game, and no excuses needed, our Harry was not on the front row of the grid. Saturday included qualifying followed by a pair of sprint races. Result, Harry came alive and put in an increasingly strong performance, finishing mid-field twice. So, when the grid lined up on Sunday afternoon for the forty-five-minute, main event, it was all to play for.
Sunday afternoon was hot, thirty plus degrees. Typical weather here for this time of the year. It was going to be a long three quarters of an hour. Harry started 10th but immediately forced his way into ninth, and then eighth, before the first safety car intervention. Obviously, everybody now came in for their compulsory forty-five second pit stop. He rejoined in eighth. Another safety car episode with four laps to go provided a real ding dong finish. Harry hung on to the leaders, gaining two more places to finish 6th overall. Not bad. In fact, for a driver who had never driven the circuit or car before, not bad at all.
