Following limited testing at the half–oval circuit due to torrential rain, the PMW Expo Caterhams lined up on the starting grid with Mike Robinson seventh and Graham Johnson 17th in his rebuilt car following the massive shunt at Castle Combe three weeks beforehand (see story below).

Poor starts from both drivers saw them struggle in the early stages of race one, but they fought back to finish sixth and 13th respectively, with Robinson’s car lucky to survive a high–speed tangle just one lap from the end.

The second race wasn’t so fortunate. Robinson’s car number 10 rolled home in just 10th place, with Johnson trialing in 16th. Johnson commented: “That’s the hardest fought position I’ve ever recorded – I just couldn’t appear to generate the same levels of grip as the other drivers on the grid. Truth be told, I was relieved to see the chequered flag.”

Colards Motorsport, which runs both cars, is investigating the cause of Johnson’s apparent chassis issues before the next round, held at Oulton Park in September.

The heavens opened as Mike Robinson and Graham Johnson sat on the grid in their PMW Expo Caterhams waiting for the start of the first race of the day – with dry setups and – in the case of Johnson – a twisted chassis from a testing shunt the day before, the odds of a victory looked slim. Indeed, as the half-hour race unfolded, both cars struggled to maintain position, with Robinson again complaining about poor straight line speed, and Johnson being shunted into a spin and dropping back to second from last place on a grid of 37 cars! Due to the slippery conditions, several cars fell off the track, ultimately prompting a safety car. Once the race finally resumed, just two laps remained and the track was dry. Robinson fought on to finish 10th, while Johnson overtook numerous cars to come home 22nd, giving them their respective starting positions for race two…

A weak start from Robinson saw him get swamped on lap one of the second race of the day, the 24-year-old even being overtaken by his team mate who started 12 places back. And as the race went on, it became clear that all was still not well with Robinson’s engine, him being unable to defend at what is an extremely fast circuit. Johnson’s car was also seemingly similarly lacking speed, but that was the least of his worries… Fighting for 10th place, the 33-year-old managing director of publishing at UKIP Media & Events, the company that organizes PMW Expo, was leaned on down the straight by a competitor – it wasn’t long until his car came to a rest having hit the tire wall at over 100mph. His race was over, and the offending driver that caused the accident was later excluded and fined. Robinson’s woes, meanwhile, worsened as time again his number 10 car was overtaken in a straight line. He went on to cross the line a distant and disgruntled 14th.

The engines in both cars will be rebuilt for the next race, which takes place at Rockingham on 21 and 22 July. Robinson said, “I knew at the previous race at Donington that something wasn’t right with my car, and that’s been confounded here. Although I was exiting corners faster than those around me, I just couldn’t compete once it came down to engine pulling power. Both of us can’t wait to set the record straight at the next round.”

After a great start to the season, the Professional MotorSport World Expo Caterham drivers, Mike Robinson and Graham Johnson, had high hopes of success at Silverstone, however, their lack of experience in qualifying saw them whittle away their chances of a win, claiming just 12th and 14th places on the grid respectively. Robinson explained, “You need to slipstream other cars to get a good lap time at this circuit, so we worked together to gain an advantage. But what we hadn’t learned in testing was that to ‘tow’ one car is not enough – you need to be behind as many cars as possible to really get on the pace here.” A resultant set-up change to find more pace was made before the first race and… Johnson came home in 10th with Robinson a distant 12th.

For the second competition of the day, the cars started in their respective finishing order from the previous race, but this time Johnson wasn’t going to give in so easily, pushing his way into 4th place after just five minutes of the 30 minute race. It wasn’t to be his weekend, however, and, with just eight minutes to go, a fellow competitor tried to drive around the outside of Johnson and tipped into a spin. The PMW Expo car had nowhere to go but into the out of control vehicle and was then unfortunately collected by a following driver who destroyed the rear of Johnson’s car. Robinson, who had been in 7th place before the mishap, narrowly missed getting caught up in the same accident, but went on into clear track to finish 4th, securing him third overall in the championship at this stage.

The Professional MotorSport World Expo Caterhams got off to a flying start in the first round of the Caterham Roadsport Challenge 2007, with Mike Robinson scoring a second and fourth place at fast-flowing Snetterton, and Graham Johnson securing 10th and a podium third.

Run by Colards Motorsport, 24-year-old Robinson and 33-year-old Johnson made a big impression on this, their first race in the Roadsport Series right from the word go, with Robinson claiming the third fastest time in his qualifying group and Johnson taking fifth. Indeed, both of our drivers led much of their respective races, narrowly losing out to more seasoned pilots.

Johnson enthused, “We didn’t know how our jump from the feeder Roadsport B series would go, but with Colards Motorsport supporting us we’ve found it very easy to adapt to the quicker cars. It’s certainly a very competitive series, the top three in each race separated by under half a second as they crossed the line for the last time, however, I am confident after this weekend’s performance that we’ll both visit the podium several more times this year.”