Hitech's Deagen Fairclough entered this year's GB3 Championship as a title favourite, having claimed a maiden victory at Monza last year, and then topped more than half of the official test days he attended during pre-season.
He was well placed at Silverstone during the season opener, having qualified fifth and then second for the first two races of the year, and just missed out on a podium in race one with fourth place.
But after that, misfortune struck, failing to finish the remaining two races through no fault of his own at the British Grand Prix venue.
Needing to reset at Spa, he qualified fifth and fourth in Belgium, but suffered his third DNF of the year after suffering collision damage on the opening lap, but salvaged a decent points finish in race two with his second fourth place of the campaign.
“It was difficult at the start [of the weekend], and to get some good points at the end was all we needed really" he admitted. "It’s still the start of the season and we need to keep working hard as a team. There’s still a long way to go."
Despite the misfortune so far, Fairclough is remaining positive with three quarters of the season still to come, starting at the Hungaroring in a month's time before moving on to the Red Bull Ring a week after, which is a new venue for GB3 this year.
“Hopefully all the bad luck is out of the way, and we can get our head down and hopefully get back onto the podium" he says. "I think as a team in general we have a few bits to work on, and we were strong in Hungary last year, so hopefully this year it’s not too bad. Red Bull Ring after that is obviously a new circuit for us so it’s new for everyone and we can hopefully go in with high hopes.
"I’m really looking forward to it [Red Bull Ring], especially all the long straights, hopefully that brings some entertaining races for everyone. The reverse grid should be good, but we can only wait and see."
The British driver is 98 points behind championship leader Nikita Bedrin, but is focused on clawing back ground over the next few rounds to get back into the fight.
"We’ve just got to keep our head up and move on from all the bad situations that have occurred. We need to take it as it happens in motorsport, so we need to keep believing, working hard and hopefully we can have a good rest of the year.
"In all honesty we’re a bit behind, but I think I’m driving pretty well, but it’s tough. We’ve got plenty of races left and the others are bound to have something or a coming together with the hard racing they’re in for the championship. But we have to focus on ourselves really, not bother about anyone else."