Gaining experience of a new circuit while making consistent improvements in her performance, Caroline Candas collected a pair of seventh place finishes at Circuit de Ledenon, continuing her promising rookie season in the FFSA TC series.
Collecting a pair of seventh place finishes at Circuit de Ledenon, Caroline Candas continued her promising rookie season in the FFSA TC series. Candas overcame a number of challenges throughout the weekend as she learnt a new circuit while sharing driving duties with a teammate.
Qualifying in eighth, Caroline finished both races in seventh while managing technical issues throughout the weekend. Despite these setbacks, Candas improve her lap times and became more competitive at the meeting progressed, setting her quickest time of the weekend in race two.
Securing the funding to compete in two out of the four races at Ledenon, Caroline would share the #72 Peugeot 308 RC with Jonas Venier across the meeting. A pair of practice sessions on Friday would allows Candas to learn the track, with the development of a suitable setup made more challenging by the two-driver lineup.
The pair ended the opening session sixth class, with Caroline further improving in practice two to end the day with consistent lap times placing the #72 car in fifth, just over half a second away from third.
Caroline’s first solo session would be qualifying on Saturday morning with the young French driver still continuing to gain familiarity with Circuit de Ledenon. Improving throughout, Candas set the eighth fastest time in class with her quickest lap coming on her ninth and final lap to underline potential for progress in the pair of races to follow.
Lining up eighth for the opening race of the weekend, Caroline made a good start and gained two positions within class on lap one to move into sixth. Holding comfortably with Denis Gibaud ahead, Candas ran her fastest lap of the race which almost matched her best effort from qualifying.
On lap four, Brady Beltramelli overtook the JSB Competition driver as Caroline fell to seventh. The following lap saw Candas deal with traffic for the first time, a situation made trickier by her inexperience of the circuit as choosing the correct line was challenging.
Caroline continued to improve during the middle portion of the race, setting her personal best first sector time on laps nine and eleven. This was a crucial area of improvement and enabled her to match the times of both Brady and Jose Beltramelli ahead, moving into sixth on lap 13.
As Franck Salvi cut the gap in the closing stages, Candas defended well from her rival before Salvi found a way through with just a few laps remaining. Despite Caroline dealing with an issue on the final lap, she was able to maintain her position and close out the first race of the weekend in seventh position.
Aiming for further improvements in race two, Caroline maintained eighth position following the opening lap. The JSB Competition driver found a nice rhythm early on and showed good confidence as she came close to matching her best time of the weekend on lap three. After letting the faster Ligier of Edouard Hery through on lap five, Candas settled in and continued to develop her understanding of the circuit.
As the race approached the halfway point, Caroline set her fastest lap of the weekend with significant improvements in the first sector being a contributing factor. A series of strong laps saw Candas begin to close in on the drivers ahead, moving into seventh following an off-track moment for Sebastien Thome. This led to the deployment of the safety car which looked set to give Caroline a chance to push for a top-5 position, before a gearbox issue forced her into the pits.
With the JSB Competition team doing a good job to allow Candas to rejoin one lap down, she was able to gain further experience in the closing stages to end race two in seventh position.
Despite not securing the results she hoped for, Caroline enjoyed a weekend of development at Ledenon. Gaining experience of a new circuit, while making consistent improvements in her performance, Candas continued to underline her potential in the highly competitive FFSA TC series.
Caroline will now be aiming to return to the podium and fight for third place in the championship in the final round which takes place at Paul Ricard on the weekend of 7th/8th October.
