Brands Hatch Mini Festival
Friday Test day, good to get back into the car and dial yourself both into the car and the circuit.
Luke managed a couple of very slow laps, before returning to the pits with a serious lack of power.
On inspection the team found our turbo had decided to destroy itself, on further investigation they noticed metal in the oil, meaning a complete engine change was needed, and to add insult to injury our gearbox also needed attention and parts replaced.
Our mechanics worked into the early hours of the morning finally having the engine in place around midnight, unfortunately when they tried to start her up nothing happened, the new engine needed a different wiring loom, so back to work they went, finally finishing at 1.30 in the morning.
Saturday arrived and straight into qualifying we went, needed to bed-in new brakes, new engine, and tyres, Luke finished 16th, not great but first time out this weekend, and had lots to do.
Race 1 - Car still not up to speed and Luke finished in 17th. Not a great day, the car still seemed a bit off the pace, we guess due to the spare engine not being as good as our usual.
Sunday Race 2 - Some more changes to the car over night saw Luke drive a great race, fighting his way through and finishing in a fine 9th place.
Race 3 - Our prayers were answered, it was now pouring with rain, a great leveller, meaning our power problem would not be such an issue. Starting 9th Luke made a fantastic start and saw him race through the pack in two laps he was up to 5th, looking super confident and much faster than the cars infont of him. 4th place made a mistake and Luke seized his chance and went through, unfortunately getting pushed off the track, worse still giving Luke a puncture in the process. Race over.
This was not how we planned the weekend, still even with an old spare engine, in the rain, he could have gone all the way, surely our luck has to change soon.
This was not how we planned the weekend, still even with an old spare engine, in the rain, he could have gone all the way, surely our luck has to change soon.
Onwards to Donington we go.
A massive thank you to those who turned up in support, and especially JD Fireservices, Credo Financial, MyLifeRaft, HRX, Saxon Motorhomes, Coms Case and Inaga, whom without there help none of this would be possible. A special thanks to our race team, these guys grafted all weekend for us, as they always do.