Andy Neate has been forced to cut his season shorter than intended, skipping the final round at Brands Hatch after contracting a bout of pneumonia.
Neate’s season therefore comes to an unfortunately premature end, in what has been a learning campaign for the new Independent IP Tech Race Engineering squad he formed prior to the current season.
“It’s been an incredibly hard year and I’ve made no secret of that”, said Neate. “As a team we’ve been through a lot of disappointment, faced some huge technical and financial challenges and we have come out the other side together.
“Our sponsors have shown a rare loyalty in this business and I can only thank them for that and make a public apology that our season has ended without the shindig at Brands Hatch we hoped for. The car has shown undeniable promise with its competitiveness and perhaps the biggest challenge, technical reliability.”
Neate’s Chevrolet Cruze showed promised during its brief half-season in the 2013 campaign, almost breaking into the top 10 during qualifying for the recent meeting at Silverstone.
Unfortunately, the former MG, BMW and Ford driver bemoaned his bad luck during several events, including being the victim of incidents at Rockingham and Silverstone on the opening lap of both meetings.
“Without the on track dramas of recent weeks where I have been the unfortunate victim of other’s accidents, I have no doubt we would have succeeded in our year one goal of consistent top ten finishes.”
Neate vowed that his squad will come back stronger, concluding: “We’ve been overwhelmed by fan support this year and will be bringing updates throughout the winter season as we embark on the building of new machinery and prepare for the new year”
