Albatec Racing’s James Grint showed strong pace in the opening round of the 2016 MSA British Rallycross Championship held at Croft last weekend, but was denied a chance to compete in the Supercar Final due to damage sustained in the Semi-Finals.
Grint, who returns to the Dumfries-based team in 2016 to pilot one of their Peugeot 208 WRX Supercars, was fast from the outset where he set fourth fastest time overall in Q1, In Q2 he went fifth fastest overall and followed that up with the seventh fastest overall time in Q3, confirming his spot in the second Semi-Final.
However damage during that Semi-Final race, despite finishing in third place behind eventual winner Kevin Procter and RX Racing Team Boss Ollie O’Donovan meant that Grint would not take his place in the Final.
Despite a number of issues during the event, Grint was happy with the performance of the car:
“There were a number of problems during the day that were outside of our control, but the car is very quick. We had a small clutch problem before practice which meant we missed most of the session, but straight into the first heat we were quick and had a strong race pace which allowed me to finish second, and fourth fastest overall,” explained Grint,
“We were matching the times of our competitors, and the package is certainly good enough to come away with a good result. We had to retire from the Final due to suspension issues sustained in the contact in the semi, but I think we proved we had the pace to cruise through. Not having any testing was an issue, but there’s really nothing to fault from the weekend, bar a technical issue.”
Andy Scott is confident that both team and driver can fight back for round two at Lydden Hill on the Easter Bank Holiday:
“We had some issues in the semi final and sustained some suspension damage, which unfortunately we were unable to fix ahead of the final. On a positive note, the car was very quick and handled really well, and James showed great speed throughout the day,” explained Scott.
“It was far from an ideal start to the season for us, James missed some of the practice session putting him on the back foot, however he recovered from that to post the fourth fastest time in the opening heat. Throughout the day he’s been quick, and I’m sure we will bounce back from this disappointment to be challenging for a place in the final at Lydden Hill.”
