Darren Turner was unable to help the title charge of the #44 Aston Martin Vantage GT3 of the Oman Racing Team at the 2016 Total 24 Hours of Spa after a difficult weekend.
Sharing driving duties with Ahmed Al Harthy, Jonny Adam and Devon Modell, the Motorbase run car showed front-running pace and even leaded the field outright at one point.
Sadly mechanical issues and contact would put the team out of the running for a podium position.
The team started from twenty fourth place on the grid and Turner led the Pro-Am class at the sixth hour points scoring mark.
Unfortunately, soon afterwards he was involved in a collision with the ARC Bratislava Am-class Lamborghini.
“One of the Am-class Lamborghinis caused a bit of mayhem in the Bus Stop Chicane, which ended up with me being hit a few times in the chaos,” he explained.
The after effects of this collision set off numerous mechanical problems for the team.
“Although the impacts were very small, they dislodged the exhaust system. I had to box for repairs several times.”
More problems were encountered when the car suffered an oil leak, due to a damaged oil pipe that was damaged in the collision, forcing the team to change the oil cooler.
This lost the car eight laps, dropping the Aston to sixteenth in class and extinguishing all hopes of a top three finish.
Yet the team soldiered on, stayed out of trouble and took advantage of the rain to climb up to seventh in class at the finish.
“The team did a great job with the strategy and in reacting to the weather, full course yellows and safety cars”, Turner said.
“Seventh in class really doesn’t reflect our potential but the team still scored some decent points so I was pleased for them on that front.”
