Heading to his home rallycross track for the second round of the RX2 International Series, Nathan Heathcote had high hopes for a good haul of points, but bad luck plagued the Brit from the outset.
This was Heathcote’s second racing outing around the newly built Silverstone Rallycross track, as he competed in the opening round of the MSA British Championship earlier in the year to help himself acclimatise to it. Things looked to be off to a good start, as the 21-year old set the fourth quickest time in Friday’s free practice session. Having looked to be in the running to make it into the semi-finals last time out in Mettet, only for his good run to be ended by an unlucky roll, Heathcote knew he had a point to prove and the pace to do it
But luck wasn’t on his side in the qualifying heats, an electrical problem hampered Saturday’s Q1 and Q2, and, in his charge to make up for lost time in Sunday morning’s Q3, he unfortunately rolled again. He was able to get his Team Faren run Supercar Lite out for Q4, and got his first clean run of the weekend, going eleventh quickest overall and showing that the potential for a spot in the semi-final was very much there.
“It hasn’t really been my weekend,” he commented.
“We got the electrical problems fixed for Sunday and I knew I had to really push hard in Q3. I ended up just pushing a bit too hard and tapped one of the barriers, which put me over on my roof again.
“It was amazing to race in front of such a huge home crowd, but it’s a really disappointing result so I’m really looking forward to the next race in Norway next week to get back out there and get a good result for me and the team.”
The next round of the championship will be held at the infamous Hell Circuit in Norway in two weeks time, and Heathcote is looking to put the bad luck behind him and get some points on the board.
