Rob Austin Racing Press Release
Rob Austin (Evesham) and Hunter Abbott (Maidenhead) both described their Donington Park British Touring Car race weekend as “frustrating” with a tenth position the best they could manage between them in the three races but there were still signs for optimism heading to the next rounds at Thruxton in Hampshire.
Rob made up three places from his starting grid position to finish tenth in today’s opening race in his Exocet AlcoSense Audi with Hunter 19th. Both chose race two to run the softer option tyre and Hunter was unfortunate not to finish inside the points this time as damage to the rear of his car meant he slid down the order to finish 17th, one place ahead of Rob.
In race three Rob was in the running for a top ten again until the closing stages when another driver barged him off the track into retirement – the same driver who had spun round Hunter at the opening bend. Hunter at least was able to recover to finish 14th and score points.
Rob commented: “It’s been frustrating. To start the day with my best result in the BTCC at Donington was a plus as it showed the gains we’ve made as a team with the Audi, but to end it being driven into by an idiot is not the best feeling. I just do not know what the bloke was thinking and it’s valuable points down the drain for us having shown some genuine pace as well – we set one of the fastest laps of the race.
“Unfortunately in race two we tried something set-up wise with the soft tyre which didn’t work for us. But the big part of the frustration is knowing we’ve gone a lot better than before at one of our bogey tracks and not see the results of that.”
Hunter added: “Frustrating definitely! My car suffered a lot of damage in the first free practice session on Saturday when it was hit from behind by another car and we’ve been playing catch-up ever since. It meant I had to qualify a crocked car which wasn’t properly fixed until today’s races.
“In that second race on the softer tyre I was having a very good run but got hit in the rear again which damaged the rear suspension and which is why I dropped back. Without that I’d have had a much higher starting place on the grid for race three. At least I was able to take a few points from that one but it could have been quite a bit better.”
Both Exocet AlcoSense Audis will now return to the Rob Austin Racing team’s workshops in Pershore, Worcestershire to be prepared for the Dunlop British Touring Car Championship’s next three races at the high-speed Thruxton circuit on the weekend of Sat 9/Sun 10 May.
Photo credit: Rob Austin Racing
