Lydden Hill, Kent (UK) — Saturday 24 May, 2014: Albatec Racing is well placed to qualify for the semi finals of round two of the 2014 FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy after a convincing victory and consistently strong pace for Andy Scott across the opening two heats at Lydden Hill today. The 2011 MSA British Rallycross Vice-Champion powered his MacDuff-backed, two-litre 16v Peugeot 208 to the 12th fastest time of the massive 37 strong field, the Dumfries businessman delighted with a return to form that netted a semi final place at the Kent track last year.
The Scottish team endured the extreme highs and lows of motorsport at its home event however with a disappointing end to Davy Jeanney’s debut World RX event. The 27 year-old 2013 European Vice-Champion set a cracking pace in open practice around the 1 mile home of British rallycross this morning and after only eight laps in the 2014 spec Supercar was happy with a performance that saw him 14th fastest after the opening heats. In the second though a water leak on lap two brought his race to a premature end, with instant retirement dropping him down the overall order, leaving the 2010 French champion with it all to do in tomorrow’s final two qualifying races.
The two further four-lap heats, two semi finals and the all-important Final follow 10.30 warm-up tomorrow morning, with the first of the support race heats expected to start at 11.30 and the semi finals at 16.00. Both semi finals and final will be broadcast live on British Eurosport, with live timing and streaming also available via www.rallycrossrx.com.
Andy Scott, Team Principal, Albatec Racing driver #26:
“Overall I’m pretty happy considering where we’ve come from since the horrors of Portugal, where we now have a car that’s in good shape and is all about set up and maximising what we’ve got. We lined up second on the grid for race two, which is an OK starting point here at Lydden Hill, and I made a good start, with a good set up and was able to take the lead into the first corner. I was surprised how much the circuit had deteriorated since heat one though which caught me out a bit, and it was then just a steady race to bring the car home in one piece.
“In the first heat we lost the lead on the joker, but we didn’t really have the pace to win, it was just damage limitation to be honest. So we made a few changes to the dampers in between the two races, had I known how drastically the track conditions had changed, I’d have made a few more. It’s naturally very disappointing for Davy, and it’s too early to say what is happening at the moment, we know it was a water problem, which we’re investigating now and we’ll know more this evening.”
Davy Jeanney, Albatec Racing driver #27:
“It’s great to be back in a rallycross car at Lydden Hill, where I have had a lot of success in the past. We had a good start, with a strong pace in practice this morning and after the first heat I was 14th fastest, which was very good after only eight laps in the car.
“The Albatec Peugeot 208 Supercar is very new technology for me, a new engine, new system, new upshifts, and is a very good chassis but obviously with a lot of new things there is a lot of work as it’s more complicated. I had a small problem with the car in the second heat, so I stopped on lap two to protect the engine, but for tomorrow after we’ve checked it I’m sure it will be OK.”
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