Strong Lydden Pace Nets Semi Final Slot For Albatec
Lydden Hill, Kent (UK) — Sunday 25 May, 2014: Albatec Racing underlined its championship potential with a strong performance in the second round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy today, leaving Lydden Hill as the leading Peugeot team. Team Principal Andy Scott powered his two-litre 16v Peugeot 208 into its second successive semi final of the year, after a heat win and second place comfortably placed him tenth in the intermediate standings.
Despite his best efforts however Andy was unable to convert that into a place in the all-important Final after contact with another car lost him time and dropped him just outside the top three. The Dumfries businessman though leaves the Kent track buoyed by a return to form that saw him crowned 2011 MSA British Rallycross Vice-Champion.
Stepping into the seat vacated by French-Canadian Jacques Villeneuve, who is away contesting the Indy 500 this weekend, Davy Jeanney had his promising weekend cut short despite overcoming a technical problem yesterday that sidelined him in heat two. In today’s final two qualifiers the 27 year-old, on his World RX debut, showed the form that netted him the 2013 European Vice Champion crown with a strong pace in both races, however it wasn’t enough to elevate him in the standings, leaving the Frenchman frustrated but nevertheless optimistic ahead of a possible return to the 12-round series later in the year.
The new team, recently relocated to Lochfoot, Dumfries is one of six permanent Supercar teams in the re-branded World RX, and one of only two privately-entered, leaving the entire team delighted with its performance and confident ahead of the next event in Norway.
Andy Scott, Team Principal, Albatec Racing driver #26:
“Heat three was always going to be difficult as we had some strong charging drivers in it. So I decided to take the joker off the start and managed to get second place, and was very happy with the car. For heat four I lined up on pole and, well there are no slow cars here any more, so it was a bit of a fight into turn one, but I managed to come out in the lead with no mistakes and the time was sufficient to give me tenth and qualify for the semis.
“From the back row the best place I could expect to get was second into the first corner which we managed to achieve, but in the run down to Devil’s Elbow I outbraked myself, went wide and allowed two cars to pass me, then got involved in a tussle at the top of the hill. After that the car lost power slightly, through damage to the intercooler sustained in the hit I suspect. This is a new team we’ve pulled together this year, without the benefit of big budget sponsors, although we continue to work towards that, but every race we get better, the team’s performance this weekend proves that.”
Davy Jeanney, Albatec Racing driver #27:
“In heat three it was very difficult because I lost the power steering but still got a good result anyway. Heat four was better, ninth fastest was a good result, but you need four strong finishes to progress to the semi finals. But overall we improved each time and got better and better.
“I’m sure if I had a little more testing in Essay we could have been better, but bad weather prevented us from running too much. It’s great to be back racing in rallycross though as I like the environment here. I would very much like to come back into World RX, maybe in France and Sweden as they are both very good tracks, so if the opportunity arises, then naturally that would be very good for me.”
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