Lydden Hill, Kent (UK) — Sunday 24 May 2015; Albatec Racing endured a disappointing Motorsport News World Rallycross of Great Britain at Lydden Hill this weekend, the driver pairing of British RX leader Andy Scott and series returnee David Binks missing the cut into the top 12 qualifiers at their home track.
Heading into the fourth round of the FIA World Rallycross Championship presented by Monster Energy leading both British and Euro RX, the Dumfries team had hopes of repeating the form that has netted three outright Supercar wins in 2015, including victory last time out in Belgium. However Friday’s grid selection for the first heats on Saturday morning drew Andy in the opening four lapper, and David in race three.
With track conditions improving over the course of the races, overall race times increasing by some seven seconds, the result meant the drivers were unable to make any significant progress across the four qualifying heats. The Albatec duo joined a number of other top-level drivers who failed to make the cut today, including a former European RX champion, two X-Games gold medalists, a GRC champion and two British champions, amid a quality 29-strong field of world-class drivers.
Albatec will put the disappointment aside however, and focus on the next events in its busy racing schedule, the second round of Euro RX over the weekend of 20&21 June at Estering Germany, followed by rounds four and five of British RX the following weekend (27&28 June) at Mondello Park, Naas, Ireland.
Andy Scott, Team Principal, Albatec Racing driver #26:
“When we went out for the first heat this morning, they’d watered the track so obviously the track got quicker for every heat after, so we were slightly disadvantaged. Equally the track was blocked for me in turn one in the second, with the coming together between Timur and Ollie, which cost me around five or six seconds. The combination of those two really dropped me out of it which again gave me race two in the last heat, and as everybody knows at Lydden the races get faster and faster.
“David has done a really good job this weekend, considering he’s not been in a car since Lohéac. He’s put in some really respectable times but he’s been hampered by the same things really, it’s just the luck of the draw. It is a world championship and the competition is naturally fierce, it’s certainly not standing still, the level is rising all the time. We just haven’t been in the right place at the right time.”
David Binks, Albatec Racing driver #81:
“It’s been difficult getting back into a car after eight months away, but I think we’ve performed well. We’ve had a tough weekend, but we’ve moved forward with speed each heat. It’s a very competitive series, almost every one of the cars out here is a potential world championship-winning car, and if you don’t get a good result in day one, then you end up drawn out in the early heats all the time, and as they wet the track before the first heat, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to work out that the races thereafter will get quicker and quicker. So it does slightly disadvantage those drawn in the early heats to be four or five seconds a race slower, although I don’t see how else they could do it.”
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