Dumfries and Galloway Race Ace’s McLaren punted out of race on opening lap of two-hour race
Ross Wylie is already counting down the days to the next round of the British GT Championship after suffering heartache in the latest race. Scotland’s young McLaren GT driver was well placed on the 31-car grid in seventh position after the combined efforts of the reigning British GT4 champion and co-driver Andrew Watson (N.Ireland).
But their race ended literally minutes after the green light on the first lap of the two-hour race at Rockingham (3 May) when another car torpedoed into the driver’s side of Wylie’s Von Ryan Racing McLaren 650S GT3 at unabated speed as Ross began to turn left in to the chicane section of the 2.05-mile track in Northamptonshire. Damage to the car was too severe for Wylie to continue leaving the Dumfries driver distraught and counting the days down to the next race at Silverstone on 31 May.
However prior to the next race, Ross will be involved in the “Race the Runway” charity event at Prestwick Airport next Sunday (10 May). The Dumfries race ace will be driving a McLaren P1 sportscar from McLaren Glasgow aiming to raise money from passenger ride donations for the St Andrew’s Hospice.
Ross Wylie (GB): Age 23. Born & Lives Thornhill nr Dumfries, Scotland:
“In practice we knew we had good speed in the McLaren. I didn’t get the best out of the car in qualifying while Andrew did a great job. Grid positions we set with the aggregate times of both drivers and so we ended seventh overall. I started the race and made a good start in tricky, damp conditions – conscious of playing it safe. I’d moved up a place into sixth at Tarzan before arriving at the chicane. I braked as normal, and turned in left but then felt a huge impact as another car came skating down the inside unable to slow on the wet track. It was a heavy hit, causing too much damage to continue and leaving me mildly concussed. Although it was a massive disappointment, there are many positives to take from the weekend. Our pace was good, which is encouraging for the rest of the season, and the team is doing a great job engineering our car. It’s a case of now just counting every day down to the next race at Silverstone.”
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