Race day at Donington Park came to an early end for Rob Austin Racing after the team’s second engine let go in the first race, forcing them to sit out the remaining two races. Rob Austin spoke to TouringCarTimes about the disappointment and his determination for Thruxton.
The team had already made an engine change on Friday night after the first engine let go in qualifying:
“We set a purple sector on the first sector of that lap in qualifying just before the first engine died. There’s obviously something causing them to go, the two engines have gone exactly the same way. We’re just trying to work out what that is. The chassis feels great. We were aiming for the first two rows, certainly aiming to move forward and again it was down on power right from the word go.”
After a strong performance at Brands Hatch saw Austin in fifth in the championship standings, he was disappointed with how his Donington Park weekend turned out:
“We put so much work into this, we’re on a tight budget and we’re on our limit doing everything we can. It’s just so heartbreaking to be in this position. Both engines will be rebuilt for Thruxton. I’d love to get somebody in the second car, but whatever happens I’ll be going down to the bookies and putting money on myself to win at Thruxton.”
“We’re going to come back twice as hard. At Brands we played it sensible. We were thinking championship, but this is obviously a huge knock to any championship hopes. So we’re going to pull out all the stops and go for glory now!”
As to whether the team could determine the cause of the problem before Thruxton, Austin had the following to say to TouringCarTimes:
“I really hope so. There’s only so many things it can be because when we changed the engine on Friday night we put a whole different subframe on plus a whole new exhaust system, manifold and loom. So everything on the front end is ruled out. The only things it can really be are the fuel system or the ECU. Determining what it definitely is will be the issue. It’s going to be something little and silly that’s doing it.”
“We’ll have it sorted for Thruxton. We’ll go through everything because if at the end of the day we don’t pull it together at Thruxton I don’t think our financial situation is going to allow us to continue. We need to put in a good showing. Thruxton’s going to be the strongest circuit for this car. It’s probably my strongest circuit and I am very determined so we’ll come back fighting really, really hard. I’m looking forward to it; I just can’t wait to get there now!”
