Brake failure sums up Dan Welch’s bad luck

Welch Motorsport’s Dan Welch had the latest in a line of mechanical misfortunes at Thruxton, and one considerably more eye-opening than those which came before it.

His Proton Persona sat out Saturday’s second practice session with brake issues, which came back to bite with a vengeance in Sunday’s second race.

A brake line severed at the top of Woodham Hill with the car touching 150mph, pitching Welch into the tyre barriers.

It summed up a season where the car, nicknamed Optimus by Welch, has failed to perform as well as last season, and has been unreliable to boot.

Speaking to TouringCarTimes about the accident, Welch said: “One of the brake lines burst. It wasn’t one of the best experiences, but I got the car turned before I hit the wall and there’s actually not that much damage.

“It is a home race, but it’s not been very lucky for us. Certainly we’re not getting the rub of the green. We have got to improve at some point, we can’t keep having issue after issue.

“Last year the car was pretty good and this year we are struggling. We have fundamentally changed the thing, and don’t know what’s going on really. We need a bit of luck to get some running.”

Race three provided some respite, with Welch battling through to a fine 11th in his hastily-repaired car. The long break until Oulton Park will now give the team the chance to fix the car properly.

Welch said: “We have got a bit of repair work to do in those five weeks. A lot of hours will have to go into that to have it race-ready.

“Hopefully we can get it ready, pay the bills and go again.”