Andy Neate to miss season finale due to illness

IP Tech Race Engineering will miss the season finale of the 2013 British Touring Car Championship at Brands Hatch as team owner/driver Andy Neate has contracted pneumonia.

The team are unable to find a replacement at this late a stage and so will sit out this weekend.

“It’s been an incredibly hard year and I’ve made no secret of that,” said Neate. “As a team we’ve been through a lot of disappointment, faced some huge technical and financial challenges and we have come out the other side together. Our sponsors have shown a rare loyalty in this business and I can only thank them for that and make a public apology that our season has ended without the shindig at Brands Hatch we hoped for.

“The car has shown undeniable promise with its competitiveness and perhaps the biggest challenge, technical reliability. Without the on track dramas of recent weeks where I have been the unfortunate victim of other’s accidents, I have no doubt we would have succeeded in our year one goal of consistent top ten finishes.”

“We’ve been overwhelmed by fan support this year and will be bringing updates throughout the winter season as we embark on the building of new machinery and prepare for the new year.”

The team has already put up for sale this year’s car, the first Next Generation Touring Car-specification Chevrolet Cruze to be fully built for the BTCC, and has said it has plans to build two more for the 2014 season.