Welch Motorsport forced to field spare car at Brands Hatch

Welch Motorsport will be forced to field its spare car at the BTCC Brands Hatch finale after suffering significant damage in the final race at Silverstone.

The team was enjoying its best weekend to date at Silverstone, with sole driver Daniel Welch scoring 19th in race one, having gained four positions on the first lap alone before battling with Eurotech Racing’s Jeff Smith for 19th spot, before the Honda Civic driver had a sideways moment and allowing Welch through.

Race two saw the Proton Gen-2 move up and down the order throughout the race, before settling for 18th at the finish line, but what was the team’s strongest raceday to date in 2015 ended in race three when unavoidable contact with Rob Austin Racing’s Hunter Abbott saw both drivers day come to an end.

As a result of the incident, Welch Motorsport will be forced to run its spare car at the Brands Hatch season finale on 10-11 October.

“I can’t be too enthusiastic about finishing just inside the top 20, but it has undoubtedly been our strongest performance of the year, with a revised engine from D.T.W Engines,” said Welch. “The car has handled beautifully all weekend and I’m able to match the best of them through the corners, but we’re still lacking on the straights and it’s very frustrating watching cars just surge past you. We did our best and tried to stay out of trouble, but that wasn’t possible in race three.

“There was a chain reaction of events on the opening lap, as I basically got caught up in another incident, as somebody swiped me at the rear before I received a secondary collision from Hunter Abbott. There’s significant damage to the car and repairing it will impede our progress with the engine between now and Brands Hatch.”

The damage from the incident was also enough to sideline Abbott’s car, with the Rob Austin Racing team having to build up their spare shell for the Brands Hatch round, Abbott revealed on his Facebook page.