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Engine problems hamper Adam Morgan’s progress at Silverstone

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Ciceley Racing’s Adam Morgan bemoaned a persistent engine issue which plagued him on race day at Silverstone, culminating in the 27-year-old overdriving in Race 3 and picking up a drive-through for consistently breaching track limits.

Morgan, who finished second in Race 2 to Motorbase Performance’s Andrew Jordan, and finished fourth in Race 1, finished outside of the points in the final race after his penalty, which means the Lancashire-based driver is now just out of contention for the championship, 68 points behind Sam Tordoff in ninth with 67 left to play for.

“We’ve been struggling this weekend,” said Morgan to TouringCarTimes. “There’s something wrong with the engine so that’s going back to Swindon on Tuesday. I was getting massively frustrated with the car as it was so good around corners, but in a straight line people kept driving around me. I kept pushing and pushing, but then kept going wide in frustration.”

Despite the dramas of Race 3, Morgan was happy with the results of the weekend, with two strong points finishes earlier in the day.

“A fourth and a second, we can’t grumble about that, but to be up there in this championship we need to make the best out of everything. We were on for three good results, in Race 2 Andy drove a brilliant race on his soft tyres and looked after them really well, but for us P2 is a mega result.”

With TOCA set to reassess the boost levels ahead of the season finale, with the levels evaluated after every three races, the Mercedes driver is hopeful the next calculation will play in their favour.

“Our results this weekend might do us a favour as in the speed traps we were in the bottom five every time, so we might get a bit more boost at Brands. We normally go quite well around there, we had a win there last year, so hopefully we’ll finish the year on a high.”

Morgan’s schedule ahead of Brands Hatch is hectic, as he heads to Shanghai this weekend to join the Shanghai VW 333 Racing factory team for the second time this year in the China Touring Car Championship, in a race which supports the World Touring Car Championship, before returning to the UK for the BTCC season finale.