O’Young troubled by grip problem

Darryl O’Young looked to set to be in to the top ten with Bamboo’s first appearance with the new Chevrolet Cruze, but a handling problem left the independent driver down in 14th.

O’Young was fifth fastest in the second free practice session, four tenths off of the top RML Chevrolet, but ended up almost a second down in 14th place in Qualifying 1.

“On the first run, what cost a lot was the oil drop by Nykjaer,” explained O’Young to TouringCarTimes.

“We went on our second set of tyres, tried to better the time but somehow lost a lot of traction on the front of the car and I was struggling a lot with grip, and ended up not being able to put a time down which was a big shame, because the car was feeling good at the beginning of the first run.”

The team have moved up from the normally aspirated Chevrolet Lacetti to the same Chevrolet Cruze powered by the 1.6 litre turbocharged Global Racing Engine used in the works Chevrolet team, and O’Young is experiencing his first meeting with the new car.

“It’s a big improvement coming from the Lacetti to the Cruze, the car’s much different, much more stable. Adjusting to the turbo is one of the main things that is going to be tough, if we learn in the race how to control and pace it well, but it’s going to be difficult to start from P14 for tomorrow’s race.”

“Qualifying’s always tough, it’s really important now…even if I made my way up, I’ve got to do it all over again in the second race.”