More to come from NGTC Audi

At the third time of asking the new NGTC Audi finally took its first race finish at Donington last weekend. Thanks to a number of incidents ahead of the Rob Austin Racing machine, team owner Rob Austin eventually brought the A4 home in 13th position in race three of the day, the car, and driver’s first BTCC finish.

Race two at Donington had finally seen the Rob Austin Racing machine take its first BTCC start, although it was a short lived affair. Driving his own machine, Rob Austin ended the race in the gravel, having spun out on the opening lap after locking the brakes.

Earlier in the day Austin had been forced to retire from the opening race after a prop shaft failure on the green flag lap.

“Yeah I was pretty pleased for three-quarters of that first lap until I threw it off,” said Austin to TouringCarTimes prior to his race three finish. “The first race was a prop issue, a bit of a design fault so we had to take it easy off the line in race two.

“Then the second race I just cocked-up, there’s no other way to put it!”

Despite making the race three finish, Austin’s Audi is still suffering problems as a result of its late delivery and the short gap between the opening rounds at Brands Hatch and the Donington meeting.

“It is nice that it is running properly, but we are quite down on power. We believe we’ve made progress with that but we’re just disappointed that I screwed up our chances in that second race.

“We believe we’ve got quite good power now, but it’s all above 7,000rpm, which obviously we can’t use. So we’re doing what we can at the circuit for this weekend and believe we’ve made progress over yesterday but haven’t had time to show it so far.”

Austin now plans to have the car on the dyno for “serious changes to the engine before Thruxton”, when David Pinkney is due to return to driving duties. Further testing also remains a possibility now that the series organisers have allowed the NGTC teams further track time beyond the usual restricted running, with Austin saying, “I think TOCA are pretty relaxed with us and understanding of the situation we’re in.”

The NGTC Audi made quite a change from Austin’s usual mounts in historic Formula One and GT racing.
“It’s about twice the weight and half the power of what I’m used to, so it feels a bit numb in comparison, but it’s nice to be the one representing it.

“It’s just a shame I didn’t do it justice in race two. I’m still hanging my head in shame. It was a silly mistake!”