Tyre failure caused Hunter Abbott & Aiden Moffat crash in Race 3

A tyre failure caused the major incident in race three at Rockingham which saw Rob Austin Racing’s Audi A4 collide with Aiden Moffat’s Mercedes A-Class at Deene.

Abbott lost control of his A4 heading into the hairpin at the first corner on the final lap, colliding with the left-rear of Moffat’s Mercedes. The two cars suffered substantial damage, with Moffat unaware of what precipitated the incident, in which he was left dazed but uninjured.

“I have a headache and a sore hand but I’m as good as I can be,” said Moffat to TouringCarTimes. “I was just looking for my exit, getting on the throttle and all of a sudden I was just thrown across the corner, I don’t really know much about it, I just saw he was far back so I don’t know what happened.”

Abbott however believed the incident was down to a tyre puncture, which was later confirmed by Dunlop.

“I flat spotted a tyre a few laps earlier in the race and I had a vibration, and I came down there and it just let go,” explained Abbott to TouringCarTimes. “The whole front just locked up and I had nothing.

“The first thing I did when I got out of the car and went over to Aiden, he’s alright thankfully, but poor Aiden.”

Abbott explained he attempted to minimise the damage at the hairpin, but was unable to miss the luckless 18-year-old Scot.

“There was a car in front of me which I think was Nick Foster, I was trying to avoid him but in doing so I was going towards the apex. I was trying to find a gap between people but I couldn’t find one.”