Robb Holland happy with progress despite black flag in Thailand

Robb Holland had a tough day as the FRD Ford Focus had an incident in Race 1 at the start. The second heat was even worse, as the American did not notice the drive through penalty which had been awarded to him and was therefore black flagged and excluded from the race.

“Results-wise it was a tough day,” admitted the American to TouringCarTimes. “However I am quite optimistic as for the potential of the car, because it is very good through the corners. In the first race I got tapped from behind at the start, which was a shame, but that’s part of racing.”

Holland says the car had overheating issues ever since the beginning of the race: “The car only worked well during the first lap of the second race, from then on it overheated and I had to be careful. We obviously lost power through the straights, but the fact that I was able to stay with the others and even overtake them gives me confidence, it means that the car has good handling.”

The American went on to explain what happened in Race 2 and why he was black flagged: “To be honest our radio wasn’t working. I looked at every lap at the start line, as that’s where you normally get messages such as a drive through, but for some reason the board was on the finish line, and by that time I was looking at my dashboard, so I haven’t seen the drive through penalty, nor the black flag. I explained this to the stewards and they understood, but of course they had to exclude me anyway. The accident I had the drive through for was my fault.”

Holland praised the quality of the Ford Focus, which he believes to be a good machine underneath: “We are discovering and solving the problems step by step, which is good. We are going quicker and quicker, and I’m really happy about it because I was worried before the race we would be five or six seconds off the pace. I have to say that this is a good basis for the future, we may well take it to a few TCR races as well as following our endurance plans.”

The American will continue the developement of the Focus in the coming months, as well as taking it to Macau: “We are heading into Macau, I will seek help from my friend Rob Huff as I’ve never been there and he is a master of that track. After that we will take on an intensive developement plan, and hopefully the car will be ready by then. There are a lot of things to fix here and there, but we know what the problems are and they are not hard to solve, we just need time to work on the car.”