James Cole to miss remainder of Donington Park weekend

James Cole will not compete in the remainder of the Donington Park weekend after his car went up in flames at the end of race one.

The Team BMR driver was having a solid race one with the new Subaru Levorg, which is still in the early stages of development, before the car caught fire on the exit of the chicane with only three laps to go. Noticing the flames Cole brought the car to a stop on the side of the road and made a hasty exit, handing it over to the marshals to bring the fire under control.

“I’ve had a once over from the doctor and he’s told me I’m OK,” Cole told TouringCarTimes. “It was quite hot in there with the flames inside the car. I noticed them just coming out of the chicane. I had a misfire a couple of laps before but because it was so close to the end of the race we thought we’d make it home, then it just all went up all of a sudden. From a safety perspective it was fine and then it wasn’t, just one of those things. No-one was hurt, I just held my breath and got out of there.”

As a result, Cole will now miss the next two races and have to work on getting a new engine for the third meeting of the year at the fastest circuit on the calendar, Thruxton.

That’s me done for the day, too singed to do anything else and I don’t think the doctors would let me anyway. We know where our issues are, from a handling perspective the Subaru was great. There’s only so much you can do when you’ve got a deficit like we’ve got in one specific area, but from a handling perspective it’s all good and… well I need a new engine now don’t I?”