Mammoth task ahead for MA:GP to get Mattias Andersson out for race day

Mattias Andersson will miss out all of today’s running at Skellefteå, and could miss out on race day after an engine failure on his Honda Civic TCR.

The MA:GP driver was third fastest in the first test before the engine problem, and with the team’s spare back at their base at Linköping 1,000km away, there’s a significant challenge ahead to get him on track tomorrow.

With all of the small team on-site at Skellefteå, they’ve dispatched two team member to head back to base to collect their original engine, embarking on a 2,000km, 20-hour round trip to bring the engine back to fit it ahead of track activity tomorrow.

With the warm up at midday, there’s a slight chance they could be out and get an extra ten minutes track time, but it’s more likely the target will be to get out for Race 1 at 14:30 CEST on Saturday, where he’ll have to start from eighth and last on the grid.

“If I can get into the top five that’ll be good,” said Andersson. ”We’re obviously losing out on a lot of track time, but we’re lucky that there’s not that many cars here.

“The aim tomorrow is just to score points, even I finish last we’ll still do that, so it’s worth it.”