Date: 08 – 09/06/2018
Track: SPA-Francorchamps
We arrived in Belgium on Thursday the 6th June after having a new engine fitted by Hyundai in Germany, the engine had not been programmed so we hadn’t had the opportunity of testing it prior to this meeting.
The Hyundai engineers in attendance set the parameters on the car according to regulations and we were ready for testing on Friday. Unfortuantely the first free practice was a non event for us as there was a major problem with car electronics and Lewis completed only one lap.
On our return to the paddock the Hyundai engineers got to work immediately trying to trace the fault, it took some time but eventually everybody was happy that the car should now perform correctly and the second free practice went well. However, we were way off the pace due to lack of track time and the fact that Lewis was up against some of the best saloon car drivers in the world.
RACE DAY
Race 1: Qualifying was bit of a struggle but Lewis achieved 30th position out of 34 entrants. The race itself was a take no prisoners affair with cars crashing into each other on just about every corner, fortunately Lewis stayed out of trouble and came in 25th completely unscathed.
Race 2: For race two the competitors carried on where they left off in race one with incidents occurring from the off, Lewis again did a great job making sure he stayed out of trouble and came in 21st after losing two places on the last lap due to a front tyre delaminating.
CONCLUSION
Overall it was a great weekend and we were made very welcome by all involved. The Hyundai engineers were fantastic and both Lewis and the team benefitted from the experience.
