Gremlins hit Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse GT3posted in GT02 | 05 | 2016

    BLACK BULL ECURIE ECOSSE endured a frustrating outing in the second round of the British GT Championship at Rockingham when its GT3 car, which started the race from second on the grid, suffered a mysterious electrical gremlin.

    Edinburgh’s Alasdair McCaig comfortably held second place over the opening laps of the two-hour race before the intermittent problems surfaced in the team’s McLaren 650S GT3.

    Exiting the final chicane to enter the ultra-fast banking on to the start-finish straight, the car intermittently lost power as the electrical system spiked.

    As suddenly as the power dropped, it kicked back in, leaving McCaig exposed to faster cars colliding with him from the rear.

    The Scot managed to nurse the car through to the end of his 55-minute stint, but shortly after handing the car over to team-mate Rob Bell, the McLaren works driver suffered identical problems.

    Forced to pit again, the team ‘rebooted’ the electrical system and the Newcastle driver, having rejoined in 10th, finally finished seventh after posting the second-fastest lap of the race, a 1min 18.387secs.

    “We certainly missed out on at least a podium finish today, team boss Hugh McCaig, admitted. “We proved in qualifying we have the pace in the car, and it was disappointing not to be able to maximise that in the race.

    “The two drivers did everything they could, despite the problems they had throughout the race. Yes, it’s motorsport, but it would be good to finally get just that little bit of luck this year.”

    Related: Young Scots join Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse

    DRIVER QUOTES:

    Alasdair McCaig — Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse McLaren 650S GT3 driver

    “We did brilliantly in qualifying, started on the front row of the grid, and over the opening laps comfortably held second in the race. But then the electrical gremlins started rearing their head.

    “They gradually just got worse and worse either side of the pitstop, to the point where the engine was cutting out all the time and we were losing gears. It was then a case of managing the cars behind me and staying out of their way as they approached at speed.

    “The car was losing all power exiting the chicane, and essentially I was coasting down the start-finish straight, which on the fastest section of the track isn’t ideal.

    “We tried a couple of new settings with the car, and that helped a little bit, but all we could do was try the best we could under the circumstances. Essentially it was a game of survival.

    “Then we power-cycled the car in the pitstop, so essentially reset it, which helped, and we ran without the headlights and though that helped Rob, he still had issues in his stint, but it was better. We could easily have finished at least second, if we hadn’t had the gremlins.

    “It was frustrating, because we were quick all weekend. We qualified on the front row, the guys we were ahead of initially finished on the podium, so yes, we definitely lost a podium.”

    Rob Bell — Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse McLaren 650S GT3 driver

    “The car was really good this weekend. The balance in the race felt better than we’ve had on any long run, so the endurance was there, the chassis was doing its job, and we were quick compared to others both on a long run and in race pace.

    “Clearly the pace was there, it was just unfortunate that we’ve got an electronic gremlin in the system somewhere, which we obviously need to look at and get rid of.

    “The positives are, the car’s quick. But onwards and upwards. All we can do as drivers is do our best, and what we want to do next is win some races.”

    Related: Black Bull Ecurie Ecosse switches to McLaren

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    Jim McGill

     

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