Brands Hatch GT Cup Lotus Europa promise thwarted
After the outstanding run at the last round at Silverstone, Chris Randall and the TDi-plc engineered Hofmann’s of Henley Lotus Europa arrived with high expectations at the tight and twisty Brands Hatch Indy circuit.
Practice saw the car setting highly competitive times, but with qualifying taking place in damp conditions, the little Lotus Europa struggled with tyre selection, with Chris producing a fantastic effort to place the 400bhp ex road car 4th on the grid, immediately behind a BMW M3 GT and Dodge Vipers.
Weather conditions had improved markedly for the race, but after an excellent start the bright and cold conditions meant that Chris struggled to heat up the Lotus Europa’s slick tyres for the first few laps, which kept him ‘busy’ with wheel inputs to quell oversteer.
With the Europa’s slicks starting to ‘switch on’ as the rubber warmed up, the Hofmann’s of Henley Lotus started to set competitive lap times and close up on the leaders when the car was forced to retire following being hit by a back marker which was being lapped.
Click on this link to watch Chris Randall’s performance at Brands Hatch, the impact happens at 7:26.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiLtS4ucFow
Alas, this incident broke the rear suspension as well as destroying the brakes. Sadly despite sterling efforts from TDi’s Sam Borgman and the Hofmann’s mechanics – which included fitting a new driveshaft – the car was forced out of race two as the impact was such that the brake master cylinder had failed. With the middle pedal having to pumped for each bend, Chris wisely decided to retire.
On the plus side, TDi and Hofmann’s proved that the Silverstone race pace wasn’t a one off and with further developments planned for the Lotus Europa over the winter, it bodes very well for the GT Cup in 2010.
To learn more about how we can help with your Motorsport project please go to https://www.tdi-plc.com/motorsport/