Rob Austin to “come back twice as hard” at Thruxton
Posted: April 20, 2012 Filed under: British Touring Cars | Tags: 2012, Audi, BTCC, Donington, Rob Austin, Rob Austin Racing, Thruxton Leave a comment
A gutted Rob Austin has vowed to hit back strongly at the next round at Thruxton, after engine calamities curtailed his Donington weekend.
After a competitive showing at Brands Hatch, Austin had gone into the Donington round last weekend in a determined mood to challenge for victory, but his qualifying on Saturday was ruined when a spark plug failure cut short his session after 10 minutes.
Despite that he still qualified in the top 10, and had high hopes despite having to change engines overnight. His first race then ended prematurely again when another engine problem caused significant damage to the second powerplant, forcing him to make the heartbreaking decision to pull out of the rest of the day’s races.
“I’ve had better days,” said a gutted Austin. “Well I wouldn’t say we were running strongly, we were down on power all day really.
“And then eventually the engine just gave up, we still don’t know what caused it. We used one up in qualifying and unfortunately we had no more, so that was our day done.”
Despite the setbacks, Austin did however say that the engines will be repaired before Thruxton.
“It’s done pretty serious damage inside both engines. It’s heartbreaking, but we’ll have them both fixed.”
Austin had admitted that after the superb finish to his rookie season last year, he had hoped to be consistent and is aiming to challenge for pole position and victories all year, and believes that the fast and flowing Thruxton circuit will be perfect for the NGTC Audi.
It’s also a track that Austin thrives at, having won in Ginettas and British Formula 3 in the past.
“Thruxton’s going to be a strong circuit for us. I’m pretty handy round there, and we’re going to come back twice as hard at Thruxton.”
Interviewed by Paul O’Neill – currently out of a drive in the BTCC – for ITV4’s coverage on Sunday, Austin jokingly sent out a hint to the two-time winner that the second Audi is still available to drive.
“If you would get off your ar*e and find some sponsorship then there’s a second car ready for you to drive if you want!” he told O’Neill.
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