Tyre issue leads to Massive disappointment in Italy
Sunday, March 20, 2016
Series debutantes Massive Motorsport were left ruing a tyre failure that possibly robbed the team of a potential podium finish at the end of the two part 12Hours of Mugello race.
Starting Saturday's Part 2 race from fifth with new boy Nicolai Sylvest at the wheel, the Danish squad were soon looking to push the series solitary Aston Martin further up the leader board to pressurise those with much newer race machinery.
By the time Sylvest stopped to refuel he had elevated the #55 up to P2 overall but that was soon lost as he served a 34 second stop and hold penalty caused by Kristian Poulsen speeding in the pit lane during yesterdays four hour segment of the race.
That time dropped them back down to P5 but that was soon to be the least of their worries…….!
At about 90minutes into the race Sylvest suffered a right rear puncture just into the start of another lap forcing him to crawl back to the pits where the resulting pit stop would loose the team a further three minutes.
The bodywork turned out to be only superficial damage - the real damage from the puncture was underneath and the car was again forced to return to the pits for repairs, this time to damage brake lines loosing the #55 yet more track time relative to the overall leaders and dropping themselves down as low as thirteenth overall.
Cycling through the remain four hours or so of the race the four driver line up would again push themselves up through the leader board as some of those around them also incurred technical or mechanical issues and by the time Sylvest took the chequered flag at the end of another eight hours of racing Massive Motorsport would finish their first 24H Series race in fifth - eight laps down to the winner.
A6 cars are not eligible for the next round of the series at Silverstone so the team will regroup in readiness for their second venture into this series at Zandvoort, Holland at the beginning of May.
Photo credits - Creventic / Massive