Pinkney finds it tough at Croft
Dave Pinkney reached the halfway stage of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship with just nine points to his name in his Vauxhall Vectra with the new NGTC turbo engine supplied by Swindon Engines.
Last weekend saw Pinkney fail to finish in each of the three races at Croft after engine problems hampered his performance.
During race one, Pinkney was forced to retire after his engine let go on just the fourth lap coming into the series of corners at Sunny. The team did all they could to replace the engine but Dave and the team were forced to miss out race two but he was able to line up on the grid for the final race of the day.
Durng race three Dave’s weekend went from bad to worse as loose debris on the track from a previous incident was picked up in the Vectra’s radiator which resulting in the engine overheating and Pinkney retiring.
After the race Swindon Engines told us that they were investigating the problem which Dave suffered during race one and hope to find a cause.
“We’ve had a few days to reflect on Croft and we are thoroughly disappointed with how the weekend panned out,” Pinkney Motorsport team manager Andrew Dean said. “After the pace we showed in practice we were confident of scoring points on race day, but obviously it wasn’t meant to be.
“When you are involved in the development of a new engine, there will be problems along the way, but it is frustrating when you have issues like we encountered at the weekend. The second problem was also poor reward for the guys who had worked so hard to put the new engine in the car.
“If there is a positive to take away from the weekend, then at least Andy Jordan’s victory in the final race has shown the pace and potential of the Vectra and the NGTC engine. There is a long break before Snetterton for us to work with Swindon to discover the cause of the problem we had at Croft and to regroup for the second half of the year.”
Photo Credit: James Mappin
James Mappin
