Incidents in both races impact British racer’s true Nurburgring potential
Front-running Audi Sport TT Cup racer Josh Caygill secured a best result of seventh place from the fifth event of the 2016 season at Germany’s Nurburgring over the weekend, 10th/11th September, to retain ninth place in the championship standings with just two race meetings to go.
Racing very competitively in rounds nine and 10, the Netherton-based driver was unfortunate to miss out on a potential season-best finish in Sunday morning’s contest when a red flag stoppage, while he was running in fifth place, was required following a multi-car accident.
Despite some subsequent confusion over the grid order at the re-start, when the action resumed Josh produced an excellent performance in the very closely packed top six battle before ultimately taking seventh position to round-out the weekend just 16 points shy of the series top eight.
“Race two was definitely an improvement on Saturday, we should have had P6 but I out-braked myself slightly into the chicane and caught the second kerb so lost momentum – seventh wasn’t a bad result though in the end”, he commented.
“It was a bit frustrating at the re-start as they messed up with the grid order, we should’ve gone back to our original grid positions but didn’t so I was behind drivers who actually qualified behind me. I was quicker than Gosia [Rdest] in P6 initially but she defended really hard, from white line to white line, so there wasn’t a way through whatever I tried.”
For round nine on Saturday evening, Josh made a great launch from the sixth row of the grid in 12th place and darted to the outside line on the run to Turn One to find some clear space. Able to break into the top 10, despite having to run out wide to avoid a spinning car ahead, he managed to then take ninth place at the second corner.
Running as part of a very tight six car battle, the Yorkshireman continued his impressive forward momentum by moving up into the top eight on lap two but then, at the first corner the next time around, his excellent opening to the race was undone after being tagged by a rival.
Heading into the turn right behind Christoph Hofbauer and Pavel Lefterov, as his two rivals made contact at the apex Josh went to the outside in avoidance. As he edged alongside and past Hofbauer’s car for seventh, though, the Briton’s Audi was tagged and, as a result, he speared across the front of the pack and into the tyre barriers on the inside.
Doing a great job to prevent his car experiencing a dramatic spin, after making side-on contact with the tyres Josh managed to recover to the track in 13th position and he fought back impressively to move up into 11th place prior to the appearance of the Safety Car on lap seven.
Racing resumed on lap nine with Josh challenging Patrick Egsgaard but on lap 10, contact as they duelled led to officials hitting Josh with a costly drive-through penalty. While he had broken into the top 10, after the run through the pitlane he emerged in 15th position where he ended the race.
“It was a really good start to the race, so pretty frustrating how it ended”, he reflected, “Moving up from P12 into seventh was good, but when I avoided the collision at Turn One I got tagged and that lost everything we’d gained.
“When I climbed back through and tried to pass [Patrick] Egsgaard, he turned in on me at Turn One and I couldn’t avoid tapping him. It was a bit of a fifty-fifty, but the officials made their decision so we had to accept it.”
Starting an improved ninth on the grid for round 12, Josh made a good launch from the line and went to the outside at Turn One but emerged from the corner in 10th position. At the second turn, though, a multi-car accident ahead resulted in the immediate deployment of red flags with one car catching fire as a result of damaged sustained. Prior to the stoppage, Josh held fifth place.
At the re-start, Josh lined-up seventh on the slightly depleted grid and the cars were led away behind the Safety Car. When the green flags were waved at the start of lap three Josh comfortably held seventh right on the tail of the top six and into lap four he was just 0.4 seconds behind Gosia Rdest.
Glued to the back of Rdest’s Audi, the Briton swarmed around searching for a way past as he also came under pressure from Yves Meyer. As a result of Dennis Marschall pitting at the end of lap five Josh moved up into sixth place, still right on Rdest’s tail, but he was edged back to seventh by Meyer on lap six out of the chicane where he stayed to the chequered flag a lap later.
Next on the Audi Sport TT Cup schedule is the penultimate event of the season, rounds 11 and 12, at the Hungaroring near Budapest over the weekend 24th/25th September.
2016 Audi Sport TT Cup Driver Standings (after Rd10):9th Josh Caygill, 90pts
