Freddy battles illness and drama at Spa

The weekend of 8th-9th July saw the fourth round of the Avon Tyres British GT Championship lead Freddy Nordström to Belgium to race on the historic Spa Francorchamps circuit.

A weekend troubled with illness and car issues lay ahead of Freddy, as he and his Lotus Sport UK team-mate Leyton Clarke attempted to enhance their championship charge. However, despite his woes, Freddy rose to the challenge of Spa.

The weekend began with two one hour practice sessions on Friday 8th July. However Freddy’s track time was haltered after just a couple of laps when a rear brake problem forced him to return to the pits. Just to enhance the issue, his brakes soon set alight as he made his way into the pitlane.

Sadly the issue remained with the car into the second session, meaning Freddy and team-mate Leyton were unable to secure sufficient track time. With this being the first time they had seen the Spa circuit from the confines of the Lotus Evora driving seat, qualifying was set to be interesting, especially with virtually no testing to support their efforts.

After furiously working to repair their wounded Lotus Evora, the team changed the master slave cylinder before qualifying. Now armed with a revamped machine, Freddy jumped behind the wheel for the first qualifying session. After 15 minutes Freddy finished the session third quickest in the GT4 Class. Despite the recent repair work he struggled through, with the brakes teaming up with the steering to form new anguish.

During Friday Freddy had battled illness, with a headache and nausea plaguing the youngster all day. As Saturday morning arrived, Freddy’s illness failed to subside, however he prepared himself for the double race header.

Race one soon came with Freddy lining up on the grid for the start. A larger than normal field saw the European GT4 Championship and Aston Martin Challenge join the usual British GT suspects. As the race began Freddy launched an immediate challenge, when he instantly passed six cars.

From here Freddy’s race was a solemn affair, despite working his way up to second place in the GT4 Class by the time of his pitstop. As Leyton took over in the driving seat disaster struck when a collision with an Aston Martin caused damage to their Lotus Evora. Despite this Leyton recovered the car to third place and another podium finish.

Afterwards it was discovered that the damage from race one was more extensive than first thought, giving the mechanics a race against time to work their magic before race two. After more hard work the car was restored but time had virtually evaporated, meaning the team was unable to check vital points such as alignment for instance.

It was Leyton’s turn to start race two, with everyone heading in blind. A struggle led him towards the pitstop, when Freddy took over for the final stint. After working his way through the pack, a hit from a rival on the final tour saw Freddy hold on to take fifth place.

After battling illness and struggling through car issues, Freddy said: “Our sole aim for the weekend was to beat our main rival, the KTM X-Bow, which we did in race one. Sadly race two was more of a struggle for us, which meant we missed out on more points. But we have to take the positives from the weekend, and considering what we were faced with a podium in race one was a good result.

“We’ve got a bit of a break now until the next round, so we’ll be using this time valuably to ensure we can fight back next time out at Rockingham.”

Freddy’s next race is at the Rockingham Motor Speedway in Northampton, over the weekend of 3rd-4th September.