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Lotus in the Peak |
| 28th - 30th June 2024 |
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Showing results for tags 'Gary Ayles'.
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Lotus Sport UK had another disappointing weekend at Brands Hatch after a parts failure robbed the team of a strong finish. Throughout practice and qualifying the lone Lotus Evora of Phil Glew and Sailesh Bollisetti looked strong only being pipped to pole position by Alex Osborne in the APO Sport UK Ginetta. Glew set the pace in the warm up heading in to the race so the team were confident of a strong performance to make up for the disappointment of a double DNF at Rockingham. Bolisetti started the race taking the gamble to start on slicks, unfortunately the race track proved to be greasy from the drizzling rain. A safety car period bunched up the pack once again but a front wishbone failure put Bolisetti in to the gravel trap. Sailesh Bolisetti rounded up the weekend: “Well the last two rounds have been a big learning curve for me, and has made me see the highs and lows of competitive motor racing. It was really tricky at the start as it was a little greasy and we were on slicks. When the safety car came out it gave me the chance to bunch back up to the leaders, but the front suspension failed and put me out of the race.” A frustrated Phil Glew, “After I did morning practice the car felt mega and I could see us on the podium no problem at all. It was unfortunate about the suspension failure but at the end of the day that’s racing and sometimes things are out of the hands of the drivers.” Gary Ayles Team Manager remained positive, “We definitely had the pace in the car after we cured the issues from the previous round, and I think our race pace would have been really consistent. It’s a shame the car gave up, but that’s racing and we will be sure to bounce back for the next round at Snetterton.” -
Lotus Sport UK qualified second in the GT4 class in Kent, but failed to make the finish, Sailesh Bolisetti retiring with damaged front suspension. The Evora was 3/10ths off the lead Ginetta in qualifying, with Phil Glew setting the lap for Lotus, but with better long range pace the team was confident it could dominate the race. However, starting driver Bolisetti struggled to match the pace of his rivals and slipped back. An off-track excusion led to the front wishbones being snapped and, after nine laps, it was game over for the Indian. Gary Ayles, team principal: “A disappointing day because we could have won that race by a country mile. The car is great, we’re right on top of it, it’s a proper bit of kit. So we need to look into why Sailesh wasn’t able to extract the maximum on race day. Now we have a long break, as our next race at Snetterton – Lotus’s home track – isn’t until the first weekend of August. It can’t come soon enough.” -
Lotus Sport Uk Ready To Get Back On Track At Brands Hatch
Mark H posted a news article in British GT Championship
Lotus Sport UK head to Brands Hatch looking to make up lost ground following a disappointing performance at Rockingham where the team missed out on points due to technical problems. Once again the team will be running the sole #48 car with regular drivers Phil Glew and Sailesh Bolisetti. Phil Glew is looking forward to moving on and getting back on track, “After a disappointing round at Rockingham we have to put that behind us and look forward. The team have rectified the technical issues so we are hungry for points! I shall be working with Sailesh to get him up to speed with the Brands GP circuit as he is yet to drive it. We work well together, so I’m confident we can get him lapping at good pace come qualifying” Sailesh Bolisetti was disappointed with his time at Rockingham and is looking at the bigger picture. “Rockingham was really disappointing for me as I didn’t really get much time in the car due to the issues we had, and I feel we had good pace for us to be able to take home some good points, but that’s racing, and we must look ahead to the rest of the season!” “I’ve driven the Indy circuit at Brands when I was here supporting DTM in the sirocco cup, but never the GP circuit. Phil will help me with that, so I’m looking forward to getting back in the Evora, and getting back on the podium” added Bolisetti. Team Manager Gary Ayles explained that the team have been busy and are looking forward to a solid performance at the Kent circuit, “It was a tough weekend at Rockingham and losing both cars in the race hurt our championship points haul as it was a double scoring race due to it being a 2 hour race. We’ve stripped the cars, rectified the niggles, and are looking forward to Brands.” -
Technical issues ended Rockingham early for the Lotus Sport UK team in the latest round of the Avon Tyres British GT series. Qualifying saw both cars perform strongly with Phil Glew and Sailesh Bolisetti taking second in class while the #49 of Mackinnon and Attard took fourth place. Glew took the driving seat for the early part of the race taking just four laps to get in to the lead on the exit of the first hairpin. Mackinnon held position in the #49 car until wishbone issues forced Mackinnon out of the race. As the #49 car retired, Glew had built a 24 second lead before a safety car period signalled a driver change. Luck would not be with the team and would have to retire Bolleseti with a failed diff. Phil Glew: “After qualifying we felt a little despondent as we needed to make some more changes to the car to get the full pace out of it. The team worked their magic and it felt great in warm up, and then even better in the race. Once I passed Warren I was pushing hard, then unfortunately we lost the diff just as Sailesh was about to take over.” Alastair Mackinnon: “It was great to get back the Evora. Qualifying went well, and we made good progress over the weekend. At The start of the race we had good pace and I thought we had that podium in our sights. On lap 18 we had an issue with the front end that was game over for us.” Gary Ayles – Team Manager: “After such a great weekend in Germany we had hoped to continue the winning theme, but that’s racing! The team and drivers did a great job all weekend; it was just unfortunate we had some technical issues.”