Darryl O’Young saw his opening race weekend of the 2012 FIA World Touring Car Championship go up in flames, quite literally, after his Special Tuning Racing SEAT Leon 1.6T went up in flames during the warm up session ahead of the opening rounds of the season at Monza.
Having sat out qualifying the previous day after his engine failure, the Special Tuning Racing team changed his engine without penalty ready for race day, where he would line up twenty third on the grid.
“Unfortunately we had an engine failure in the 1st flying lap of qualifying. This has left me with no qualifying time so I will start from 23rd on the grid for both of tomorrow’s races,” said O’Young.
Three minutes into the warm up session and flames were spotted coming from the #20 SEAT Leon, and O’Young pulled off the circuit at Ascari, and was able to get away from the flames unharmed. The marshals were able to put the flames out.
The incident ruled O’Young out of the rest of the event, but the thirty one year old will be back in the car for the next round, at the Ricardo Tormo circuit in Valencia.
“I am 100% ok but unfortunately my car isn’t. I am already looking forward to the next race in Valencia, the entire team at STR and SEAT Sport are extremely motivated to move past this and aim for a victory in Spain,” concluded O’Young.