Tom Boardman and the Special Tuning Racing team were thwarted in their efforts to record a strong weekend during rounds 5 and 6 of the 2013 World Touring Car Championship.
Having rebuilt the SEAT Leon after Boardman’s accident in warm up at Marrakech and had a new engine delivered by SEAT Sport, which was inserted before the first practice session of the weekend.
Free practice 1 saw him take to the track but struggled for performance and after coming for a tyre change, the engine failed and ruled Boardman out of the rest of the session.
With a change of engine required for the second free practice session, the team sorted this and Boardman searched for the ideal set up – he secured a top 10 finish in the SEAT Leon TDi in 2012.
As in the first practice session, the engine gave up and this meant that the team had to find the cause of the failure. He sat out qualifying and would start the races from the back of the grid.
Engine number 3 was then inserted ready for race day and the team opted to use the two Slovakian races as a test session ahead of the Hungarian races the following weekend.
Boardman completed 5 laps in the 15 minute morning warm up without any issues and he started race one from the pit lane and completed six trouble free laps.
He then started the final race of the day from the back of the grid and brought the car home 18th overall without any issues.
“This is obviously very frustrating for all involved,” explained Boardman. “Not knowing fully the cause of the failures makes it all the more difficult.
“Both SEAT Sport and our team have worked very hard over the weekend to fix it and for that I am very grateful. I am sure the changes that were made for Sunday will enable us to run properly in Hungary next weekend”