The IP Tech Race Engineering team will miss the final round of the 2013 British Touring Car Championship this weekend at Brands after owner/driver Andy Neate contracted pneumonia.
With Neate having been instructed not to compete by medical staff, and insufficient time to find a replacement driver, the team will have competed in four of the ten events during the season.
And despite the NGTC Chevrolet Cruze – the first of its kind to grace the series – showing great promise in the previous two round in particular, the news means that the team will end the season with no points to their name.
“As a team we’ve been through a lot of disappointment, faced some huge technical and financial challenges and we have come out the other side together,” said Neate. “Our sponsors have shown a rare loyalty in this business and I can only thank them for that and make a public apology that our season has ended without the shindig at Brands Hatch we hoped for.
“The car has shown undeniable promise with its competitiveness and perhaps the biggest challenge, technical reliability. Without the on track dramas of recent weeks where I have been the unfortunate victim of other’s accidents, I have no doubt we would have succeeded in our year one goal of consistent top ten finishes.”
Despite missing the final round, the team has already focused resources to next year, where it plans to field two brand new NGTC Cruzes in the series.