Nika Racing endured a difficult test day following the World Touring Car Championship (WTCC) meeting in Slovakia, with recurring rain limiting the value of the test for the team and driver Rickard Rydell.
Lead driver Rydell was flown in for the test to collect some much-needed data on the Civic, after the Swede stepped aside at the weekend to allow Argentine ace Néstor Girolami to make his WTCC début.
Having raced in just two meetings of the 2015 season due to illness early in the season, Rydell was frustrated to have had the weather affect his chances of gaining some much-needed data at the Slovakiaring.
“We can’t seem to get much decent testing in this year,” lamented Rydell. “We were massively unlucky with the weather in Slovakia at the beginning of the week; it was great over the weekend and is good again by now, but on our particular day of testing the rain was pouring down.
“The plan was to do some set-up comparisons and continue to evaluate our Öhlins damper settings, but we will now have to try and fit that into our programme for Friday free practice.”
It is a particularly intense part of the season for the team, with the championship heading straight from Slovakia to Circuit Paul Ricard in the south of France for the seventh meeting of the season.
“It’s been almost ten years since I last drove at Paul Ricard, and that was on the longer circuit, so I don’t have a lot of current experience of the track,” added Rydell. “Still, the aim remains unchanged; we want to qualify in the midfield and score points in both of the races come Sunday.”
Nika Racing Team Principal Nicklas Karlsson explained that part of the reason for the additional testing in Slovakia was to gain data for the race this weekend in Le Castellet, as the Swedish team have never previously raced at the circuit.
“Circuit Paul Ricard is a venue we have no previous experience of, which is why we opted to remain in Slovakia to conduct further testing at the beginning of the week,” said Karlsson. “However, our programme was compromised by rain, and we were unfortunately unable to complete all of our scheduled running.
“Still, we remain positive going into this weekend, when we hope to once again challenge for points. I would also like to welcome our partner Swedish Match to the races in France. With some 60 guests on site, we’re in for a packed weekend both on and off the track.”