Josh Files believes an electrical issue was the reason for his sudden retirement in the reverse-grid race of TCR Europe at Spa-Francorchamps.
The Hell Energy Racing Team with KCMG driver was running a strong second when the safety car was deployed to recover Attila Tassi’s stranded Honda at Les Combes.
Files told TouringCars.Net that his Honda was stuck in gear under the safety car, and resetting the system only briefly resolved the problem before he was forced to retire.
“It’s one of those things really, we had great pace,” said Files. “I actually think I could have taken the fight to Kris [Richard] but I’ll be honest the VAG cars and Peugeot cars are way too fast in a straight line, we’re sitting ducks.
“We’re not sure really what the problem was, I got stuck in fifth gear just at the Bus Stop, and as luck would have it just as the safety car came out, so I did a reset under safety car.
“Everything seemed OK and then in the second safety car lap I lost all boost pressure from the turbo, so I did another reset and when the restart came everything was OK then I got to La Source, got stuck in fourth [gear], lost all boost and that was that.
“We’re thinking it’s an electrical issue but we just don’t know.”
Despite scoring no points this weekend due to contact with Comini in race one yesterday, and today’s DNF, Files was keen to take the positives from the Spa round.
“It’s a shame because the pace was good and like I say I could have had a really nice fight with Kris, but it’s one of those days. We can’t be too disheartened, we were the fastest Honda and the pace was good in the race. Even with the top speed deficit we were doing a good job.
“We can take our setup and our chassis forward to Hungaroring where it’s a little bit less power-orientated and we’ll have a good race.
“There’s still four races left, people are making mistakes. [Mikel] Azcona is doing a very solid job for his championship campaign and [Dušan] Borković the same. But it’s very open, there’s a lot of drivers that can win races here and we’ve just got to make sure that we’re at the sharp end from now on to salvage any chance of fighting for the championship in Barcelona. So that’s what we’ll do.”