A double driveshaft failure blighted James Nash’s weekend in the TCR International Series in Thailand, with the Craft-Bamboo driver also left feeling like he was ‘making up the numbers’.
The Brit went into the weekend seeking to secure a first win of the season at the venue where he claimed his last win in TCR.
Disaster almost struck in qualifying when Nash suffered from a broken driveshaft on his SEAT just after posting the second fastest time, but the team were confident of having fixed the issue heading into race day.
However, Nash suffered from a repeat of the issue in race one, when he was running in sixth after having fallen down the order in the opening laps.
Although the Craft-Bamboo Racing team fixed the issue again for race two, Nash was able to make little progress and he finished in seventh after a race-long defensive battle with Leopard Racing’s Rob Huff.
“Not the two races we had planned for sadly,” said Nash. “Despite the driveshaft failure yesterday we managed to get the car onto the front row and we were confident that we’d have the pace to seize the initiative from the start.
“We’ve made cracking starts elsewhere but had no answer today when others drove past me. Thereafter we were working ‘off-plan’.
“Another driveshaft failure side-lined me in race one at half-distance, and later in race two I had to work very hard indeed to keep Huffy in the VW behind me.
“Until we strip down the car and take a proper look we don’t know why we lost so much pace compared to yesterday but, there has to be a reason because neither me or the team came out all this way to make up the numbers which is what we found ourselves doing today.”
Nash remains in mathematical title contention ahead of the penultimate meeting of the season in China in October, although with an 83-point deficit to the top and only 110 points up for grabs the Brit is effectively out of the running.