20th September 2008

SEAT Cupra Championship front-runner Andrew Herron is aiming for big improvements at Brands Hatch Indy Circuit tomorrow, Sunday, 21st September, after a disappointing run in qualifying this afternoon ahead of the final two rounds of the 2008 season.

On the back of an outstanding weekend at Silverstone last time out where he achieved a richly deserved double podium finish, the 20-year-old Northern Irishman was expecting to qualify strongly at Brands Hatch today but ended up frustrated after emerging eighth fastest in round 19 qualifying and sixth quickest in the round 20 session.

Lapping the 1.2-mile Indy Circuit with a time of 50.563 seconds (85.34mph) during the first of the day’s two 20-minute sessions, Andrew was less than two 10ths of a second shy of the second row on the grid.

In round 20 qualifying, the Dromore based driver improved a couple of positions with a lap of 50.505 seconds (85.43mph) but the time difference to the second row was roughly the same.

Speaking after qualifying, the Brian Herron Contracts backed racer said: “After the first session we looked at the data and it seemed I was just trying too hard, especially through Paddock Hill Bend and so I was losing time.

“In second qualifying, I couldn’t get the car turned in at Surtees. I probably lost between two and three 10ths of a second at that one corner which, at such a short circuit, costs you a lot of positions on the grid. It’s strange as I expected to do really well here.”

With this weekend marking the last ever instalment of the SEAT Cupra Championship after SEAT Sport UK announced its withdrawal from British motorsport just over a week ago, Andrew is keen to etch his name into the history books with a brace of impressive results at the Kent venue tomorrow during the 2008 season finale.

“I wanted to be on the first two rows for tomorrow’s races but as we’re not, we have a lot of work to do”, added Andrew, “Both races are pretty long, 22 laps each, so hopefully things will be working better and I’ll be able to come through. I’ll certainly be trying hard to end the season on a high note.”

Round 19 of the 2008 SEAT Cupra Championship is timetabled to start at 10.50 tomorrow morning, Sunday, 21st September, with round 20 set to follow at around 15.45 – the second of the two encounters is expected to be screened live on Freeview, cable and digital satellite channel ITV4.