Audi TTCR 2024 Round 1 – Brands Hatch
New Season
Following a hugely successful inaugural year in 2023, the Audi TT Cup Racing Championship returns in 2024 as a fully fledged championship and one of the official support series to the TCR UK Touring Car Championship. ]
Devised by renowned race series developer and roll cage manufacturer SW Motorsport, the Audi TTCR cars are based on the front wheel drive, 2.0 TFSI version of the popular sports coupe. Tuned to around 250bhp, with both manual and DSG models eligible. Equality of performance managed by a strictly controlled list of parts.
As part of our relationship with the series we are proud to be the supplier of the Audi TTCR Specification Exhaust System, Cold Air Induction Kit & MVT ‘Multi vane Technology’ Intercooler!
See more about our Intercooler here: https://www.direnza.co.uk/product/cooling/intercoolers/audi-a3-s3-8p-1-8-2-0-tsi-tfsi-03-13-mvt-front-mount-intercooler-core/
Practice
The opening round of the 2024 Championship took place at Brands hatch across the weekend of April 13/14th. Direnza’s 2023 driver, Richard Forber, was back behind the wheel and the team where confident of a strong championship run.
Unfortunately, the weekend didn’t get off to a smooth start, before even turning a wheel ahead of Friday practice, the car had developed an electrical issue, with neither the revs, speedo, oil temp or fuel gauges working. After some fault diagnosis it turned out to be as simple as a blown fuse. However, the time spent fixing the issue gave Richard just 10 minutes of practice ahead of qualifying on Saturday morning.
Qualifying & Race 1
With a packed grid of over 30 cars on a track as short as Brands Hatch Indy, finding space for a clean run in qualifying was nigh on impossible, resulting in a P18 start. Great progress was made in the first race with Richard passing two cars into the first corner and a further 4 during the 20 minute race resulting in a P12 finish. Unfortunately, the bad luck hadn’t ended and Richard was disqualified due to a Tyre App issue.
Race 2
As a result of the disqualification in race 1, Richard had to start race 2 from the very back in P34. As the lights went out for race 2 it was apparent there was another issue with car, with Richard being left behind in his grid slot. Eventually finding a gear and pulling away in 2nd, Richard had it all to do to catch back up to the pack. As it turns out, the delayed start may have been a blessing in disguise as a 6 vehicle crash at the end of pit wall would have almost certainly involved Richard had he got away as normal.
After avoiding the carnage into turn 1 the race was red flagged and the cars lined up on the grid again for the restart, a smoother start and some very handy overtakes from Richard helped him climb up to P20, bringing and end to a very eventful weekend! With round 2 at Snetterton just over 1 month away we have plenty of time to reflect and prepare for a stronger weekend!