Jaden Ransley is remaining confident that despite back-to-back engine dramas which have stifled their first two rounds of the South Island Endurance Series, he and co-driver Rhys Gould can deliver a class-winning performance.
Ahead of this weekend’s second round at Mike Pero Motorsport Park in Christchurch, Ransley said the spark plug issue which hampered their race in Teretonga was behind him.
However, the Signature Homes Hyundai i30 N TCR once again fell victim to a mechanical gremlin, this time the culprit being an engine temperature issue.
Ransley and Gould were thus forced to retire the car for the second consecutive race, this time just one hour into the three-hour affair. It was a disappointing result for the young Cantabrian who was racing on his home circuit for the first time in over two years.
Nonetheless, the team believe they have identified the issue and will be out in force at the Ruapuna circuit later this week for a testing session to consolidate a number of fixes between rounds.
“Once again a tough weekend for us,” Ransley told Velocity News.
“Unfortunately, we had engine temp issues which forced us to retire the car after an hour. We have found the problem and will do a test this Friday at Ruapuna to make sure that everything is running perfectly before we head to Timaru.”
He also noted several positives from the weekend which he and Gould will take away with them in preparation for the finale at Levels Raceway in two weeks.
“There were still many positives to take away from the weekend. We showed awesome pace in practice and qualifying, so we know that we have the speed to be winning Class B, we need luck to be on our side as well.
“Even though I couldn’t drive the car at 100% during the race it was great for me to get some race time in the car.”
The DNF of Ransley and Gould paved the way for Rowan Shepherd and Lochlainn Fitzgerald-Symes to sweep to a comfortable victory in Class B driving the Track Tec Racing Audi LMS TCR.
Round one winners’ Barry Moore and Tim Mackersy were another notable retirement in their VW Golf GTi TCR.