The infamous MG SV-R had a challenging debut that saw problems in every session as the team effectively did a public shakedown of the car. The car has plenty of potential and the team are happy to have at least taken pole position in an otherwise frustrating weekend.
“We didn’t really have expectations but we certainly wanted to knock on a few doors of the V8’s, it is a bit of a shame things didn’t go our way but we will be back, we will be at round 2 and try again” commented Rhys Howell. The car faced challenges the whole weekend, on Friday a number of minor issues curtailed performance including fuel pump issues and then later on some voltage issues with some wire draining voltage. The team spent a number of hours on Friday night trying to rectify some of the issues and make some progress, but it was no little avail. Compounded by high ambient air temperatures on an untested car was the hardest initiation possible.
Qualifying saw performance turn around after they set pole position, “it was a bit of a fluke, but the car started to hook up at the end of qualifying and we set a 1:18 which was on the money, for a car out of the box and un tested we thought, whoah this is going to be good but then it went downhill from the very start of the opening race” Howell commented.
The vehicle suffered cooling issues like most of the field but then also a misfire and some glitches between ECU and Dash confusing the situation. The team are ready to start working on the car and come back better with some plans already in place.
The team satisfied to have at least hit the track and made progress despite a DNF in the final race, “we have a bit of a checklist so we need to start working our way through that and see where we end up, we did make a lot of progress this weekend and know exactly what we need to do and the priorities and we will be at round 2 and hopefully there we can challenge for the podium.
The car attracted a lot of attention across the weekend with plenty of people wanting to check it out and has ushered in a new era for MG Racing and the V8 fraternity.
