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2012 International & Single Seater
News News of WRDA members who are competing in the International & Single Seater arenas |
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2012 International & Single Seater
News News of WRDA members who are competing in the International & Single Seater arenas |
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Top Welsh racer Andy Meyrick misses out on Le Mans.
As Audi scores 1-2-3 with Hybrid cars 1st & 2nd - Click here for Top vidoe highlights
The
preparation for the 80th running of the Le Mans 24 race starts this
week, but Swansea born racer, and WRDA member Andy Meyrick , who had an
excellent debut with the French Oreca team in 2010 when he helped the team
finish 4th, will have to sit this
one out; as part of the fallout from the
disastrous Aston Martin 2011
campaign. Aston Martin choose
Meyrick as one of a 7 strong team
of drivers, after announcing an ambitious 3 year plan to win the race outright.
However in the event on their debut, the reality was that the AMR01 cars hardly
bothered the timekeepers, after both retired in the first few minutes. The blame
for the failure lay with the quirky design of the straight 6 turbo engine, which
apart from it’s problems, was already an obsolete design, as this year’s Le Mans
will see hybrid engine entries from Audi and Nissan bidding for outright victory.
Subsequently the plans were quietly
shelved, and although Meyrick did go on to score some podium finishes in Aston Martins
other cars, at the end of the year, a company review saw him
side-lined.
“We knew the cars were in trouble, but no-one counted on it being such a PR disaster. (see links below) I suppose there is no best time to retire from a 24 hour race, but early on is probably best! However at the end of the year, Aston Martin in common with lots of manufacturers, were finding it hard and they had to cut down from 7 to 3 drivers. They did offer me a testing contract but I want to race, so I will have to wait until the end of the year until the contract runs out”
Hopefully he can then pick up his career from where it left
off in 2010, but in the meantime he is keeping busy with Historic Racing,
ironically scoring a win with an Aston
Martin from 1998 that did last the full 24hrs, and mentoring
his near neighbour
Seb
Morris the teenage Welsh racing sensation.
(Top) Andy in Aston Martin colours. (photo Rob Allender)
(Left) Huges de Chaunac leads the cheers as Welsh driver & WRDA member Andy Meyrick helps uphold French pride with a superb 4th at Le Mans in 2010 (photo media.lemans.org)
Links to BBC Article Aston Martin returns to Le Mans 24 Hours race (edited from earlier article)
+ Piston Heads RE- Aston Martin- A Challenging Road Ahead-