American based New Zealand racing driver Matt Halliday has completed a challenging weekend in the third round of the Blancpain Endurance Series held at France’s Paul Ricard circuit earlier this morning (NZ Time).
Halliday and his co-drivers Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof (Austria) and female driver Rahel Frey (Switzerland), piloted their Audi R8 LMS ULTRA GT3 to 21st place out of 62 starters and 13th in the Pro class. The Kiwi drove the final stint of the race but contact by a Lamborghini damaged the rear suspension seriously hindering their progress.
The No. 2 Audi was competing as part of the three-car Belgian Audi Club Team WRT whose other team cars finished 9th and 27th overall and 9th and 17th in the Pro class to complete a tough weekend for the outfit with the long straights and open nature of the circuit not to their car’s liking:
“The Audis didn’t have much chance on this type of circuit but we had reasonably good race pace. My lap times were competitive with the other Audi drivers which is probably all I can ask for under the circumstances” explained Halliday after the race.
Halliday now heads to Belgium for testing duties in preparation for the Total 24 Hours of Spa race scheduled to take place on the 27th and 28th of July at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit in the south of France.
