Canadian race car driver and Niverville native, David Richert, had his first race cut short this past weekend in Spa, Belgium, due to heavy rain.
After a week of beautiful weather with exciting on track action, the Renault NEC event at the historic Spa-Francorchamps race circuit turned miserable in a hurry as the skies opened up and let loose just seconds before the start of Race 2. After 15 minutes of slow driving behind the safety car, and never really being able to complete a true racing lap, it was decided to stop the race early and award only half points to the drivers. Richert finished in 21st position.
That was the craziest start to a race that I have ever experienced. Even driving slowly behind the safety car was a challenge as visibility was near zero and there was so much standing water. It was a little disappointing to have to end the race before it even really began, but at one point due to the lack of visibility I just missed hitting a car that was sitting sideways on the circuit, so I don’t think there was any other option for the officials as the conditions were horrible. ~ David Richert
The chaos came in the wake of what had been a spectacular week of racing activity. After struggling through some initial vibration issues with his car during the test day and first practice session, Inter Europol Competition was able to solve the problem and Richert posted his fastest lap of the weekend during Qualifying, just 4 tenths of a second behind Irish driver Charlie Eastwood. In addition to his result of 21st in the shortened Race 2, Richert was able to finish Race 1 on Friday in 24th position.
Richert is now off to Holland as the next race weekend will begin in just a few days at the enormous Gamma Racing Days event at Assen TT Circuit from July 31 to August 2. The Gamma Racing Days will be attended by over 80,000 people and will include a demonstration run by Red Bull’s Formula 1 car.
