Byrne Presses on to Paul Ricard Podiums

Motorsport Ireland Young Racing Driver of the Year Jack Byrne claimed another podium finish in what turned out to be a tough visit to the Circuit Paul Ricard in France.

Having tested here during pre season, Byrne went into the two practice sessions on Friday with a baseline setup already in place but after just two laps in FP1 a fuel pump failure sent the GPA Racing car back to the pits where he would take no further part in the session. With just half an hours running to end the day, Byrne still felt confident in the car heading into the first qualifying session on Saturday morning.

With 48 cars on the grid it was important to get a good lap in to be as far up the grid as possible and Byrne duly slotted into P12 on the grid for the opening race of the weekend.

Blue skies greeted the drivers for the first race and when the lights went out Byrne rocketed off the grid and picked off five cars on the run to turn one. However, disaster struck as some first corner bunching sent another car into the path of Byrne and the resulting contact broke a rear wheel and caused an instant left-rear puncture and he had to fight the car back into the pits for an unscheduled tyre change. Rejoining at the tail of the field in P46, his cause was not helped by a long running safety car for a separate incident leaving him just three laps to make any sort of progress on the restart. He duly got the head down and picked his way through to P36 by the flag but ultimately not the result he was looking for.

The sunshine of Saturday was replaced by heavy rain on Sunday morning and Byrne relished the wet conditions to end the second qualifying session P9 and ahead of some of the main European championship contenders.

Determiend to salvage a result from the weekend, the weather threw another curveball as the drying track was hit by a small shower of rain just before the race. All the front runners including Byrne gambled on slick tyres meaning it would be a treacherous start to the race. Byrne made a good start and soon began battling in a train for P6 but was struggling with front brake locking and was under attack from a train of cars behind. He crossed the line in P10 on the road to take another Junior Championship win but a post race penalty for a lap one incident seen him relegated to P20 but still claiming 3rd place in the European Juniors and 2nd in the Mid Europe Juniors. Byrne will travel to the season finale in Monza on October 19th and 20th.

Jack Byrne #86 GPA Racing

“Motorsport can be certainly frustrating at times and this weekend was certainly challenging to say the least. We can draw some positives at the pace we’ve shown across the weekend and we were unlucky in both races to be caught up in incidents. Hopefully we can end the season on a high in Monza! A big thanks to the team for a great car and as always to my supporters and corporate partners who make it all possible.”

Jack Byrne is supported by Motorsport Ireland | Sport Ireland | O’Brien Cement | West Wales Rally Spares | David Byrne Auto Repairs | Slaney View Motors | Ignite Training and Consultancy