Gravesend based Team HARD’s David Sutton had a weekend of contrasting fortunes last time out in the VW Cup at Brands Hatch.

The young racing driver had a fantastic qualifying session but unfortunately for him the races on Sunday couldn’t quite provide that same emotion for him.

Speaking exclusively to Kent Sports News about his race weekend, he said: “Qualifying went fantastically well,  I knew I was going to be there fighting for pole after testing so I just hoped I had a clean run and managed to get a fast lap in.

“Having got held up on my fastest lap by half a second we knew pole was there for the taking and it also gave me a lot of confidence going into the race.”

That confidence was well placed at the start of race one, when he led for the first half of the first lap before disaster struck.

Talking us through the issues, he added: “I got a great start and led straight away off the line, I knew if I managed to get around the first lap the win was there for the taking.

“On the warm up lap it went into limp mode four times so I knew I was going to be in trouble. As I was going into the fastest bit of the track which at the best of times you are on the edge and you need your power to pull you through the corner. When I went to get on the power there was nothing there the rear came around on me, caught the grass and spat me off into the wall, I was lucky as it could have been a lot worst.”

Luckily for David and the team they had a good few hours to get the car fixed and back out on track for race two, and David was full of praise for the team.

He said: “The guys did a fantastic job getting my car ready and out for the next race, as there was a lot to do on the car. I knew if I made a good start, I could be well in the top ten by the end of the race and that is what I was pushing for.

“After getting up to 15th on the first lap I thought a top six was on the cards,  on lap three and being in 10th and catching the leaders I was like wow we could pull something pretty special off here.

“On lap five I started to lose power and it was getting worse and worse every lap I was just praying to finish as I needed the points for the championship. Two laps from home the engine stopped and caught on fire, I think the turbo had blown up. Not a good end to a bad day.”

The tough end to the day just compounded what has been a tough year for David, who when talking to him is clearly passionate about his racing.

He added: “It has been a very tough year for me and the team we have had some pretty bad luck, it’s got to change soon, how much bad luck can one person have? There is no doubt in my mind if we hadn’t had the reliability issues we have had all year we would have been fighting for the championship.

“Donington is where it has got to happen for me I have one last chance to prove what I can do. I want to finish the season on a high and then take it onto next season. Between now and Donington  I will be working hard on my fitness and also will be trying to get a few test days in before, other than that I will be working at my indoor kart circuit in South Yorkshire.”