Drive-through penalty costs James dear in penultimate GTWC Endurance race
James Kell is already looking forward to next month’s GT World Challenge Europe Sprint Gold Cup at Zandvoort after suffering miserable luck in Germany last weekend (30 Aug).
The 29-year-old official McLaren GT3 Junior Driver, along with Frenchmen Arthur Rougier and Simon Gachet, brought their McLaren 720S EVO home an unrepresentative sixth in the penultimate GTWC Endurance Gold Cup event of the season at the Nürburgring.
Kell started the three-hour race around the 3.17-mile German track from the sixth row of the 55-car grid, third quickest in Gold Cup, but had to serve a drive-through penalty for contact at the first corner on the opening lap.
James resumed eighth in class, 41st overall, in the CSA Racing entered McLaren with just over 20 minutes gone, effectively crushing any hopes of repeating James’ Magny-Cours Gold Cup Sprint victory, and scoring a second consecutive Nürburgring podium achieved in last year’s corresponding Endurance race.
“I’m fully focussed on Zandvoort and the final few rounds of the year,” says James. “Nürburgring was a weekend to forget. Certainly not what I wanted coming off a strong GTWC Sprint victory. I will have to maximise our points haul to stay in championship contention.”
James remains fourth in the Endurance standings, benefitting from the points-leader non-scoring at the weekend. He contests the next Sprint race at Zandvoort over 19-20 September – the Dutch coastal track new to James.
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