Duncan Tappy secured Atech Reid GP's first race win of the Superleague Formula Nations Cup series in Assen. After encountering gearbox issues early in the week, Tappy (Japan) won the second 40 minute race in spectacular fashion.
The British driver did not get onto the track until an hour before qualifying on Saturday because of a gearbox issue and qualified 14th for race one. The Japanese representative managed to crawl back after two great race results to qualify on pole position for the 5 lap 'dash-for-cash' Super Final along with team mates, Filip Salaquarda (Czech Republic-Sparta Prague) and Frederic Vervisch (Luxembourg).
Vervisch was unable to start the Super Final due to damage sustainted during race two, but the Czech Republic's rising star and new comer to the series Filip Salaquarda managed to deliver a solid 5th place result on his Superleague Formula championship debut. Tappy fell back to 6th during the race but heads to the next round at Zolder as joint Superleague Formula championship leader.
In race one, Frederic Vervisch secured the team's first race podium of the season after a hectic 40 minutes, which saw many casualties including team mate and home hopeful, Robert Doornbos and New Zealand driver, Earl Bamber.
After qualifying on the front row yesterday with his Black Beauty, New Zealand driver Earl Bamber fell back into third place. Battling with team mate Robert Doornbos, Bamber went to make a move on the Dutchmen but ran wide on the exit of the first turn, clipping the ripple strip which launched him into the first turn barrier. He made side-on contact with the wall but managed to get back on track and recovered to finish in 9th.
After leading the second half of race one, Doornbos was involved in a last lap incident with fellow Netherlands driver, Yelmer Burrman. Doornbos came off second best, sustaining substantial front wing damage to his car and was unable to finish the race.
Big Atech Reid GP movers this weekend were Filip Slaquarda and Duncan Tappy, who both moved up 5 positions from their resepctive qualifying grid to finish race one in 5th and 7th respectivley.
'It has been a really hectic race weekend, but that is the nature of the Superleague Formula.' Team Principal Anthony Reid stated. 'We managed to qualify really well this weekend and we were on the podium twice , taking a first round race win as well which is fantastic. We are joint leaders in the championship with the Japan car which was driven today by Duncan Tappy. It is a nice surprise after the technical problems he encounted earlier in the week. I am particularly pleased with Filip Salaquarda's peformance this weekend. It was his debut in the cateogry and he managed to make it into the Super Final which is a tremendous effort on his part. Overall it has been a good weekend for the Atech Reid GP team, but we have more in us and will continue to push for race wins and podiums during the season.'
The second round of the Superleague Formula Nations Cup championship continues in Zolder, Belium in 6 weeks time. Stay tuned for all the latest updates from the Atech Reid GP team on the official Facebook and Twitter pages.
