British GT: ‘A Racing Accident’ – Team ABBA Racing’s Richard Neary comments on Spa start-line incident

July 28, 2021 July 28, 2021

Following the dramatic start-line accident at the beginning of Round Four of the Intelligent Money British GT Championship at Spa-Francorchamps, Richard Neary, the driver of the #8 team ABBA Racing Mercedes-AMG GT3, has posted his thoughts on social media.

The incident, which saw the #8 Mercedes sustain significant damage, also took out the #21 Team Rocket RJN McLaren 720S GT3 of Mia Flewitt and Euan Hankey. The sister #3 Team Rocket RJN GT4 of Michael Benyahia and Alain Valente stopped shortly after. The #6 RAM Racing Mercedes of Ian Loggie and Yelmer Buurman, Loggie driving at the time of the incident, also needed to return to the garage for repairs but rejoined the two-hour contest to finish eight laps down in 13^th place overall.

In the Facebook post, Richard Neary provided his thoughts as well as in-car footage and screen shots.

“Racing is a competitive sport and sometimes accidents happen that aren’t anyone’s fault,” said Neary. “It is an accident.

“The lights went out extremely quickly and caught a lot of people unaware. I was the first to react pulling out and getting a mega start. I think the next to react was Ian Loggie and he reacted quicker than Leo Machitski. Consequently Ian pulled to the left to overtake.

“The officials deemed it ‘racing incident’ and I think the following sequence bears out their findings (referring to the in-car footage). I have done an awful lot of rolling starts in my 35 years of racing and if I am faced with the lights going out again and the car in front of me still having his brake lights on, I will do exactly the same again.

“If Ian (Loggie) is faced with the car in front getting a worse start than him, I am sure he would pull out and try to overtake.”

Neary summed up the accident by saying:

“In essence a racing accident and not an indication of anyone’s driving standards.”

Rounds Five and Six of the 2021 Intelligent Money British GT Championship take place at Snetterton on August 7 – 8.