Australian Racing Driver Dylan Young secured a top 6 finish last weekend during the opening round of the 2024 Ligier European Series from April 12-13 at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya in Spain.
Young, the only Aussie in the Championship, shared the #3 Ligier JS P4 in the all Pro Class with Romanian driver Alin Fulga for the Smart Driving Team. Dylan managed to put in a strong lap in qualifying to secure 5th on the grid amongst the 18 car field for Race 1 which resulted in P6 for Race 1 and an unfortunate DNF in Race 2.
The two free practice sessions on the 4.657km Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya's were held on Friday and the hot conditions saw two full course yellow incidents in FP2 with other drivers leaving the track. This limited Dylan's run time to just two push laps in the final session before qualifying.
However Young felt at home in qualifying with a well balanced car. Despite battling traffic on his run he managed to post the 5th fastest lap for Race 1's grid in the #3 Ligier JS P4, backed by major partner Marbanc International and major support partner Boxer Brewing Co. The Aussie would be taking the wheel for the start of Race 1 whereas Young's team mate Fulga backed that up with a P7 for Race 2 qualifying with the Romanian set to take the start for Saturday's final race.
Race 1 started under safety car after two drivers had issues on the formation lap and Dylan lost out in the battle on the opening lap. From there, his pace matched the drivers ahead but whilst he wasn't under attack from behind, Young wasn't able to take back the position from the start. He then handed the car over Fulga at the midway point of the race where they would finish in P6 at the chequered flag.
Race 2 was held in 27 degree temperatures with a big crowd in attendance as part of the European Le Mans Series event. For Young & Fulga, this race was marred by a number of penalties including a start line infringement and further stop and go penalty for a breach in pit lane which all but ended their race. Adding salt to the wound, Young was then hit from behind after having lapped one of the back markers and was forced to retire with damage.
The next round of the Ligier European Series takes place in just a few weeks in the south of France at the Paul Ricard F1 Circuit in Le Castellet from May3-4.
Dylan Young:
"We leave Barcelona with some mixed emotions. On one hand I'm quite pleased with the qualifying pace given we're still lacking some testing miles compared to our rivals and so quite happy to bring home a P6 in Race 1 as we now push towards moving up towards the podium. But Race 2 didn't go to plan with the penalties that effectively meant we had no way of clawing our way back before the DNF anyway. That's racing though and we will be straight back on it at Paul Ricard in a few weeks so I can't wait to jump back in the car and make a big push for a strong weekend."
"Again I'd like to give a massive shout out to all my partners for being in our corner along with my team mate and the team at Smart Driving Team."