Throttle Cable Failure Robs Cocoa’s Eric Filgueiras of First NASCAR Top 15 Finish at Brands Hatch, England
By Space Coast Daily // June 7, 2019
NASCAR Whelen Euro Series rolled into historic Brands Hatch, England
BRANDS HATCH, ENGLAND – After coming off a successful debut in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series in Franciacorta, Italy, Cocoa, Florida native and driver of the #70 Mishumotors Chevrolet, Eric Filgueiras was very eager to build off his top 20 finish in the Elite 1 category.
The series rolled into historic Brands Hatch, England for the third weekend of its championship for it’s seventh annual “American Speed Fest.”
This was a highly anticipated and very well attended event by the motorsport-loving British fans.
The weekend would start with great promise.
For his first time on the nostalgic race course, the 25-year-old Filgueiras charting P14 in practice session one, and P22 in session two as he and 2X series champion teammate Lucas Lasserre opted to stay on older tires to simulate race-runs and tune the cars.
Even with the final result it was still a successful first day for the Germany-based Mishumotors. Qualifying came first thing Saturday morning with a goal in mind the team and drivers set off to log their fastest single lap.
The times around the 5-turn course were razor thin, but Filgueiras could only manage a P24 lap time for his first-ever qualifying session around Brands.
A hot mid-day race one would have the Elite 1 group take the green flag for their 38 lap race. Filgueiras would capitalize on experience with a great start, making up positions and advance into the teens within the first few laps.
The race would take its course without any full course yellow’s and Filgueiras fell back into a 20th place position where he would remain until the final lap.
This resulted in another respectable top 20 finish for the rookie team driver.
With a team aligned plan, and making changes needed to the car, Filgueiras would start in P21 for race two on Sunday.
This would begin with a similar effect Saturday, advancing positions right at the beginning of the race. Bad luck would strike at the end of lap 1 when a throttle cable bolt broke, leaving Filgueiras without engine power but luckily able to coast the car back to pit lane for repairs.
A 50 second lap time gives no opportunity to allow such repairs to be timely, and he would make it back out on track six laps down from the leaders to rejoin.
Even though he was six laps down, he was still able to show his speed and ability, passing cars and posting the 12th fastest time of the race. He would finish 27th, five laps down.
“This weekend really is a mixture of emotions,” said Filgueiras.
“It’s disappointing knowing we could have potentially gotten even a top 10 without this mechanical failure. But I’m honestly very happy with the car’s and my own performance in race 2. Showing our speed against the best drivers in the field felt good. In those regards, I’m happy and I know the Mishumotors team was pleased with the outcome.”
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