Boyd hoping to ‘Ring’ up Austrian win after he missed out at Le Mans
HE successfully completed his qualifying laps to allow him to race at Le Mans but a frustrated Wayne Boyd had to sit out the famous race.
As reserve driver, he could only sit and watch as his United Autosports team-mates Filipe Albuquerque, Will Owen and Hugo de Sadeleer completed the 24-hour marathon and finished on the LMP2 podium.
But the Ulsterman is back on board their Ligier JS P217 for round three of the European Le Mans series at the Red Bull Ring in Austria, where the United Autosports trio won last season.
Boyd takes over from Albuquerque, who moves to partner Phil Hanson in their second prototype Ligier for the four-hour race on Sunday.
“I can’t wait to get back in the car, especially at the Red Bull Ring which is one of my favourite tracks on the calendar,” said the Templepatrick driver, who has been promoted from the Anglo-American team’s LMP3 squad to the front-running LMP2 cars this season.
“I’ve always had good pace there in LMP3 so I’m sure that will transfer over into LMP2.”
Both United Ligiers have been quick in the first two races but lost out in the pits when Boyd had to serve a stop-go penalty at Paul Ricard, and then the team got their strategy wrong at Monza, requiring the cars to pit for a late splash of fuel.
“Our season so far hasn’t had the results that we’ve wanted but I feel this track should suit us down to the ground,” added Boyd.
“We will definitely be pushing for the win (in Austria) to get our championship challenge back on track.”
Meanwhile, Niall Murray completed his “dream hat-trick” in the Avon Tyres UK National Formula Ford championship at Castle Combe.
The Northern Ireland FF1600 champion from Dublin has been chasing a weekend treble for some time but finally made it with three wins in a row at the Wiltshire circuit in his Team Dolan Van Diemen.
“Wow! I’ve finally managed to secure the three wins in a weekend, something I’ve wanted to achieve for ages,” an ecstatic Murray said.
“I’m absolutely delighted, but more so for Bernard (Dolan) as it’s his car that enables me to have this pace at every track we go to.”
Having won two of the previous three rounds when the UK series visited Kirkistown last month, Murray now has a commanding lead of more than 100 points over Michael Eastwell in the championship.