HEART BREAK FOR LE ROUX IN EAST LONDON

The fourth round of the 2021 National Extreme Festival took place at the East London Grand Prix circuit on Saturday 28 August, but the event ended before it began for Josh Le Roux in the Investchem Formula 1600 category.

It was Josh’s first outing at the circuit and his lap times steadily improved throughout Friday’s practice sessions. In fact, during his first session, Josh set a time of 1:26.936 and he got this down to 1:25.722 during qualifying. This lap time was good enough to put Josh onto the front row of the grid for race one.

Josh lined up on the grid, but as the lights went out, he dropped from second to last. Whilst this initially looked like a bad start, the reality was far worse. It turned out to be an ailing engine. Josh had picked up a stone which punctured the radiator of his single-seater during the warm-up lap. This caused the engine to overheat and ultimately led to his retirement from the event.

“It was a heart breaking moment, but I have been in racing long enough to understand that motorsport is unpredictable and these things happen. There is nothing worse than having to watch the race from the side-lines, but being in East London was still a fantastic experience and I’m happy that I was able to get on the pace fairly quickly. A massive thank you to my team for all of their efforts throughout the weekend. We will definitely be ready for the next one,” expressed Josh.

Josh is proudly sponsored by; New Heights and ILCA

Photo: Kelly Gregory