HEARTBREAK IN HOLLAND FOR HUGHES SPEEDWORKS

The Hughes/Speedworks Motorsport outfit were set for a fight to the finish, as they were caught up in an accident with the overall leader whilst topping the SP3 class in their Ginetta G50 during the Hankook 12H Zandvoort race, in Holland – an incident which led to Speedworks principal, Christian Dick, being taken to hospital suffering several broken bones and a punctured lung.

The weekend had started brightly for the Stockport based team, who were looking to put a disappointing [5th place] result at the last round in Mugello, Italy behind them. Qualifying saw them line up 4th on the grid in SP3 but with just a little over one second covering the top four there was certainly no need for concern.

Left: Christian Dick, Ross Warburton and Tony Hughes

Under glorious sunny skies at the Dutch holiday resort, it was Christian who would start for the trio made up of Tony Hughes and Ross Warburton, and through the opening three hours of the race Christian put in a great first stint backed up by Warburton and as the cars were put into Parc Ferme for the evening the Ginetta was comfortably leading its class by four laps over the Porsche 996 of PGMotorsport with 9hrs to go.

Christian would again take the restart the following morning and despite the bright pace of the teams behind them they continued to lead following driver changes which saw Hughes Safety Showers owner Tony Hughes take the wheel followed again by Ross.

The race would take a turn for the worse however, as Dick took the wheel with 3hrs remaining, the team were now just 45secs ahead of the PGMotorsport Porsche in what was turning into a proper race to the flag.

240 laps into the race and Christian came over the crest of Scheivlak Corner (Turn 7), one of the fastest parts of the circuit, only to discover the race leading Ferrari of Scuderia Praha and Renault Clio of DK Racing Event spinning across the track following contact between the pair. As he approached the incident unsighted at well in excess of 100mph the former British GT racer was left with nowhere to go, turning the car sideways to avoid a head on collision with the stranded Clio.

Left: Post crash scene

The race was immediately neutralised and medical teams attended quickly to the substantially damaged Ginetta, transferring Christian to the circuits Medical Centre and then later to hospital in Amsterdam where he was diagnosed with two broken ribs, his Sternum, and left Fibia, as well as puncturing a lung.

Recalled Christian to Autosport.com:

“I can remember it all; I saw one of the cars had just got on the dust, then the dust cloud increased. I could see the Clio had gone off on the left and bounced back and as I was looking for an escape I suddenly saw the Ferrari. Then it was a matter of braking and trying to go in sideways.”

Doctors have said it may take three months to recover completely, with a three day stop in hospital; “But I’m quite competitive and want to beat both [recovery] targets” Added Dick.

In a strange twist, it turned out that the team had still managed to take a podium finish despite not taking the flag. Completing more laps than rival team Red Camel-Jordans in their Audi R8 meant that the team took 3rd place in SP3.