Following the news that lead driver Lukas Euler would be forced to withdraw from the season, SimCraft Midnight Motorsport today announced the signing of a single race deal with former driver, Dave Carr-Smith.
The signing is believed to be a last minute measure to ensure that the team does not squander any opportunity in the season opener, due to take place tomorrow in Melbourne. It is reported that the team approached a number of drivers for the role, all of which were unable to commit to the Superleague schedule, leading the team to call for the return of Carr-Smith who last drove for the team in 2011, their debut season; before making way for then rookie, Lukas Euler, in 2012.
Given the extremely short notice with which the team was working, this news is perhaps not a surprise, but will certainly buy the team some extra time with which to find a full-time replacement ahead of the second round of the season in Malaysia in just two weeks? time.
Statement from Nick Rowland, Team Owner:
"Firstly I would just like to thank Lukas again for everything over the past few years. He spearheaded our attack on the GPVWC Superleague and went out at the very top. He now moves on to work with my brother, ironically, and I wish him all the very best for the future.
With the short notice it was always going to be tough to be able to find a driver. With the field already been completed we looked both within the team and looked further in to the sim-racing field. While we had a few options available there was one stand out.
It is with tremendous pride we bring back our former driver, Dave Carr-Smith on a race-by-race basis. Teamed with me in 2011 he has, until recently with the emergence of CSG Racing, single handily steered our team forwards and in right direction.
Dave's 2013 campaign was blighted while at Nordsjoen. Doubt and uncertainty was cast and brandished with the wrong brush. Since then Dave has competed, shown logs and even driven in front of my very eyes and others at various events. I have no doubt of Dave's ability, skill, talent and honesty. The 2013 saga for me is done and I hope we, the team and the league can move forwards.
With just a few hours left until race one; I am incredibly excited to see our two drivers taking on the GPVWC Superleague field in Melbourne."
Statement from Dave Carr-Smith:
"This is certainly not how I had intended to enjoy the race; to be perfectly honest I was quite looking forward to getting back to helping Lewis and David in a race engineer capacity in the first race for our team. However, it was impossible to refuse when Nick asked me to fill in for this race, given how much of a struggle he has had in trying to find a replacement for Lukas at such short notice.
It became clear very quickly that, had this deal not come about, the team would have been in trouble this week and so I am happy to jump in and do what I can for the team. Having not driven a formula car competitively since last year it is certainly going to be no easy task, and we would be silly to set unrealistic expectations. Personally, given the performance of the car, the most I can hope for is to record a top five finish for the team, with the quality of the field improving even further this year, anything else would be overly ambitious."
