Brandon McCaughan reckons there are plenty of positives to take from his debut in the Ligier European Series in Portugal despite costly errors scuppering his charge towards top-three finishes.
The opportunity to compete in the Series came on the back of two test sessions with Virage Group at Spain’s Circuit Ricardo Tormo and Mugello in Italy where McCaughan impressed Julien Gerbi – Team Virage’s co-owner.
The 20-year-old from Ahoghill was paired with Denmark’s Mikkel Pedersen for the final two rounds of the closed cockpit competition at Autodromo do Algarve – and their combined efforts during qualifying on Thursday put them on the front row of the gird for Friday’s two 60-minute sprints.
Their red-hot pace around the 2.89-mile track was so competitive that McCaughan ended up second on the timesheets, a mere 0.091 secs adrift of the benchmark, with this form replicated by Pedersen.
It was McCaughan behind the wheel for the start of Race One on Friday morning, and after slipping to third, he composed himself and soon worked his way up to second place, which he consolidated after a safety car period prior to the mandatory mid-race pitstops where he handed over the reins.
A spin by Pedersen demoted him to seventh before he mounted a fightback to come home fourth.
Teams had a brief turnaround for Race Two, and it was Pedersen who piloted the No.32 Ligier JS P4 for the first half an hour, only for a spin on lap nine to undo all his good early work.
McCaughan experienced the same misfortune shortly after the driver swap and he plummeted to eighth. However, some great race craft had him back up to fifth as the chequered flag beckoned.
“The races were a steep learning curve, but I feel I adapted well, and I am pleased with the speed I showed across my stints,” said McCaughan, who spent the first half of 2024 impressing in the GB4 Championship where he chalked up two victories and four podium finishes with KMR Sport.
“It was a real shame to miss out on a podium finish with Mikkel, but we managed to come away with two strong results, and I know that with more time in the car, I’d be up there fighting for wins.
“A huge thank you to everyone at Team Virage for giving me the opportunity and for giving us such a competitive car at Portimão, and thank you to my sponsors for making this fantastic experience happen,” he continued.
“The Ligier European Series is definitely something we are looking at for 2025, and I am confident I could be a title challenger after we enjoyed such a positive weekend.”