A LOOSE fire extinguisher ruined what was set to be a career-best performance from up and coming motorsport star Liam McMillan. He achieved his best ever qualifying position, sixth, in preparation for the 28-car rounds 13, 14 and 15 of the SEAT Leon Super

A LOOSE fire extinguisher ruined what was set to be a career-best performance from up and coming motorsport star Liam McMillan.

He achieved his best ever qualifying position, sixth, in preparation for the 28-car rounds 13, 14 and 15 of the SEAT Leon Supercopa championships, in Valencia, Spain.

But disaster struck when his in-car fire extinguisher came loose in the warm-up lap of the first race.

The bottle turned into a missile as he braked hard and cornered quickly, pulling parts of the wiring loom apart and damaging pipe work inside the cockpit.

It was becoming too dangerous to continue and the 18-year-old Wisbech-based driver came into the pits after the third lap to record his first retirement of the season.

Liam McMillan said: "I really like the Valencia track and having raced well there before I was looking forward to a good race weekend.

"Everything started well and I was pleased to qualify sixth, especially as only the very best drivers were ahead of me and the gap to them was so small.

"I just couldn't believe it when the fire extinguisher bottle came loose.

"I radioed my pit wall and they said to try and continue, but it began to fly around inside the car like a missile and I was forced to retire.

"That really messed up my entire race weekend because I had to start race two from the back of the grid. I was much faster than the cars ahead of me, but I was held up a lot."

McMillan finished round 14 in 16th place.

He moved up to 10th in round 15 but rival Antonio Aristi hit McMillan hard and spun him off the track, in a repeat of an incident between the two drivers on the same track in May, and McMillan finished 18th.

The final rounds of the SEAT Leon Supercopa take place back at the Circuit de Catalunya, near Barcelona, on November 1-2.