Quotes

Alois Meir – No.2 Martin Callaway Corvette Z.06R GT3: “My first sessions were very good. The car was very stable, and we had no problems. At the end of the session we put slicks on the car, but there were yellow flags out for an incident, and the stewards disallowed the time.”

 

Richard Williams – No.6 Trackspeed Porsche 997 GT3 Cup S: “This morning was good, and we were quite happy with how it went. We’re learning more about the new car all the time. The rain before the second session messed things up for us; however, because the track temperature was high, it dried out quickly enough to put slicks on at the end and go out for a quick lap. It was fine for us, it was just a question of keeping it on the circuit and seeing how it handled. We didn’t learn much, because of the wet track – but since more rain is forecast for the weekend, it was good practice.”

 

Julien Rodrigues – No.9 Hexis Racing Aston Martin DBRS9: “The second session was really difficult – we know how the car is when it’s dry, but not in wet conditions. We like the Monza circuit – the Aston Martin is very good on the slower corners. However, the top speed is lower than some of our competitors, so we suffer on the long straights here. The combination is good, so we’re hoping to qualify in the top ten, which would set us up for a top five finish.”

 

Richard Gates – team manager, No.32 APEX Motorsport Jaguar XKR: “Robert Hissom was on slicks, and we think he hit some standing water just as he started braking for the Ascari chicane, and that speared him off into the barriers and into the gravel. It was an unfortunate incident; Robert is pretty down in the dumps about it, but the good news is that he’s okay – the car did its job. It isn’t repairable this weekend – we’ll want to give it a thorough inspection before we use it again.”

 

Ray Bellm – No. 33 APEX Motorsport Jaguar XKR: “My first sessions in GT3 were a bit of a culture shock – I haven’t raced since last September, and everything seemed to be happening pretty quickly at first! The GT3 cars are more tricky to drive than I expected, and our car was quite nervous this morning over the kerbs, but we made some changes for this afternoon, and that made it much better. Of course, because the conditions were changing so much, it’s difficult to tell exactly where you are compared to the competition. The car feels quick compared to the McLaren F1 I used to drive back in the 90s – they’ve got lots of horsepower and narrow tyres, it’s not easy to extract a good time out of them. I don’t know how the drivers cope with the first corner, with no tyre warmers.”

 

Ian Khan – No.20 Matech GT Racing Ford GT: “My day was pretty good. We didn’t take any chances in the second session, we just stayed on wet tyres and got some laps in. We could have been quicker on slicks at the end of the session, but there wasn’t enough time to do that – plus we had nothing to prove, so we came in a little early and packed things up. I thought the Corvettes would be fast here, and the Vipers are very quick, too. We’ve got a smaller restrictor, so it’s difficult for us, but I’m confident we will be up there with them.”

2008-05-16
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