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Taken from Knockhill race programme
May 21, 2005, 21:30

Article from the official programme for the Knockhill round of the 2005 British GT Championship

The shackles are off for 2005 and the team making the most of the penalty-free British GT Championship is Scuderia Ecosse; the Edinburgh-based squad is taking no prisoners in its campaign to win this year’s title. Led by Stewart Roden, the team has already won both of the first two races of the series. The Scottish pairing of Nathan Kinch and Andrew Kirkaldy won the first round at Donington by over 40 seconds and team-mates Chris Niarchos and Tim Mullen joined them on the podium in third place. In round two at Magny Cours the team went one better; Kinch and Kirkaldy again took the win and Niarchos and Mullen made it a one-two in front of an international audience. All the British GT teams worked hard to raise their games over the winter to try to catch the Scots but it’s now apparent that Scuderia Ecosse had exactly the same idea!

The team is intensely proud of its Scottish roots and this June will become the first Scotland-based team to take part in the most famous motor race in the world: the Le Mans 24 Hours. Entry into such a prestigious race is a great honour for the team and Stewart Roden is delighted to be taking part. “When we started out our ultimate ambition was to win the Le Mans 24 Hours so these are exciting times for us. It’s vital though that we do things properly and steadily progress through the ranks. Our number one target for 2005 is to win the British GT Championship so the Knockhill weekend is incredibly important to us; every race counts! We are not hobbled by any penalties this year but the competition is stronger than ever and motorsport is never plain sailing so we have to put in 100% every step of the way to make sure we finish the year as Champions!”

The team doesn’t leave all the fighting talk to Roden; Nathan Kinch and Andrew Kirkaldy want nothing short of victory at their home race and their closest challengers are actually their team-mates, Chris Niarchos and Tim Mullen. Both driver pairings have identical cars this year so the competition within the team is closer than ever before. Between them the Scuderia Ecosse drivers, and indeed the team principal, have a good haul of race victories at Knockhill under their belts and they are all keen to put on a good show for the Scottish fans.

Nathan Kinch is looking forward to his home race and enjoys racing at the home of Scottish Motorsport. “Knockhill is a technical track and you have to be quite aggressive with the car in order to get a good lap. It will be interesting to see the whole field of GT cars running there and I’m expecting a couple of frantic races. Duffus Dip is one to watch out for; it’s the right/left after the start and is notorious for providing a lot of action at the beginning of races! Andrew (Kirkaldy) and I will be running with the maximum load of success ballast (60kgs) so we’ll have to see how that affects the car but we have gone well there in testing. It’s definitely a special event for me with it being in Scotland, just an hour and a half from my home in Aberdeen and half an hour from the team’s base in Edinburgh. It will be great to race with the support of the local fans who I’m sure will be out in force, cheering us on!”

The 2005 British GT Championship is by no means a foregone conclusion; there is still everything to play for but it would be a brave man who bet against Scuderia Ecosse taking the title.

ENDS

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