News Archive » All the Latest News from Spa
July 27, 2007
Proceedings are now well underway at Spa for this weekend’s 24-hour
race. Scuderia Ecosse is one of the lucky teams using the brand new F1 pit
garages at Spa and the set up is impressive.
Wednesday: Parade
Chris Niarchos and Tim Mullen drove the two Scuderia Ecosse Ferraris into Spa
town on Wednesday for the traditional parade. Once there, they joined the
rest of the team’s drivers to take part in the popular autograph session
in the main town square. After signing a few hundred autographs the drivers
headed off into the Casino for the driver’s briefing before Chris and
Tim jumped back in the Ferraris for the return trip.
Thursday: Jonny Kane arrives
The team is running an extra driver in Ferrari no.62 for this race. Jonny Kane
joins fellow Ulsterman Tim Mullen and the Czech duo of Tomas Enge and Jarek
Janis, giving them the best possible chance of a top result. This is Jonny’s
first time out in a Ferrari GT car but the massively experienced racer was
quickly on the pace.
Thursday night: Qualifying
All things being equal the pole position time is set at Spa in the first of
the two night time qualifying sessions on Thursday. Tim Mullen placed the
62 Ferrari in seventh position with a time of 2:23.483, closely followed
by Andrew Kirkaldy in the 63 Ferrari with a time of 2:23.729.
Stewart Roden, Team Principal:
“You don’t need pole position for a 24-hour race; we have learned
that lesson the hard way over the last few years. There is no point wrecking
your car for just one lap when you want it to race for 24 hours! We used the
qualifying session to work on race set-up, trying new tyres and making sure
all seven drivers got enough time in the car. I’m optimistic for the
race so let’s wait and see what lies ahead.”
Tim Mullen:
“I’m a little bit disappointed with qualifying as I think even
though we weren’t going for pole we could have challenged for third or
fourth. I never quite got a clear run on new tyres. I think we’re looking
good for the race though. If AF Corse have a smooth race they will be hard
to beat but we have a great chance of beating all the rest.”
Andrew Kirkaldy:
“I was unlucky with traffic on both my sets of tyres but that’s
the nature of this race with almost 50 cars trying to set a time on a short
circuit, compared to Le Mans. The speed differential of the GT3 cars makes
it very difficult here but it’s okay as your starting position makes
very little difference to the outcome of this race.”
The 2007 Total Spa 24 Hours gets underway tomorrow (Saturday) at 1600hrs.
ENDS
« Back to news |
