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News Archive » The Last Tango of 2008 November 14, 2008 The final race of the year for CRS is a trip into the unknown, to San Luis in Argentina and a brand new race track, the “Lago Potrero de los Funes”. This is an important race for CRS as the team wants to end the season on a high note, in the same way the British GT and Formula Renault seasons ended. The drivers have a new circuit to learn and, with no extra track time allocated, it’s going to be the fast-learners who have the upper hand. Bucharest race-winners, Andrew Kirkaldy and Rob Bell, are hoping the transatlantic trip will bring about a change in their recent luck which reached a low-point when Bell was fired off at the start of the Zolder race. “I really hope we can make it past the first corner this time,” said Kirkaldy. “Argentina is a very long way to go for something like that to happen again. Since Bucharest we have quite probably had the fastest car out there but for one reason or another we haven’t had the results and it’s very frustrating. The guys had to do an all-nighter after Zolder to get the car repaired in time for the freight deadline so I hope we can go out there and finish of the season with a good result for them.” Chris Niarchos is back in the driving seat for this race and he and Tim Mullen also want to end CRS’ first season of racing on a high. “We knew from the start that the FIA GT Championship would be the toughest challenge we would face in year one,” said Niarchos. “Considering how new this team is I think we have had fantastic results. Yes, I know we have some very experienced personnel, but it takes time for all those different personalities to start working together as a team. There is no reason why we can’t leave Argentina with some great results.” The teams’ two GT2 Ferraris, along with over 10 tonnes of freight, were loaded straight after the last race at Zolder and have now safely arrived in the port at Buenos Aires, 7000 miles away. From there the freight containers hit the road again for the 450 mile journey to San Luis where the team will start the process of carefully unloading the cars and the kit in readiness for the race next weekend. The CRS team members start heading out to Argentina on Monday. It’s an epic trip involving a 15-hour flight to Buenos Aires, a trip across town to the domestic airport, followed by another flight south to Mendoza before collecting hire cars for the last leg of the trip to San Luis, right in the heart of the country. It’s a long way to go but the jet-lag won’t be too bad as Argentina is only three hours behind GMT. They also have some good weather to look forward to as the forecast is for wall-to-wall sunshine with temperatures in the 80's every day. The race weekend at San Luis follows the usual FIA GT format: practice and qualifying on Saturday with the two-hour race starting on Sunday at 1315hrs. USEFUL INFORMATION FIA GT Championship – Round 10 – San Luis, Argentina – 23 November 2008 TIMETABLE SATURDAY SUNDAY TELEVISION SCHEDULE LIVE TIMING ENDS |
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