Keen Ready to Storm in Silverstone

13 May 2005

Lister Racing’s British driver Justin Keen says he is ready to storm at this weekend’s FIA GT International Championship leg in Silverstone.

“It obviously is a special weekend for all of us in the team as we are racing at home. It is always exciting to race in front of the English crowd and our friends and families, but it is also just another race in this year’s very challenging calendar and while it is naturally a more emotional one we are as focused as anywhere else in our preparation” said Justin Keen the 31 year old driver from Epping, Essex.

“The FIA GT Championship has all the right ingredients for sports car racing because it is not focused on technology and drivers aids like Formula one, it has “real” pit stops and driver changes all rolled into a three hour race. The action is non-stop because the cars are closely matched”.

“We have had some highs and lows since the beginning of the season and have spent the last few weeks working on the different elements that needed fine tuning on the car. This will be a very different race to Magny-Cours, where we could not really run the car before the race weekend (Lister could not test in Magny Cours earlier this year due to adverse weather
conditions), hence our difficulties to find the right setup. The team knows Silverstone very well having raced numerous times here and I have raced on every possible configuration of the track since I began racing in Formula Ford. Last year, I raced here with the Lister LMP1 for the Le Mans Series and had my car not broken I probably could have made it to the podium.”

“We have a very competitive car and as we did in Monza we will challenge the Maseratis all year long” continued Keen. “My team mate Liz Halliday has made some great progress since the beginning of the season and we are getting along really well. Despite being a rookie at this level, her feedback has been extremely helpful and her times are constantly improving.”

This year’s race was preceded with the presentation of the 100’s anniversary of the Tourist Trophy at the RAC in London on Tuesday 10th May 2005. The whole Lister team (who won the trophy in 1999) was there and Justin Keen said “it will be an honor as a Brit and driver of Lister Racing to win the trophy this year, we had a great turn out at the car display in front of Buckingham Palace and I hope that the numerous fans present will make the trip to Silverstone on the weekend and cheer us on”.

Steam Sports

See series calendars for 2005 FIA GT Championship

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