British GT Heads South to Thruxton
26 May 2005
As the British GT circus heads back south to Thruxton in
Hampshire, the leading teams are looking forward to the challenges
of the fast circuit, and a number of familiar faces from last year
will be making their returns.
2004 Cup Class Champion Adam Wilcox is back to the Championship
this weekend. He will join the Vision
Marketing team to race their Ferrari 360 instead of Ian
Flux, who has other commitments this weekend.
"Adam [Wilcox] is a fantastic driver
and it was just natural for us to
choose him," Phil Burton, team owner
of Vision Marketing, said after the announcement. “It is great
news for the team and we are all looking forward to a good and successful
weekend at Thruxton."
Also
returning to the grid will be Rob Horsfield. After a difficult 2004
season with his Motorsport Elise, Rob will be joined by sportscar
regular Ian Stinton in a Prosport 3000. After a successful test at
Mallory Park on Wednesday, Rob was positive about the weekend ahead,
proclaiming the Prosport "great fun to drive".
Tech 9 head to Thruxton as Championship leaders, and team owner Phil
Hindley is confident that their success should continue, but is realistic
about the tough competition.
"This is a nice situation for us. We feel that we have
a very strong package with our team, drivers and car. That said, motorsport
is a fickle business and any number
of variables can throw up unsuspecting
surprises that can soon have you
on the back foot. I feel that we were fortunate at
Knockhill to come away with two
great results. There is very fierce
competition this year in GT3, with the
welcome addition of new teams and
drivers. A successful
Championship campaign requires
both speed and consistency, and
I hope that we can achieve this all
season."
Embassy Racing took their best result of last season at Thruxton and
are keen to continue their recent good form.
Ben Collins confirmed, "I’ve
always enjoyed racing at Thruxton and Embassy had it’s best result
there in 2004 with a second so we’d
hope to improve that this season
It’s great to get a win for the team so
early in the year as a new
outfit. The competition is still very
strong so we have to keep developing
what we have and improve our overall
pace but things are looking good now.
We’re going to every event to try and
win - we had an encouraging test at
Thruxton and if we can look after the
tyres i think our consistency should
give us a shot at winning both races.
That said a strong points finish is also
what we need after the early season
problems.”
Team LNT also have concerns about tyre wear at the UK's fastest road
circuit. Patrick Pearce, LNT: "Thruxton is a great circuit.
Its very fast but has some technical corners
which are important to get a good
It is also very hard on the tyres so
important to look after your rubber
avoid a costly tyre change.
After our nightmare at Knockhill, we
need to have a good result at Thruxton.
Unfortunately, its a circuit that
suits the Ferrari. So we’ll be looking
stay in touch and hope we’re kinder
our tyres or they drop the ball."
Nathan Kinch of Scuderia
Ecosse is keen to capitalise on the Ferrari-friendly circuit: "It's
important for us to keep the
momentum going as we head into the
Thruxton weekend. It’s a track that
suits the Ferrari and we won there
last time out so Andrew (Kirkaldy) and
I will be gunning for another pile of
points for our championship campaign.
It’s a super fast circuit and I
thoroughly enjoy racing there.”
Team-mate Chris Niarchos was also looking forward to the weekend:
"I had a fantastic race at Thruxton in 2003 in the Challenge car
and then of course Tim (Mullen) and I won there last year so it's a
track that holds some great memories for us. I'm fully motivated and
raring to go; it should be an exciting weekend."
Close racing assured, there are 29 cars are entered for
the two British GT rounds at Thruxton. The first race of the hour-long
races commences at 16:55
on Saturday
28th
May,
with
the second at 13:45 on Sunday 29th.
SRO
See 2005 series calendar for British GT Championship
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