Disappointment for Scuderia Ecosse at Silverstone Supercar Showdown

07 May 2006

After topping the timesheets on Friday and Saturday, and taking a first FIA GT pole position for Andrew Kirkaldy, the Scuderia Ecosse team didn’t get the start they wanted to the 2006 FIA GT Championship at Silverstone today. Both Scuderia Ecosse Ferraris retired with burst water hoses.

The day started well with Nathan Kinch putting in some blistering laps in morning warm up so the scene was set for a great race.

The race began in damp conditions and Kirkaldy got away well, finishing the first lap in fifth place overall (1st in GT2). Tim Mullen had a battle with Jaime Melo in the AF Corse Ferrari at the start, with Melo pushing Mullen almost right off the track! Once they settled into the race Kirkaldy was leading, with Mullen a comfortable third place.

Just 15 minutes in Kirkaldy reported that the water temperatures were high in car 62 so the team called him in to check it out. They removed grass from the radiators and sent him on his way but the Scot radioed in soon afterwards to say the temperatures were still too high and took the decision to stop the car before any damage was done.

“I came is as the temperatures were going up,” said Kirkaldy. “The grass must have come from a car in front as I hadn’t been off the track. When I sent back out the temps went up again so it was game over. It’s a real shame as we were on it this weekend!”

Tim Mullen in the meantime was lapping faster than anyone, on slick tyres, but the team started to receive reports of white smoke coming from the rear of the car. Mullen pitted almost at the one hour mark and the car was found to have a terminal water leak.

“That was all going so well for us,” commented Mullen. “The team had just asked me how the car was feeling and almost as soon as I said it was great I had a big slide. And then another. It looks like I had water leaking onto the rear tyres so that would explain the slide. It’s so disappointing as we could have had a good result today.”

The next race for the Scuderia Ecosse team is round three of the British GT Championship, a 2-hour race at Donington Park on 21 May.

Scuderia Ecosse

See 2006 series calendar for FIA GT Championship

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