STORMING START GOES UNREWARDED FOR SIR CHRIS HOY
- Tough British GT outing for Hoy and Buncombe
- Nissan GT-R NISMO GT500 wins Super GT round at Fuji
- Onroak Automotive make it two in a row at Spa
ROCKINGHAM, UK, Monday 5 May 2014: Sir Chris Hoy and Alex Buncombe finished round three of the British GT Championship in 13th place at Rockingham today. Early race contact damaged the suspension of the No.80 Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 making it a tough two hours for the two Nissan drivers.
The grid for today’s race was set with an aggregate time from Sunday’s two qualifying sessions. Al Buncombe stormed to fourth place in his session whilst Sir Chris put in a top time to take the pair to an eighth place starting position.
British GT is a Pro-Am series and it was the turn of the amateur class drivers to take the start. Chris certainly didn’t disappoint, making a storming start from eight place on the grid.
“I got a great start and made up a few places,” explained Chris. “The first corner at Rockingham is part of the banked oval so I feel at home there as it’s just like a velodrome! Unfortunately I then got a bump from behind at turn two which pushed me wide onto the grass and about 10 cars came flying past me. My brief from the team is always to bring the car back in one piece so that was a great start! I set to work regaining positions and had a great time for about 20 minutes but then the tyres started to go off. I then got hit again by a Porsche and really struggled after that.”
With Chris reporting that he had opposite lock through most of the corners, Al knew he was in for a tough race when the driver changeover was completed.
“Something was definitely wrong with the right rear,” said Al. “I was really struggling to keep the car on track for most of my stint but I knew I needed to carry on to try to get into the top 10 and therefore the points.”
Despite the best efforts of both drivers, 13th place was the highest they could manage today.
“Of course it’s disappointing,” said Chris. “But it’s all good experience and I still enjoyed every minute of it. That was the longest stint I have ever done in a race so I was pleased that I was able to maintain my concentration for that long.
“The next race is at Silverstone,” he concluded. “That’s our kind of circuit so we’ll be able to make amends for this weekend.”
CALSONIC NISSAN GT-R WINS SUPER GT AT FUJI
The Nissan GT-R NISMO GT500s dominated qualifying for round two of the Super GT Championship at Fuji this weekend, taking the top three positions. In front of 57,000 spectators, the No.12 Calsonic IMPUL GT-R of Hironobu Yasuda and Joao Paolo de Oliveira stormed from GT500 pole position to victory.
Joao Paolo de Oliveira commented: "It was a stressful race because our strategy was to extend our lead early on but every time the SC came out our lead disappeared. There was also the problem of picking up marbles on the track but in the end we were able to build up our lead so I'm glad. We are currently leading the championship so I really look forward to the next stage.”
ONROAK AUTOMOTIVE RACING MAKE IT TWO IN A ROW AT SPA
Onroak Automotive’s G-Drive Racing entry made it two wins in a row on Saturday, winning the 6 Hours of Spa, the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship. This was a confident victory from the driving crew of Julien Canal, Olivier Pla and Roman Rusinov who will be looking to make it a hat trick at next month’s Le Mans 24 Hours.
European Le Mans Series entrant, Jota Sport, took a strong second place at Spa, using the race as a rehearsal for Le Mans. They were joined on the podium by the pole winners, KCMG who took the chequered flag in third place.
ENDS
