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Blanckley: We Can Challenge At ‘The Rock’ |
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Tuesday, 17 April 2007 |
Simon Blanckley is upbeat that he and his team sibsport can get close to the top ten as the new independent team prepare for the second event of the Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship at Rockingham Motor Speedway, Corby, this coming weekend.
Despite a lack of testing mileage coming into the first races at Brands Hatch at the start of April, sibsport achieved their aim of finishing round one, two and three of the season which gives them confidence coming into the next three rounds.
Sibsport’s trip to Rockingham won’t be their first with the Honda
Integra Blankley is driving in his debut BTCC season. They, together
with many other teams, tested at the track back in early March.
Blanckley recalls “We had a difficult start to the test as we had an
issue with the car’s suspension settings. However, throughout the day
we got more competitive and ended up setting a solid time on old
tyres. I’m sure that now I know the car better and being on fresh
tyres, we can get further up the order.” Furthermore, the fact that
the BTCC hasn’t visited Rockingham since 2003 counts in favour of
sibsport, according to Blanckley. “It’s a more level playing field, as
only a few drivers on the current grid raced here in the BTCC event in
2003. I’ve driven here a few times before in other championships and
know the track possibly a bit better than some other drivers.”
Blanckley also feels that the experience the team gained from their
debut weekend at Brands Hatch will be invaluable for the rest of the
season. “Taking in all the practice sessions, qualifying and the three
races, we got over 100 laps of data, which is priceless for car setup,”
explains Blanckley, who left Brands Hatch with one of the only cars to
survive totally unscathed from the weekend’s action.
The Durham ‘born and bred’ driver admits he was slightly nervous during
his debut BTCC weekend, the most popular UK-only motorsport
championship. “Honestly, it was a bit daunting, especially when you
look at the number of fans that came to see us. When the pit lane
opened for public to take the lunchtime walkabout, we could just see a
tidal wave of people coming down towards our garage. It was an amazing
site. It was great to meet the fans, though, and it was really good to
see how happy the children were in particular when I signed autographs
for them and we gave out caps and t-shirts. It’s nice to be so
accessible, which is why the BTCC and its community is such a hit with
the public.”
With the spirits high within the team on the back of the positive
series debut, sibsport will be looking for logical development at
Rockingham. “The aim for Brands Hatch was to finish the three races,
which we achieved. At Rockingham, we’d like to improve our race pace
and get closer to the top ten. I think it’s realistic,” concludes
Blanckley.
Following Rockingham, the championship moves on to the fastest circuit
in the country – Thruxton in Hampshire – for rounds seven to nine on
May 6th.
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