|
The
Spirit Racing team managed to take third place in the latest round of the VdeV
 Endurance Championship at the Belgian Grand Prix track of Spa Francorchamps this
weekend.
The
Spirit Motor Group backed squad went into the weekend on a high after two
successful days of development testing on one of its 2007 Norma chassis. That
confidence was carried through into qualifying, when Rob Garofall put his and
driving partner, Simon Phillips, car onto pole position for the fifth time this
season.
However,
the sister car of Adam and Jamie Derbyshire struggled for straight-line pace and
was forced to line up in ninth position for the marathon six-hour
race.
"Our
testing pace from Pembrey doesn't seem to have followed us to Spa," said a
frustrated Jamie Derbyshire. "We're losing nearly ten miles an hour on the
fastest parts of the track, over this lap it's a huge chunk of time, especially
over six hours."
In the
race, both cars ran extremely well over the early stages. However, a lengthy
first fuel stop caused Adam and Jamie to lose nearly four minutes, which they
struggled to make back up with their car's lack of speed. A great drive by Jamie
allowed them to move back up as high as seventh, before they suffered a gearbox
failure with less than an hour left to go.
Garofall
and Phillips also lost time in the pits during the race. A superb drive in the
closing stages by Rob allowed him to snatch back the final podium place on the
very last lap after six hours of racing.
"It was
good to take pole position. There were 100 car on the track during qualifying
and I got two laps right at the end of the session where I didn’t see any other
traffic.”
“We lost
time by sticking to our strategy in the race, though. We managed to work our way
back up and took third right at the end, but it could have been higher, “said
Garofall.
"We
think that the 2007 car isn't that suited to high speed sections like the '05
car Rob and Simon are still using. We know over a shorter lap our car is
quicker, so at the other tracks we have on the calendar we should be able to
show our true pace," added Jamie.
After
the long distance Spa event, the team will get back to a 'normal' three-hour
race at the next round, at the French circuit of Ledonon at the end of
September.
|
News 
