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Balfe team frustrated after early promise |
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Monday, 30 June 2008 |
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The Balfe Motorsport team was left frustrated at the weekend as it was forced to retire from the latest round of the VdeV endurance series at Oulton Park in Cheshire with an engine problem. Drivers Shaun Balfe and Adam Derbyshire had started the weekend with high hopes of a great result and set the early front-running pace in the opening free-practice session. However, a gearbox problem during qualifying meant that they could only manage the 17th fastest time and would have to work hard over the course of the four-hour race on Saturday afternoon
A fantastic opening stint by Balfe allowed him to work his way up to sixth place before he had to hand over to Derbyshire just before the half-way point of the race. Adam managed to continue the charge up the order, setting a series of lap-times that were several seconds quicker than the rest of the field, eventually moving into third place. However, as the clock ticked just past the two hour mark the team was forced out of the race with an engine problem, dropping them out of what looked like a certain podium finish. Despite the frustration at being unable to cross the finish line again Balfe was upbeat about the team and cars performance over the course of the weekend. “We definitely should have been coming away from here with some silverware,” he said afterwards. “We worked really hard to get ourselves back up the order in the first half of the race and when Adam took over he was a lot faster than the rest of the cars out there. “The team did a very slick first pit-stop and everything was looking good for our first result of the season, but unfortunately it wasn’t to be. We will definitely be leaving the weekend positive that we have the speed to run right at the front and challenge for victory and we will be aiming to do just that at the next round,” he added. The team now has a three week break before returning to the series at Snetterton in Norfolk n the middle of July.
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