Another great weekend for BMS Scuderia Italia but without the win
Joel Camathias
Jos Menten
CR Scuderia
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Joel Camathias
Another positive racing weekend for Joel at the third round of the FIA GT Championship.
Swiss GT ace, Joel Camathias (27), alongside his Italian team-mate Davide Rigon (21), driving the BMS Scuderia Italia # 78 Ferrari F430 GT, finished 6th in the third round of the 2008 FIA GT Championship.
Swiss-Italian duo could have even finished in a better position if a GT1 car didn`t touch their Ferrari causing them a spin when they were in fourth position.
"I`m happy how things are going, of course a part from the spin caused by a GT1 car, but we are working really well. BMS Scuderia Italia and Pirelli tyres are providing us a superb package, and my team-mate Davide is doing an excellent job. I`m really looking forward to Oschersleben, we still have a large margin of improvement. As always I`d like to thank the whole team [BMS Scuderia Italia], my team-mate Davide [Davide Rigon] and Pirelli [Pirelli tyres] for the great work they did during this weekend. You are amazing guys!".
We will see Joel back in action with BMS Scuderia Italia squad on July 6th at the fourth round of the FIA GT Championship at Oschersleben (Germany).
Jos Menten
For Jos Menten and Andrea Piccini the third round of the FIA GT competition fizzled out. Notwithstanding several new components the American power beast wouldn't get up to speed. Problems during the free practice, the pre- qualifying and qualifying sessions made it a highly strenuous for the Dutch- Italian duo. After only eight laps Piccini was forced to throw in the towel, as the result of a further clutch problem.
Before the start of the first training session on Friday midday, both drivers remain optimistic. A new components pack would ensure that the Saleen S7-R was to be more competitive and reliable: "But it started off on the wrong foot. During the first free training session we experienced problems with the suspension. This reduced our actual track time down to a mere eight laps", a frustrated Jos Menten told us.
The team decides not to take part in the pre-qualifying but rather to concentrate on the qualifying session . unfortunately no red-white iPOS Racing Saleen at the start. Jos Menten and Andrea Piccini await a weighty retirement on Saturday evening. The Austrian team's objective is a top-ten ranking, but to achieve this both drivers must first cut their way through the entire field.
The warm-up plays a crucial role for iPOS Racing. But once again fate rears its ugly head: "This time the clutch was leaking oil. And four laps later it was all over once again. We have no idea whether we'll be starting with the correct set-up. One thing is certain; we're in for an exceptionally difficult race. We're starting from the back of the grid and have to battle our way through."
There's definitely a warlike spirit in the air. Andrea Piccini takes the start at 19.50hrs on his home ground, and soon makes up a few places. The fast Italian starts to swallow up the GT2-field, but problems arise in the race. After eight laps Piccini brings the S7-R into the pits with yet another clutch problem. For Jos Menten this is the second consecutive FIA GT-competition where he was unable to clock up a single race kilometre.
"A highly frustrating weekend", is how the 27 year young Dutch driver from Haelen sums up these last two days.
CR Scuderia
Adria's race into darkness ended tonight with an eighth place finish for Chris Niarchos and Tim Mullen and in retirement for Andrew Kirkaldy and Rob Bell. It was an incredibly hard event for all the teams with soaring temperatures making it tough on everyone.
The race got off to a good start with Rob Bell moving up from seventh to fifth, as he explains:
"The start was very good," said Bell. "It was clean and aggressive and I made it up to fifth. On the next lap I managed to take Malucelli around the outside of turn three which was pretty sweet. I caught Biagi for fifth and it was all looking good; the car was working well and I was putting the pressure on Biagi. Unfortunately Malucelli tagged my rear - I think he outbraked himself - going into turn one, and spun me around and I had to watch everyone go past before I could rejoin. It's hard to overtake here but I managed to get bac k up to fourth. All in all it went well but it was a bit more eventful than I would have liked. Ultimately we just didn't get the rub of the green tonight."
The race ended for car 56 when Rob pitted to hand over to Kirkaldy. Andrew jumped in but as soon as he pulled away the driveshaft broke and it was game over.
"It was a very short race for me," said Kirkaldy. "I got in, pulled away, the driveshaft broke and that was the end of it. I think as a whole we've made progress this weekend though. We had a few problems in practice and qualifying but we made some pretty dramatic mechanical changes before warm-up and moved forward. Rob's stint was very good tonight and we were on for a sure second. We need to qualify in the proper place on the grid then I think we'll be off and running."
Tim Mullen moved up a place to seventh at the start and had an incident-free first stint. Chris Niarchos took over at the pit-stop and also had a good run before handing back over to Tim to bring it home. Running on the soft tyre for the last stint Tim was flying!
"The car felt great on the soft tyres at the end," said Mullen. "It's a shame we weren't on those for the whole weekend as we were fast but we decided early on to use the medium tyre. You live and learn though. Our pace was good so it's onwards and upwards from here."
CRS Team Principal, Chris Niarchos, is happy that his team took another step forward this weekend.
"I feel good about the overall pace of the team but ultimately disappointed with the results," said Niarchos. "Car 55 suffered from a couple of mistakes including tyre choice but this is all just indicative of a new team finding its way. I think the team is really gelling now; we are still learning but we are learning fast. It's disappointing that car 56 had the driveshaft problem as part failures are hard to take. There is nothing you can do about it so it's a frustrating thing to handle. Rob had done an exceptional job in the opening stint too. It's Oschersleben next, and we have all been strong there in the past, then we're off to Spa which is where the season really starts as there is a huge haul of points up for grabs."
Next up for CRS is the British GT Championship meeting at Thruxton next weekend before the team heads across European again for the German round of the FIA GT Championship.