Testing for the Donnington round was chaotic with the Viper teams trying to guess what the promised rule breaks from the FIA would bring for the weekend. The team dropped the ride height by 10mm and took 50KG out of the car which seemed to do the trick as the car was now at least at the back of the pack.
On Friday it was confirmed that the Viper could remove 40KG and drop the ride height by 10mm so not a bad guess by the team. More surprisingly was that the Aston Martins had been given a 60KG break even though they led at Oulton by 30 seconds. This only reinforces the view that testing cars in Europe on Michelin tyres does not equate fully to British GT cars on Avons...
Saturday free practice started well with the team in the top 10 for the first time. The session was slowed by the Team Tiger Marcos Mantis depositing oil through Goddards chicane that was later to play a significant role in the weekend. After being caught out first time round on the oil Paul Fenton pitted to hand over to Mike Gardiner believing the session would be stopped. The session continued until the two Ferrari 430s collided on the oil. This brought out the red flag and the team changed drivers back to Paul Fenton. Unfortunately Paul found oil again on the exit of Goddards rotating the car and sending it straight into the pitwall. Clearly the weekend that was starting to promise a top 10 finish was over, with driver bruised and car requiring a new chassis.
A lot of work is required before the next round at Snetterton.
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Contact: Richard Moore - 07939 569027 or Paul Fenton - 07801 417931 |