After racking-up an impressive number of hours, laps and kilometres in testing on both sides of the Atlantic, Aston Martin works driver Harold Primat is looking forward to switching back to ‘race mode’ at the opening round of the American Le Mans Series, the 12 Hours of Sebring, on 17-20 March. The Geneva-based sportscar racer has been behind the wheel of Aston Martin Racing’s LMP1 prototype at both the ALMS pre-season test at Sebring, Florida, and the European-based Le Mans Series’ official test days at Paul Ricard, France, in recent weeks and feels that the team has made strong progress ahead of the 2010 season. “We haven’t focused on setting headline-grabbing lap times,” Primat explained, “but concentrated on getting through a heavy workload which we hope will give us a solid platform to build from, not just for Sebring but also for the Le Mans 24 Hours in June. That’s what I think these pre-season tests are all about. We made real progress with different set-ups that can be applied to the various races which we will contest this season.”
The first of those events comes later this month at the 12 Hours of Sebring, a race renowned for being tough on both machinery and drivers alike, and widely regarded as the perfect warm-up for this summer’s 24-hour battle at La Sarthe. It will also see Harold racing with new co-driver Adrian Fernandez for the first time, with Primat looking forward to the experience having been hugely impressed by the Mexican driver during testing. “Adrian is a true professional and a very quick driver and his experience will definitely help us as a team,” Harold said. “He has raced at Sebring many times before, and knows what it’s like to win his class and finish on the overall podium there, and that will be very useful as the race is so unique.”
Primat’s only other appearance in the 12 Hours of Sebring came in the P2 class in 2005 and he’s looking forward to stepping up to the premier category as the testing ends and the real racing begins. “It will be good to get back into racing mode,” he said. “I have close personal ties with the US from my early career as a racing driver and I always enjoy going back there to compete. ”We have worked very hard this winter and now it is time to translate that work into performance in a competitive environment. We want a trouble-free race without any technical problems or on-track incidents so we can get some valuable running in the bag ahead of the new season. If we can get a podium as well, then that would be nice to start 2010.”
Source : Harold Primat