Initially the fifth round of the FIA GT Championship was scheduled for Bucharest, however the FIA GT2-teams will be not be heading off for the Rumanian capital on 29th and 30th August, but in fact to neighbouring Budapest in Hungary. It goes without saying that ProSpeed Competition will be present for the first race of the second half of the championship. In addition to Richard Westbrook and Emmanuel Collard, we will see Darryl O’Young and Marco Holzer reunited at the Hungaroring. In Hungary ProSpeed Competition will be defending its second place in both the teams and drivers championships, “but we’re not satisfied with this second place”, Rudi Penders clearly stated. “We might well have used up our jokers after Oschersleben and Spa, but I’m going to fight to the last meter to clinch both the drivers and teams titles, especially with the final round being held at Circuit Zolder.”
Following Spa ProSpeed Competition with 37 points is a mere 3 units down on AF Corse, whilst Richard Westbrook and Emmanuel Collard presently have an arrear of four points on the leading Ferrari crew. “It goes without saying that our ambition remains that of grabbing both titles”, Rudi Penders continued. “This is why the performance of both cars is of major importance. In Hungary our Porsche 997 GT3 RSR with start number #61 will have its original crew back on board. Following the absence of Darryl O´Young in Oschersleben and the Dutch guest drivers in Spa, where in fact they performed brilliantly, Darryl O´Young and Marco Holzer will once again be teamed up for the remainder of the season. Their performances could play a key role in the team championship.”
As from Hungary the Porsche 997 GT3 RSR will in fact have to compete with 30 kilograms of ballast extra on board. “In itself the ballast is no problem”, Luc Goris, the
ProSpeed Competition technical director explained. “During the winter months we had tested with maximum ballast, so we know the parameters. It will be mainly the brakes which will suffer, especially on a circuit such as the Hungaroring. In fact the total weight of the Westbrook and Collard #60 Porsche amounts to 1305 kilograms, which is pretty enormous. But on the other hand our nearest rival, the #50 Ferrari 430 is also carrying a fair amount of weight. So the battle should be pretty even.”
“Another story is the reason for the additional ballast. In the end this is the outcome of the disqualification of our Porsche with number #61 in Oschersleben, because of the alloy of the cylinder sleeves. But we lodged an appeal against this disqualification and we need to wait until mid-September for the outcome of the appeal. Apart from the points we lost due to that (should there be acceptance of the appeal Holzer would come up to the same level as Westbrook and Collard and ProSpeed will take over the lead in the team championship), we are asking ourselves what will happen to those 30 kilograms…”
The FIA GT3 championship does not start in Hungary, but resumes the season two weeks later in the Algarve, Portugal.
Source : ProSpeed