The second round of the European Le Mans Series takes place on 17th and 18th May at the prestigious Autodromo Enzo and Dino Ferrari circuit, some forty kilometres from the historic university town of Bologna. And it is not by coincidence that the ProSpeed Competition’s drivers are on hand to face their exams. In the meantime we can but hope that the weather in northern Italy will be different from the atrocious heavy downpours experienced during the opening round at Silverstone. In the Porsche 911 RSR run by ProSpeed Competition, François Perrodo and Sébastien Crubilé will be hoping for more favourable conditions. This French duo fully respects the Pro-Am philosophy of the LMGTE category. In Italy they are facing a double assignment: to master the Italian circuit and apply exactly what they learned from Emmanuel Collard in Silverstone. In fact the team’s strong man is absent, as he will be competing in the 24 Hours of the Nürburgring for … Porsche.
With 28 cars at the start, namely 13 Prototypes and 15 GTs, the European Le Mans Series 2013 is slowly reaching its cruising speed. The competition is growing in strength, to the delight of François Perrodo, Sébastien Crubilé and ProSpeed Competition.
Rudi Penders (Team Principal): “Luc Goris, Technical Director, and myself have great admiration for the input of both François and Sébastien. We share the love for competition and the drive from everyone wanting to succeed in motorsport. The fact that they are just with the two of them going full out, up against some pretty solid competition proves how driven they truly are. Together with the team we have ensured that everything has been prepared in order for them to not only thoroughly enjoy the weekend’s racing, but to also learn more and that we can closely follow their progress. Our wish to succeed along with them is huge, and they can count on our experience. They will also grow on through, similar to some of the young talents we have sheltered in the past or still do, such as Marco Holzer, Maxime Soulet, Enzo Ide… and today Christoff Corten at national level.”
François Perrodo (Porsche 911 GT3 RSR #75 – LMGTE): “We were already aware of Manu’s absence, as he is racing at the ‘Ring, when we started with this programme. We could have replaced him with another professional driver, but that was not in keeping with the spirit of our project. Sébastien and I are fans of the competition. The challenge, our challenge, is to score a decent number of points for the championship, and to achieve that we hold all the trumps cards.”
Sébastien Crubilé (Porsche 911 GT3 RSR #75 – LMGTE): “The rotten English weather allowed us to … spend a great deal of time behind the Safety Car. That’s not really what a racing driver expects. François and I want to cover lots of kilometres! The team that we form with Emmanuel is based on trust, cooperation and an on-going learning curve. The fact that Manu will not be present should in no way restrain us from pulling off a strong result. If we succeed in our goal at Imola, then we have achieved another step in the right direction and we are ready for a very big challenge.”
Source : ProSpeed Competition