The Balfe Motorsport Team will return to the Avon Tyres British GT Championship at Rockingham in a fortnight, a decade after coming close to lifting the title with its Mosler MT900R. The move is a change from it’s initial plan of contesting the Internation GT Open Championship.
Shaun Balfe (grade C) and former champion Thomas Erdos (grade B) will campaign the Balfe Ferrari 458 Italia GT3 car in the series. The decision to switch to a national campaign was taken by the team after looking at the respective calendars for the International series and its customer Ferrari Open Challenge programme, where it is running three cars.
Team boss David Balfe explains, “We had plans to compete in the International GT Series but logistically and business commitment-wise we felt we would be stretching ourselves in our first year back. We want to demonstrate our services and ability and there’s no better place to do that than in front of the home crowd, so we’re making a return to the British GT Championship.”
Balfe continues, “The line-up for the series this year is first-class, there’s no better place to show what we can do than in British GT in 2013.”
The team tested at Rockingham this week in preparation for their debut at round two of the championship at the Northamptonshire venue in early May.
Shaun Balfe is keen to get back into action in the series and wants to pick up where he left off in 2003, with a return to the top step of the podium.
“It’s exciting to be stepping into British GT again. I won several races last time we were here. To be back as a family team again and have Tommy as my team-mate this time around is the icing on the cake.
“The last time I raced a GT car at Rockingham was in the Mosler in 2003 and we won. It would be nice to make a repeat after ten year away, but I know it’s an even tougher proposition now. The entry for this year is top-drawer. We’re under no illusions just how tough it’s going to be.”
For Erdos it will be a return to the series he won in a Saleen S7R in 2002, just a year before Shaun came runner-up.
“I’m really looking forward to getting on track in the series again. I said at the start of the year that it feels great to be back with the Balfe team again and the Ferrari is a fantastic car.
“We know that with the penalty system in the British GT series will hamper us a little in qualifying, but we accept that’s where we are. But I think that the pace Shaun and myself can maintain during the races should see us be in contention for some tiop results,” Erdos adds.
Source : British GT