Andy Priaulx is heading to Belgium for the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship in a very positive frame of mind after a strong showing for Ford Chip Ganassi in the first round of the series. That time at Silverstone Priaulx and his fellow British team mates Marino Franchitti and Harry Tincknell took their Ford Chip Ganassi Racing number 67 Ford GT to fourth in class, and now he is aiming for the podium.
Talking before heading to a track that he knows well and has had successes on in the past, the Guernsey driver said: “After a very strong showing in Silverstone, where the car ran faultlessly and reliably and the team did a great job, I think we would like to aim for at least one step better at Spa and that is the podium. I think that is realistic. It is a circuit I love, suits me and have a great history on with poles and podiums.”
This will be the last time the team gets to race before the highlight of the WEC season – the Le Mans 24 Hours on the 18th/19th June – and Priaulx was able to reflect on just what the team had achieved in a very short space of time: “I think with every week that goes by we get one step closer to achieving our goals. The team has been amazing and it is very impressive how it has formed over the last few months. All the fundamentals are right in the team and the car is stunning. We have just got to be very realistic, as it is going to be a big, big task going to Le Mans with everything so new, but I think we are ready for it.”
Since Silverstone the team has been to the Spanish Aragon track again testing and covered more than a Le Mans race distance. At Spa both cars will again have their three Le Mans drivers competing so Stefan Mucke, Olivier Pla and Billy Johnson will be in the sister number 66 Ford GT.
The first time the WEC cars go on the 7.004 Kilometre (4.352 mile) Spa-Francorchamps track in the Ardennes region of Belgium will be on Thursday, 5th May for Free Practice 1, which will be from 12.15 to 13.45. This is then followed later that day by Free Practice 2 from 16.30 to 18.00. On Friday Free Prctice 3 is from 11.10 to 12.10 and then qualifying for the LMGTE cars from 16.05 to 16.30. On Saturday the six hour race starts at 14.30. All these times are local, so an hour ahead of BST.