After a strong performance of Nico Verdonck in Beijing where he obtained together with DKR-Engineering and Michael Rossi the team’s best result of the season: a 5th position after an intense battle with Ex-F1 driver Enrique Bernoldi, Nico was called up again to strengthen DKR for the GT1 World season finale at the challenging street circuit located around a lake in San Luis, near Mendoza, Argentina.
Before the race weekend started, there was a dramatic accident in San Luis when a train collided with a bus carrying children on a level crossing, where several children died, therefore 1min silence took place before the start of Championship race and teams ran with a memorial sticker on front bonnet in respect for the victims.
“During Free practice we suffered a mechanical failure on the right front damper, where we lost valuable running time. For Pre-Qualifying we missed performance, as we didn’t get a good balance with the car. For Qualifying Michael did Q1, but failed to pass into Q2, therefore I had no chance to get further up the grid for Race 1.”
Qualy race: Starting from P14, Nico didn’t hesitate and took a great start, passing 4 cars in 4 corners, until he was hit by 2 Ford-Gt’s. He lost 3 positions. Throughout his stint Nico had difficulties with a full fuel-tank to be competitive.
Nico: “I had a solid start and in the opening lap, I passed 4 cars till I got hit at T5 and T6, which was unfortunate and damaged our race result. Once we made the driver change and the fuel-tank started to get lighter, Michael managed to set solid laptimes, but better then P11 wasn’t possible.”
Champ Race: Last start of the 2011 season was very chaotic, as 4 cars where involved in a spectacular crash. Nico: “Immediatelly the Safety-Car came out, until 1 lap before the pit-window opened, the race restarted and my teammate Michael, was involved in an accident with an Aston-Martin, whereafter he touched the wall and continued, but due to the heavy damage, I wasn’t even able to drive.”
“Looking back to this long week, I’m obviously disappointed by the results we achieved. Particularly as thanks to Patrick Selleslagh (SRT) I was able to make my return back into GT1 World Championship and make my debut with Corvette in Navarra with Mike Hezemans, following my performances Kendy Janclaes (DKR) invited me to strengthen them in Beijing – where I had one of my best races this season with Michael Rossi – and San Luis. Also many thanks to Stéphane Ratel and his SRO crew for their support and a fantastic show at Olympic park in Bejing, which was an unforgettable experience.”
As the season is now over, Nico will continue to work out a good programme for 2012, more news soon, stay tuned at www.nicoverdonck.be.
Nico is invited to participate as guest speaker at the Professional Motor World Expo in Köln next week, which is a beautiful recognition. He will talk about how he manages his career.
Source : Nico Verdonck