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Full Speed Racing will be back in FIA GT action on June 20/21 at the Oschersleben circuit, Germany. 

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FIA GT Championship

Round 2, Adria 

First points of ’09 for Full Speed Racing at Adria 

Full Speed Racing scored its first FIA GT Championship points of the season at Adria in Italy on Saturday after Stephane Lemeret and Luke Hines put in an excellent performance to bring the team’s No.11 Saleen home sixth.

The pair lined up ninth on the grid after a clutch problem in qualifying had prevented the car from running at optimum performance. There were no such worries for team mates Michel Orts and Ferdinando Monfardini however, the latter producing an excellent effort at his home round to qualify sixth, just over a second off of pole position.

The two hour race on Saturday evening started at 19.50pm local time, meaning that the cars and drivers would be racing into the dusk. Monfardini started at the wheel of the No.13 S7R where he initially made good progress, climbing up two positions to fourth by quarter distance.

The cooler temperatures were suiting Pirelli’s harder compound tyres and a good finish looked on the cards. Misfortune however, was about to strike. A problem with the water pump sent the car’s temperature skyrocketing to 110 degrees leaving the Italian with little choice but to retire.

Meanwhile, thanks to a new clutch fitted over night and the grippier Pirelli rubber, the No.11 entry was fairing much better. Lemeret took the start, immediately setting about those in front and was running fifth by the time he handed over to Hines. A solid middle stint by the Englishman followed before Lemeret returned to reel off the final half-hour untroubled and score the team’s first three championship points for sixth. 

Full Speed Racing Team Manager Graham Nash said, “We’ve made an excellent step forward this weekend thanks to the two new engines. The Pirelli tyres also worked much better than at Silverstone in the opening round so a huge thanks to everyone involved there. Obviously we’re disappointed not to have both cars in the points as Ferdinando had been driving very well all weekend before the water pump problem scuppered what looked like a top five finish. I am delighted though to have our first points of the season so congratulations to Stephane and Luke who put in an excellent performance to climb from ninth to sixth by the end.

“We’ll be testing again at Silverstone on May 20 where we’ll hope to find some extra performance through set-up and greater understanding of the tyres so we can be even more competitive in Germany.”

No.11 Full Speed Racing driver Stephane Lemeret said, “It feels great to have got Full Speed Racing’s first ever points, especially as we had to fight our way through to get them. With a new clutch there were no problems at all and the car ran faultlessly. Our car had a new engineer - Andreas Leberle – for this round and we really made the most of his experience. Hopefully we can continue to benefit from his knowledge during the next race at Oschersleben.”

Full Speed Racing disappointed to miss points on FIA GT debut

Full Speed Racing finished ninth on their FIA GT debut in the opening round of the championship at Silverstone on Sunday after seeing their chances of a points paid finish dashed by an unfortunate safety car period.

The team’s pair of Saleens had run well in practice but endured a testing Saturday qualifying session. While car #11 of Luke Hines and Stephane Lemeret set the ninth fastest time, the #13 sister SR7 of Ferdinando Monfradini and Michel Orts would be forced to start from the pitlane after an engine failure in practice.

A monumental effort from the whole team overnight ensured that the re-built engine and car were ready come Sunday. Monfradini took the start and was able to make significant progress through the field. By lap 12, he was just six seconds behind team mate Hines who was also enjoying a competitive first stint.

The opening round of stops saw both Orts and Lemeret take over without drama and it wasn’t long before the pair were producing consistent lap times to remain inside the top ten. 

Then, during the final driver change, the #13 car hit trouble. A broken connector meant that the battery was unable to charge and, now empty, there wasn’t sufficient power to turn over the starter motor. After an incredible effort by the whole team to re-build the engine, it was a cruel way to finish, the car retiring in the pits. 

There were no such problems for the second Saleen however which by now had Hines back behind the wheel. The car was looking likely to score points on the team’s debut  until an unfortunately timed mid-race safety car period had wrecked the strategy. Despite putting in an excellent final shift, the Briton, who knows Silverstone well, was unable to bridge the gap to eighth, bringing the #11 car home ninth, one place shy of a final championship point. 

Full Speed Racing’s Team Principal Graham Nash said: “To be honest, we’re quite disappointed to leave Silverstone without scoring at least a point as we were very unlucky with the safety car situation. Having said that, we’re an all new team and we’re still in the learning process. We’ll look forward to having everything perfectly in place for Adria – the car, the set-up and developing the Pirelli tyres. We’ve got good, solid drivers who know how to get the job done so I’m confident that we’ll be better prepared in Italy.

“One of the biggest issues we have at the moment is tyres. The rules insist that we must start on the medium compound which certainly favours the Michelin runners. It takes us a long time to get them up to temperature so we lost some performance in the opening stint thanks to that. The hard Pirelli option works much better though so we’re speaking with the FIA and SRO about this for the next round. It’s worth about one second per lap to us.”

#11 driver Luke Hines said: “The car felt good so it’s a shame that we couldn’t get the reward of a points finish on debut. I know Silverstone fairly well from my junior motorsport days so I was able to make the most of that experience. Had it not been for the safety car, I’m sure we’d have been there or there abouts for seventh or eighth.”

Full Speed Racing will be back in action for the second round of the FIA GT Championship from Adria, Italy in a fortnight’s time (May 16).