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Silverstone

Eurosport Super Racing Weekends

13/05/2001

Saturday

Morning

A couple of interesting items of news from Silverstone this morning - but first of all....THE WEATHER IS FANTASTIC! It's Cup Final (soccer) day in the UK, and fine weather at Cardiff for that event is matched here at Silverstone.

Laurence Pearce has used a case of force majeure to introduce a third driver into the #2 Bailey / Springer Lister; Julian Bailey has a rib injury, so Pearce has called up 'the average professional' from his ranks, 1999 Privilege GT Champion David Warnock. "I suppose they thought they'd better call in the pros," concurred Warnock, who has dipped in and out of the FIA GT Championship since 1997. Perhaps this is a sign of future (2002) involvement for this man.

Stephane Ortelli is replaced by Xavier Pompidou in the lead Freisinger Porsche (#57), and with Perspective Racing replacing their 911 GT3RS witth an R, I can hear Janos Wimpffen calling for its chassis number already. The officiaL list gives all the Porsches the GT3R title, incidentally.

A brilliant prediction, or knowing that Wimpffen man too well? "Perspective Racing #55 is using their 2000 model GT3R. They definitely used the newer GT3RS at Brno and Le Mans. Which did they use at Monza and Magny Cours?" enquires Wimpffen, not half an hour after the Editor's prediction. Yes, we'll find out. Now. Sir. Wimpffen, author of what Road & Track have honoured as the best racing book ever (TIME & TWO SEATS, of course), with Mark Donohue's The Unfair Advantage as runner-up.
Hail, the great man Janos Wimpffen.

Besides the Prodrive Ferrari, other cars not to make the final line-up are the two Redolfi Orlando Porsches (#14 and the opening round winner, #69), and the #64 Coca Cola Porsche. We knew the Wieth Ferari wasn't coming, while the Bernard Winderickx Viper was damaged at Magny-Cours and isn't here either.

The Prodrive Ferrari withdrawal produced a statement from them referring to a need to clarify the regulations relating to the transmission. Article 9.1.2 states that "the position of the gearbox is free provided the location and orientation remain the same". Some of the internal parts of the Xtrac transmission do not have the same orientation as the road car ie. they're not longitudinal.

"We consider our car to be within both the spirit and letter of the law," said David Lapworth of Prodrive. ...until the interpretation is absolutely clear, we believe it is in everyone's best interests that we withdraw."