Nurburgring - 09/09/2001   First Qualifying Report   No Silver Racing Viper at the Nurburgring, because the team decided to take a holiday after Spa and is now preparing for the end of the championship. Money is no issue for the Silver Racing Team. There are good contacts between them and the Box Racing Team. Maybe they will collaborate further on as they did at Spa, very successfully. For 2002 this option is also to be discussed. The Racing Box team manager explained that next year there could be a separate “Professional and Gentleman” Championship, one race but an opportunity for the amateur teams to win. Racing Box / Silver Racing could make that their main goal. No Belmondo Racing Viper, that car is for sale as seen in Auto-Hebdo. And the Proton Competition Porsche GT2 crashed heavily during practice and will be out for the race. Christian Ried: "I was driving the car, and I was a bit too fast for the situation. The rear just went, and when I braked on the wet track, nothing happened. I hit the barriers quite hard. I’m OK, but the car is very bad. We’ll have to see what the mechanics say." Later the team announced the car was retiring from the race. But on the other hand the Wieth 550 and the Reiter Diablo do race at home. Both teams drive with normal engines, so no tuned race engines. No surprises in first qualifying, with the Ferrari 550 of Prodrive in first place followed by the Bleekemolen Carsport Viper. Rickard Rydell: "It was a good session. There was only really one lap after the green flag at the end, and you had to make sure there was no traffic, and get a good, clean lap in. We had intermediate tyres at the end. I’m quite happy with the car; it’s better than when we started yesterday. It’s also nice to see that the car is competitive here too, not just at the A1 Ring with its long straights. It was also very good with the Dunlop tyres in the wet conditions." But third and fourth are surprises to me: the second Lister of Nicolaus Springer and Julian Bailey but surely the ART Viper, that used to be (for one race) a Lister, and now is a Viper again. François Lafon: "All the talent of a driver like Jean-Pierre Jarier comes out in a situation like that one (fourth)." The best times were set right at the end, as the cold track dried. Mike Jordan was out early on in the #1 Lister. "It was really good at the start – Laurence told me to go out and do five steady laps. And then he came on the radio, and told me I was P1, and to stay out. It was a real mark of confidence. I eventually came in and handed over to Jamie. But it was great to be out there at the start – at one point I caught the Prodrive and passed it. But Jamie was on wets at the end – literally wrong place at the wrong time (12th)." The #2 Lister got it right. Nicolaus Springer: "We were in the right place at the right time – and Julian is always good for a last minute surprise (third)." Further on the Kumpen and Belloc Chryslers in fifth and sixth. In N-GT, again the JMB Ferrari 360 proved not to be a Qualifying lover. Eight Porsches on top with Peter and Werner in front. Stephane Ortelli: "Second is not bad at all. The car was good, and we put slicks on at the end and it was all very close. The car is going well, and I was out at the right time to get the one fast lap we needed. It’s the second time in a row we’ve made the Superpole, which is very good. My new team-mate Robin Liddell is going very well too." Philip Peter (fastest): "We saw yesterday that the car was good in the rain, and the Pirelli tyres are especially good in wet and damp conditions. The car has a really good balance. I would say that we don’t have the last step of the engine – we have the three-ring piston version, and the latest version is the two-ring, which gives an advantage." But maybe the battle among the Zuffenhausen cars could be an advantage to the Ferrari in the race and the championship. Joost Custers Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport