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<body> <Table Width="550" border="0" style="border-collapse: collapse" cellpadding="0"><TR><TD Width="35"><IMG SRC="//www.totalmotorsport.com/images/spacer.gif" WIDTH="35" HEIGHT="1"></td><td> <CENTER><Table border="0" width="100%"> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="5">FIA GT CHAMPIONSHIP</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2">14/05/2001</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="4">Sugden And Kaufmann 1</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="3">The Englishman</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><img border="1" src="Storage/nn%201BothFIA.jpg"></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="1">  </FONT></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="left"><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="2">TotalMotorSport caught up with these two On Sunday, Wolfgang before the FIA GT race, Tim after it. Both are incredibly busy fellows this year, both love their racing, both are real racers - but they're very different characters. <BR> <BR> Tim Sugden was bitterly disappointed and frustrated...after finishing sixth in N-GT, EMKA's first point of the season. He'd already explained in the race preview here that the season hadn't gone well so far, and the feeling was that this time it was going to come right, in front of the home 'crowd'. <BR> <BR> But initially it went wrong, at the first corner. "I got hit by someone, which obviously caused some damage. I had understeer and oversteer (in the first stint). Someone was 'dicking about' in a GT2 Porsche." Those remarks were just after he'd got out of the GT3R, after 39 laps. He didn't have long to rest before he was back in. Steve O'Rourke was a little off the pace, shall we say, and he gave the team the option to call him in if they felt Tim Sugden was ready to go back out. Of course he was.<BR> <BR> His second stint was 33 laps, his 72 tours surely exceeding the number completed by anyone else in this race. He'd driven as hard as possible, yet he was fed up with sixth. "The car felt like it wanted to do well. My best lap was a 1:57.2, but we'd have been consistently a second a lap faster throughout without the damage. I wanted to come here and at last show how fast we could run."<BR> <BR> What he did do was prove once again what a talent he has; even with the damage, he passed and pulled away from the second JMB Ferrari 360, and couldn't believe that he was in third place as his first stint came to a conclusion. Where had the rest gone? Well, the Larbre Porsche pitted early, Riccitelli had to pit after a grassy excusrsion, Neugarten and Eichmann were gone starting lap 2, the second Red Bull Porsche smoked into retirement, Wolfgang Kaufmann pitted early for a look at the back of the car.....<BR> <BR> After Steve O'Rourke's 17 laps, Sugden had no one within reach. But he only knows how to drive flat out, and he was hauling in the gap to the Sylvain Noel Haberthur Porsche. It was uncatchable, but in truth, Sugden was in his own race against the clock. Until the #60 pitted for a splash, that is. A six second gap was suddenly almost nothing as they approached Luffield for the last time, where Noel seemed to miss a gear and Sugden was through, round the outside - to a point, the first of the season.<BR> <BR> His father wishes that his son wasn't so busy with his race team, Tim Sugden Motorsport. That outfit is preparing eight cars this year, but once the man gets behind the wheel, he's as focused as ever. The best result of his career was that fourth place at Le Mans, in the EMKA McLaren F1 GTR in '99. Shame he's still 'dicking about' in an N-GT Porsche. Go on Bentley, give him a call - if you need someone, that is.<BR> <BR> </FONT></TD></TR> </TABLE><BR> </CENTER> <BR><CENTER><font size="1" color="#808080" face="Tahoma">Copyright ©2000-©2023 TotalMotorSport</font></CENTER> </td> </tr> </table> </body>