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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 2</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><B><FONT FACE="Tahoma" SIZE="3">The German</FONT></B></TD></TR> <TR><TD width="100%" align="center"><img border="1" src="Storage/nn%202SimiFIA.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">If Tim Sugden is the frustrated one, Wolfgang Kaufmann ought to be too, but you'd never think it to meet him. He's had a difficult FIA GT season so far, but he's got plenty of other racing to occupy him. In fact, he must be the busiest GT driver of all - as he was in '99, if memory serves me well.<BR> <BR> What's happened to you so far this season, Wolfgang? Why haven't you and Stephane Ortelli been right on the pace? (That's almost all you need to ask him, he's then away with every answer you'll ever need).<BR> <BR> "It's easy to explain. The whole package must be right. We're new to the GT3R, and we're the only team running Yokohamas. They were fine at Daytona. The slick tyres are OK, but they could be better. Yokohama are working on that. They had a different compound at Le Mans for the Test Day, but we couldn't have that compound here for the FIA GT. We'll be much better after Le Mans. <BR> <BR> "We've also had problems with rain tyres (which we've needed a lot this year already). But the Yokohama wets were fantastic at Daytona. They were completely different at Brno - it was like driving on slicks in the wet, which was no fun. We had no chance at Magny-Cours in the wet. Luckily it wasn't raining for the race there.<BR> <BR> Wolfgang had quite a moment in the Superpole at Silverstone.<BR> <BR> "The car is very nervous; it's really stiff, and at Becketts I hit a bump probably 20 cm different from every other time through there, and it was a lot of work to hold onto it. After that, with dirty tyres, I was losing plenty of time. But I lost my time anyway. There are two holes in the airbox which are covered with a piece of aluminium. One of them dropped into the engine, and we found it lying next to a valve. If that had gone any further, we would have lost the engine.<BR> <BR> "Stephane Ortelli is in the Supercup in Austria this weekend, so I have Xavier Pompidou with me this week. He was with the team at Le Mans (where he was fastest in class in the reserve Freisinger Porsche), while I was at Jarama for the Spanish GT Championship. I should have qualified in Spain then travelled to Le Mans for Sunday morning, but the team mamanger phoned me on Saturday to say that I had to be at Le Mans for a Drivers Briefing at 15.00 on Saturday. That was impossible, so I stayed in Spain and missed the Test.<BR> <BR> "The Spanish Championship is excellent. I'm enjoying it even more because I've got the power of the GT2 Porsche, but we have six GT2s, a Saleen, a Marcos Mantara, a Lister, a Mustang and a Viper. I was one tenth behind the Lister in Qualifying and two tenths behind the Saleen. That's fun. I was also quickest in the second race there. I started tenth and took the lead. The big crowds love the overtaking, it's a really good Championship."<BR> <BR> So no signs of frustration from the amiable German because things aren't quite right yet in the FIA GT Championship. "I'm also doing the French Championship, so that's eight meetings in France, six in Spain, the FIA GT Championship, Le Mans, I'm doing the Vallelunga ELMS race with Paco Orti, and I'm hoping to do one race in the Japanese series."<BR> <BR> Kaufmann and Sugden, busy fellows both. <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <BR> <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>