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Brno and Nogaro Preview
By Lindsay Morle
Sep 18, 2007, 09:06
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The Scuderia Ecosse boys and girls have a busy couple of weeks ahead, with a pair of back-to-back races to contest. First up is Brno in the Czech Republic this weekend before the team heads west to Nogaro in France for the penultimate race in the 2007 FIA GT Championship.
The team almost took it’s first ever FIA GT victory at Brno last year but the Kirkaldy/Kinch Ferrari had an accident in the closing laps and the victory went to Tim Sugden. Unfortunately he was driving a JMB Ferrari and not a Scuderia Ecosse one at that time! Scuderia Ecosse’s first FIA GT win came just one race later at Oschersleben in Germany.
Although the results weren’t there the drivers all enjoyed racing at Brno and this year’s drivers are very much looking forward to a good race this weekend. Tim Mullen will again be partnered by Darren Turner, a partnership that will stay together for the remainder of the season, and Chris Niarchos and Andrew Kirkaldy return to Ferrari no.63 after missing the last round at Adria.
Once Brno is done the team will go straight to south-west France, to Nogaro, a new circuit to the FIA GT Championship. The track is a combination of tight, twisty turn and hairpins, with a long straight.
The newest of the Scuderia Ecosse drivers, Darren Turner, talks about the forthcoming races:
“I raced at Brno with Veloqx back in 2003 and really enjoyed the circuit. It’s very challenging with mainly medium and high speed corners so I imagine the Ferrari will be very good round there. Certainly I’ve learned a lot from Adria with the tyre situation and hopefully the team will have a better understanding of the direction we should take for the whole weekend when we get to Brno with regard to the tyres. I’m very optimistic as we had a good pace at Adria in the second half of the race when we ran the harder tyre and if we spend the whole weekend on that we should be in a good position for a good result but it does depend if the tyre suits the circuit.
“I’ve never been to Nogaro and don’t really know much about the circuit but it’s always nice to go to a new place and learn a new track. When this deal with Scuderia Ecosse came about I was quite excited about it, as much for driving with the team as for the prospect of learning three new circuits, Adria, Nogaro and Zolder. I’m really looking forward to the challenge. I know we don’t have that much time in testing when we are there but hopefully it won’t take me long to find my way around. It didn’t take long at Adria. I also hope it’s a circuit which suits the Ferrari 430 and we’ll have a winning combination.”
Both the Brno and Nogaro races will be shown live in the UK on the ‘Men and Motors’ digital channel. The Brno race will start at 1215 BST on Sunday 23 September and the Nogaro race will run at the same time one week later on Sunday 30 September.
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