FIA GT Championship

Lister Storm Racing in Bahrain’s FIA GT race

On to the Kingdom of Bahrain, a very different place to the “flash” of Dubai, with track facilities which are the best we have seen in the FIA GT Championship this year. As normal, the first practice was spent setting up the car, drivers learning the circuit etc.

Second practice and Justin showed the same pace as previously shown in the races although he was 9th fastest overall, the gap between 3rd and 9th was extremely close Justin’s time was 1.57.7 compared
with the time for third of 1.57.1.

Qualifying; unfortunately Justin was unable to match his practice time, only managing a 1.58.67 so, after the first session, was 10th on the grid. As both sets of tyres had been used, both drivers qualified, the team decided that nothing could be learnt from going out in the second
qualifying so, more time to prepare the Storm for tomorrow’s race.
However, the cooler conditions during second qualifying meant that
everyone went quicker and Justin’s time put the Storm 13th on the
grid.

Finally, the race the last one of this season and not the most exciting for the Lister team; while the Maserati and Ferrari were fighting for the Championship, Justin moved up to 10th before handing over to Liz on the hour once again, no change of tyres. Liz then drove for an uneventful hour. Unfortunately, when Justin got back in for the final hour the starter motor was dead. For some reason it had totally burnt out so that was the end of our race.

Once again, in free practice and the first hour of the race, the Storm
showed it is still competitive. It has been a very long year in the FIA
Championship, 11 races starting in April and finishing at the end of
November, we are confident that the Storm GT can still win FIA
races given the right package. As for 2006 news will follow.

© 2005 Planetlemans.com.