FIA GT Championship

Succesful Silverstone test for Balfe team

© David Lord

The Spirit Group backed Balfe Motorsport team racked up more miles on its Saleen S7R GT1 challenger this week, as Jamie Derbyshire and Neil Cunningham got behind the wheel on the Silverstone South circuit. It was the first opportunity for the pair to try the freshly rebuilt car before the official test and media days at Dijon next week. Both drivers were keen to take to the track and begin the acclimatization in readiness for the new season. The early part of the morning was spent seat fitting and getting all the drivers comfortable. Shaun Balfe then took the car out for a systems check before handing over to Jamie Derbyshire. A handful of short runs followed for the fellow Britcar 24 Hour winner, before he handed the car over to Cunningham. Even though it was only his first run in the car, he was impressed with the performance of the Saleen and how comfortable he felt, certainly compared to the last GT1 car he drove, the Lister Storm in 2004.
“It felt really good straight away, said Jamie. “There is obviously more power there than the Mosler, but it’s easy to drive and I can tell that the team has done a first class job in rebuilding it. It’s a Balfe Motorsport car - everything has been done properly. I was looking forward to getting in the car and I’m really happy now that I’ve had my first run. The carbon brakes are something that we are all going to have to get used to, but that will come with some more testing. You sit very upright in the Lister and in the Saleen you’re lower down and feel more attached to the car. I’m looking forward to Dijon now, getting more miles and seeing where we are compared to the rest of the GT1 grid,” he added.

Neil Cunningham had been keen to get into the car from the moment he arrived at the circuit and had the biggest grin on his face when the team fired up the 7-litre V8. The quick Kiwi was immediately up to pace when he got out on track and was full of enthusiasm when he finally climbed back out of the cockpit just before lunchtime.

“Everything went really well, I’m really happy,” he said. “The team works well together and the car felt really good from the very first lap, they’ve obviously put a lot of work in and it shows. We managed to get plenty of laps and started to make small changes to the set-up, which made an immediate positive step forward. The test in France next week will be a good chance to see where we are time wise, but so far everything is good,” he added.