FIA GT Championship
Dramatic start for PK Carsport at Silverstone
© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat
Last week, Kumpen and Longin won the two opening rounds of the Belgian GT Championship, but the first weekend of the FIA GT Championship was completely different. PK Carsport tried everything possible; but the crew didn’t find the right set-up for the Saleen SR7, especially with the changing and tricky weather conditions. The Belgian Saleen finally finished 12th in GT1.
“We’re very disappointed”, tells Bert Longin after the race. “This is not only very disappointing for us, but I think it is even worse for the crew and the team. The boys work day and night to find the right set-up and to get the car as good as possible, but nothing worked out for us this weekend. We have to forget this British weekend and focus on what will follow later on in the season.”
Not only both the free practice sessions, but also the qualification was already very difficult. Finally the PK Carsport Saleen finished 26th in qualifying. “It was clear that the Silverstone track and the changing weather conditions didn’t suit our car”, explains Anthony Kumpen. “We had two options after qualifying; or continuing the way we did or trying something completely different. We changed the set-up radically, but it didn’t work out. Last but not least we had a flat tyre during the second half of the race and that was the final part of a very sad race weekend. I just want to forget a quick as possible what happened here…”
The next race of Kumpen and Longin is the second meeting of the Belgian GT Championship in Dijon. Kumpen and Longin will defend their leading position in the champioship on board of the Gravity International Mosler.
(PK Carsport)
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Will they use the 2007 spec parts from Oreca?
Who’s car was this before? I know Labre only bought 1 which was the ex-Oreca car.
They’ll be fine; all dry weather testing and then for it to rain at Silverstone with no data to pull from since they never ran the car before is problematic enough for them to do badly without trying very hard.
It is the Zakspeed Saleen from 2006, but with Pirelli tires.
I thought Larbre has two ex-Oreca Saleens.
http://www.planetlemans.com/2007/12/26/pk-carsport-goes-for-saleen-in-2008-fia-gt-championship/
Larbre has 2 ex Oreca saleens one in FIA GT and one in LMS.
The C5R could have given them better results. They should buy it back.
The S7R chassis is getting old. It came out in 2001 or 2002 compared to the MC12, C6R, and DBR9, this thing is an aging relic and has weaknesses only a complete makeover can cure. Not just update packages.
Being an independent small manufacturer Saleen just can’t compete on development funds with manufacturers like Fiat, GM, and Ford.
And besides Ferrari, Pratt & Miller, and Prodrive are much better reknown race shops than Oreca.
One of the best road cars ever, but limited success in racing. There might not be a replacement soon either because Steve Saleen has other agendas (chinese cars) and Oreca wants to go prototype racing.
If GM wins LeMans and Acura does unveil a new NSX expect Maserati, corvette and Aston Martin to reload with brand new cars. Doesn’t look good for saleen.
At least they’ve had better success than the Murcielago GT-R. But that’s only because Audi is very concentrated on the R10 TDI program.