FIA GT Championship

PK Carsport review on Oschersleben

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

Anthony Kumpen and Bert Longin were unable to redeem the assumed expectations. Both drivers are experiencing a shambolic season, and at Oschersleben no World Championship points were forthcoming even though it could well have been so. Unfortunately a problem starting the car as also a time penalty decided differently.

On Sunday midday Bert Longin brought the Saleen S7 to the starting grid with a view to taking the start a few minutes later. “I had a good start and immediately made up two places. After some five laps a small train had developed and we were easily able to follow the pace, everything remained possible. At a given moment I made a small error, the car spun, I lost some 17 seconds and fell back to 16th place. Fully fired up I soon made up 8 places and then came into the pits.”

Anthony Kumpen took over the wheel and was soon back on pace. “The Saleen wasn’t that bad, I was easily able to keep up with the rhythm and slotted into sixth place. Thirty minutes from the finish the safety car appeared on the track. Not at an unfavourable moment for us, as the plan was that we would continue for another five laps. I immediately came in, we had a quick driver change but when Bert tried to start the car nothing happened. When the Saleen S7 finally did start the safety car came passed and the light was on red. The regulation states that you must wait for the light to turn to green … ”

“… but this was not possible ” Bert Longin joins in “ because we would then have come to standstill once again. All I could do was burn the red light and shortly afterwards I received a stop & go whereby I had to return via the pitlane and obviously lost a fair amount of time. ”

“If we hadn’t received that time penalty we would have finished either fourth or fifth, now we ended in tenth place ” Anthony Kumpen grumbled. “ That’s another difficult one to put up with but we must remain positive and just remember that we could have finished this race in fourth spot. In fact fourth isn’t that far off a podium place” Kumpen concluded.

The PK – Carsport team can now take a break, the following round of the FIA GT championship being held at the beginning of August. For the team this will in fact be an important competition because it is on home ground, namely the 24 Hours of Francorchamps.