22/05/2006

TEAM NEWS: Chris Niarchos and Tim Mullen made it three-out-of-three for Scuderia Ecosse in yesterday’s two-hour British GT race at a very wet Donington Park.  Niarchos started the action-packed race on wets and did a sensible job, bringing the car in for Mullen after an hour of racing in tricky conditions. Mullen joined the race on intermediate tyres and was soon the fastest man on the track. Apart from another downpour that necessitated a stop for wets later on in the race, Mullen managed to avoid the drama going on all around him and cruised home to victory.  



Chris Niarchos: “That wasn’t our prettiest win, nor was it easy! We had to work hard out there but we chose the right strategy and made the most of the difficult conditions.  We decided that I would start the race as a wet event at Donington is always going to have the Safety Car in play during the first stint.  I lost a couple of positions on the first lap as I was struggling to get any grip at all but I held fourth until the halfway mark when I handed over to Tim. We are having a tough time with tyres both in the wet and  the dry  as we just  can’t get any heat into them;  they come off  the  car hardly worn! All in all a great result but not pretty!”

Tim  Mullen:  “Considering  the  conditions  that  was  a  good  result.  It  was  pretty  tricky  out  there  on inters when the rain came but we got the job done and got another win in the bag. We had a tough time with tyres this weekend; Avon has a lot of work to do.”

Stewart  Roden,  Team  Principal:  “Both  drivers  did  a  top  job  in  the  wet  conditions.  They’re  right when they say the tyres are a problem for us. When we’re not constrained by a control tyre (such as in FIA GT) the car is a dream to drive but we really suffered here.  It was a relief to take the win.”

Next up for Scuderia Ecosse is the FIA GT race at Brno in the Czech Republic next weekend.