Jean Marc Bachelier comes in 3rd at Misano.
On a hot summer's day on the East coast of Italy, the Ferrari Challenge Dealer Team GB took to the track for the 4th round of the season. The weekend's racing started with some great results; one pole position and a podium finish in Race 1 of the European series of the Ferrari Challenge Coppa Shell Championship.
Qualifying for Race 1 provided the team with a fantastic start to the weekend with Mike Cantillon securing pole position with a time of 1.43.845. This was closely followed by the British team's Jean Marc Bachelier in 3rd position, reinforcing his strong performance progression throughout the 2008 season.
With track temperatures in excess of 45 degrees the race proved challenging for even the most experienced drivers. Only 18 of the 28 starters finished the race and Jean Marc, who shares a car with Yannick Mallegol, demonstrated that calm consistency can often ensure success. After slipping to 4th position at the start and with limited overtaking opportunities, regaining his position looked to be a difficult task; however he quickly won back his 3rd place and defended this position through to the chequered flag.
Mike Cantillon, who had secured such a strong position for the start of the race, fended off Team Tamsen's Wido Roessler who was pushing hard to steal the frontrunner's position, by the 7th lap Mike had managed to increase his lead by 2 seconds, however this commanding performance was soon ended by an unfortunate incident at the end of the back straight, finishing his race.
Jamie Constable who secured a respectable 6th position in qualifying also performed well. Unfortunately a tricky start pushed him back several places to 10th position, but by the time some loose debris on the track caused a severe puncture at 215km per hour, Jamie had managed to fight his way up to 4th and was comfortably keeping pace with the leaders.
Finally the Ferrari Challenge Dealer Team GB's Jack Gerber in car 126 showed that the skills he learned as a member of Fiorano Ferrari have paid off, Jack started the race on the 11th row, but came home in a very positive 13th, putting him into the points for the second time in his first season of racing.
After Race 1 on Saturday evening, the team is back on track today, Sunday 13th July at 10:30am with another great qualifying performance from Mike Cantillon starting the race from 3rd position. Fellow Team Vertu Racing driver Jamie Constable will start the race from 6th position, with Yannick in 15th and Jack on row 12.
