Damax suffer a difficult (expensive) start to the British GT 2007 Season at Oulton Park over the Easter weekend.
In Friday’s Official test Car 11 of Erdos and Keating was running in an engine and due to the late signing of Hopkins to join Brodie in the No10 car it was a case of getting comfortable in the car at Oulton.
During qualifying unfortunately the number 11 car went straight on into the barrier at the 1st corner causing the second session to be missed and having to start from the back of the grid in both races.
Race one was looking good. Car 10 was in P8 as it ran wide at island on the 4th lap but unfortunately could not rejoin the race. Car 11 was pushing up the grid and after the pit stop was running 8th place till a problem with the gear box meant it had to retire.
As the second race was about to start on Monday the rain began to fall, but not enough to change to wets. Starting from the back of the grid car 11 started to move it’s way up but unfortunately on the last corner of the 1st lap car 10 ran wide, car 11 backed off and with a little bit of help from a Morgan unfortunately didn’t manage to avoid the spinning car 10 taking them both out of the race.
Ward says “In pre season testing we seemed to be on the pace with a drivable car that the drivers felt confident in. At Oulton Park only Tommy Erdos with his vast experience was able to drive the car anywhere near the pace and even his best time would have only put him 6th on the grid while Jimmy, Phil and Steve as they started to go quicker found the car unpredictable & unstable to drive on the new hard Avon tyres and we suffered many trips into the gravel trap.” Tommy said “the car was unstable and like driving on a knife edge.”
Steve Ridgers said “With the Ascari being a mid engine and carbon constructed car it has good mid corner handling but lacks power down the straight making the tyres a very important part of the safety and performance of the car.”
At the end of 2006 season we took part in various British GT races using the Avon tyre and were competitive. We expected to carry this through to the 2007 season but with the same performance from the car, and the new hard Avon tyre being used for the 2007 season we are definitely not on the pace.
We left the weekend with many flat spotted tyres and a busy week prepping the cars for the 2nd round and went straight to Donington Park to carry out more back to back testing between the Michelin and Avon tyres.
The SRO have created a fantastic field of quality GT cars and while we are not the only team to be unhappy with the balance of performance on Avons, we are currently seeking SRO’s help & support to overcome the difficulties and I am sure this will be sorted out prior to Round 2 at Donington park on 21 & 22 April .
