Strawberry Racing Team principal Warwick Ringham says he is optimistic for another strong performance from his drivers after pre-race testing for this week’s 2nd round of the Euro Max series at Wackersdorf in Bavaria.
“All the senior drivers have been close and pretty fast,” said Ringham from trackside at the German circuit. “James Greenway was very good and appears to be back on-song. Tom Fawcett is on the pace, as you’d expect, while Barrie Pullinger was also impressive – to go as quick as he did on the first day, despite never having seen the circuit before, was very encouraging. Mats van den Brand was on it too. All four were within a tenth of each other.”
In March, the reigning European champions scored a 1-2 at the opening round of the series with van den Brand leading Fawcett home at a rain-hit Salbris. Ringham is looking to build on that early success and says, “We’ve been here before and have a good set-up, so we should know what we’re doing when we get down to the business of racing. I think all the senior boys will be at, or very near, the front. If not, I’ll be disappointed.”
After competing in the BNL Karting Series at Genk last weekend, the team’s junior representative, Joel Affolter will join his colleagues on Wednesday. At Salbris, the young Dutchman’s 1st and 2nd places saw him take the early Euro Max points lead and naturally, he wants to maintain his advantage with similar results at Wackersdorf.
Having won an historic double last year with Josh Webster and Luke Varley, Warwick is keen for the team to set a new record, by retaining its senior and junior titles with different drivers.
“That would be special wouldn’t it? We’re very fortunate to have five very talented lads racing with us. Each one brings something to the team and they all work hard together. It is too early to start talking about titles, but of course that’s something we are all very focused on. Each race is a step on the way to our objective and I am confident that we have the people capable of delivering that.”
The event gets underway on Wednesday (26 May) with free practice. Timed qualifying will take place on Friday before the heats on Saturday and Sunday’s all important finals.
