TO END YEAR ON HIGH

Only one week on from Michael Lyons’ race at Silverstone Circuit where he secured third place in the Avon Tyres British GT Championship in his debut year in the series, the 20-year old Essex-based professional racing driver was racing again, but this time with a second appearance in the FIA GT3 European Championship at Zandvoort in Holland.Lyons was taking part in the final round of the European Championship for Scuderia Vittoria in the Ferrari GT3 458 – his usual team from the British series and this time working together with a new teammate, they set about getting their teeth into the Dutch circuit. Scuderia Vittoria being new to the series were at a disadvantage to the series regulars in practice having to run on new tyres and having never driven the circuit before Lyons started on Friday practice by lapping consistently, lowering his times and learning the track and securing valuable data to refine the set up. The main difference between the British and European series being that in Europe the cars use Michelin tyres.Despite a few technical issues in Friday practice, the car was dialed in and readied for qualifying on Saturday morning. Michael took to the track in qualifying 1 and put in a lap of 1:39:526, which was good enough for 4th on the grid for race 1, which then became 2nd when the two Mercedes ahead were given a ten place grid penalty each for tyre rule infringements. Lyons teammate then ran the car in qualifying two and put the car in 17th on the grid for race 2.As race 1 started on Saturday afternoon, Lyons got off to a great start and kept second place behind the leading Porsche. As the race progressed Michael settled into a strong rhythm and set the fastest lap of the race on lap 4 all the while putting in a very mature drive looking after his tyres in particular to save tyre wear on the softer Michelins used in FIA GT3 and to be able to hand over the car in good shape to Filip Salaquarda. As the lead Porsche pitted Lyons put in three very quick laps in the lead to give his team the best chance of beating the Porsche in the pits stops. Traffic unfortunately prevented Lyons’ teammate taking the lead, but those laps secured the podium slot they eventually sealed.Race 2 was a different story. Roles were reversed for the second event, and this meant that Filip started the race from his qualifying place of 17th. As the race started Filip managed to gain a few places. As Filip was due to pit for Michael to take over the car to bring it home, he came off the circuit and in the process irrevocably damaged the car. Although he recovered the car back to the pits, the team couldn’t get the car started again – an electrical problem caused by the accident to blame.After the race Michael said;“In British GT we’ve enjoyed a bit of success and finished 3rd in the championship, and it’s been a good year for the guys, this being Scuderia Vittoria’s first year it’s great to have so many wins and podiums.”“Last time in the Ferrari at Silverstone, we had a good pace in qualifying but some issues in the race. It’s great to have the opportunity to be so far up there at the start. I had a good pace, but it’s very difficult to overtake around here, so I was focused more on keeping good laps, watching the gap and looking after the tyres, so that Filip had a good opportunity for the last half of the race. It worked out really well.”“We only knew we were coming here last Sunday, so it’s great to be able to pull it all together so well. I had a hard time here in free practice yesterday, it’s my first time here, I think we were about 20th. This is a great result for me to look to the championship next year.”“ I was very happy with my performance this weekend as I could found speed within myself and made a big step from Friday to Saturday for qualifying and race. It bodes well for next year.”Although Michael’s modern racing programme in sports cars has finished for 2011 Michael will be keeping busy in the coming weeks by competing in the last round of the Derek Bell Trophy in Formula 5000.