2010 News
JaguarRSR's FIRST TAKE FROM LE MANS
- 11 June 2010
Le Mans, France (June 9, 2010) - JaguarRSR had its first chance to run at Le Mans today fighting issues from the start, but ended the evening late with the #81 JaguarRSR XKR GT2 getting more situated for what the team hopes a strong performance tomorrow.
As the car was pulled out of the #9 garage and into its pit box this evening for the free practice session, JaguarRSR Principal Partner and co-drive Paul Gentilozzi was behind the wheel ready to turn the first laps in the XKR racer. But a clutch problem changed the plan and put the car back into the garage for investigation. Once that was sorted out, it was Scottish driver Ryan Dalziel who got into the cockpit and logged the first laps at Le Mans in Jaguar's return.
"The primary objective of today was getting our Le Mans "rookie" driver, Ryan, to complete the ten laps required for him to drive in Thursday's qualifying session," said Gentilozzi. "We accomplished that and he had a chance to get acquainted with the circuit. We chased some electronics issues that kept us from getting up to speed, but believe we found the cause of it and can make the repairs for tomorrow to get the car back on track and go faster."
Dalziel may be a Le Mans rookie, but he is no stranger to endurance racing: he is the winner of the 2010 24 Hours of Daytona. After his first run on the track, he said, "For me, it was a baptism of fire, especially at night time - it was not what I expected. The track is actually not too difficult; the challenge is that there is a fine balance of trying to stay out of the way of other people and trying to build your own performance. The difference in speed between the LMP and GT cars blew me away. I have a lot to learn, but luckily I have Marc (Goossens) who has a lot of good data. I am sure the whole team will come back stronger tomorrow."
Marc Goossens, the team's third driver from Belgium, also had some seat time so that he could give valuable feedback to the team seeing that this is his tenth run at Circuit de la Sarthe. The crew and drivers will work hard throughout the day tomorrow in preparation for the final session of qualifying later in the evening.
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For further media information on JaguarRSR and images please go to www.media.jaguarrsr.co.uk. Also visit the team's site at www.RSRJaguar.com.