Adria: Full Speed Racing preview

Full Speed Racing chasing points in Adria

Full Speed Racing is targeting a points-finish as the team visits Adria in Italy this weekend for the second round of the 2009 FIA GT Championship.

The squad made its series debut under the Full Speed Racing banner with a pair of Saleen S7Rs at the opening round at Silverstone two weeks ago, just missing the points with car 11 of Luke Hines and Stephane Lemeret after an unfortunately-timed Safety Car period.

The race represents a very different challenge from Silverstone, with the fast, sweeping corners and long straights of the UK track replaced by the tight and twisty 2.702km layout of Adria. An added challenge comes in the fact that the race will take place in the twilight hours, with the two-hour event starting at 19:50 local time.

The opening weekend was generally a positive one for the team, and Hines and Lemeret are boosted for round 2 with the addition of Andreas Leberle to their garage. Leberle will engineer car 11 in Adria and brings important experience of working with the chassis having previously run the same Saleen when it was owned by Zakspeed. His expertise, which helped Zakspeed to fifth in the championship in 2006, will be a very useful addition to the Full Speed Racing team for the Italian round, particularly as the car qualified on pole at Adria in '06.

Both cars have been fitted with brand new 7 litre Ford V8 engines since Silverstone, although the team has been notified that the #13 car of Ferdinando Monfardini and Michel Orts will be subject to Performance Balancing measures in Adria.

The chassis, a GT-013 model, is slightly different from the #11 car, but the same as the K plus K Motorsport car which won the opening round in Silverstone. Therefore, the GT Bureau, responsible for equalising the cars in the series, has informed the team that the car will have its restrictor reduced from 34 to 33.1mm and an additional 10kg of ballast. However, due to the late notice, the team has the option to run 50kg of ballast in Adria instead of accepting the smaller restrictor.

Team Principal Graham Nash said: "We only received the news on Monday and the cars were already on their way to Adria at the time. Therefore we'll run the extra 50kg of ballast this weekend and then assess it afterwards.

"The whole team is looking forward to the race. We were a little disappointed not to score any points in the opening round, but overall we felt our performance was strong. Adria is a very different proposition from Silverstone and the 'night race' aspect adds another challenge, but we believe we can make another step forward this weekend."

Round 2 of the FIA GT Championship at Adria takes place on Saturday 16 May at 19:50 (local time).

-credit: fullspeed.co.at