Oschersleben: Balfe Motorsport preview

BALFE TEAM ALL SET FOR GERMAN GT TASK

The Balfe Motorsport squad will head to Oschersleben in Germany next weekend for the latest round of the FIA GT Championship with hopes of continuing its good form in chasing down the factory backed Porsches in the GT2/G2 class of the international series.

A superb G2 class victory and second on the road to one of the works GruppeM Porsches last time out at Brno in the Czech Republic was a boost for the Newark Glass Group backed team, in its first season at this level.

The Mosler MT900R has been the closest car on the grid to the two Porsches and on more than one occasion has split them as the chequered flag has fallen after three-hours of racing.

A brand new circuit to Shaun and team-mate Jamie Derbyshire, as well as the car and crew, will mean starting the weekend on the back foot in terms of set-up and knowledge. However, it is another challenge that Balfe is relishing.

"I'm looking forward to Oschersleben as from what I've seen the layout of the track should really suit the Mosler, just like Brno did," he said. "The fact that we haven't seen the circuit before doesn't really worry us, as its been that way for much of the season, it just means we have to get to grips with it as quickly as possible during the free-practice sessions on Friday and keep working on getting quicker over the whole weekend," he added.

The team and drivers have had a large break since the last race and everyone involved will certainly be fired-up to resume the challenge of narrowing the gap to the cars ahead of them on the grid.

"I know that the guys in the team are ready to get back to racing and I am keen to get back behind the wheel of the car again, especially at somewhere new and see where we are against the factory Porsches and the rest of the FIA grid," said Balfe. "Hopefully we can continue our pace from the start of the season and maybe spring a surprise during the three-hours on Sunday," he added.

The team will take to the circuit on Friday morning before qualifying gets underway on Saturday afternoon, with the three-hour endurance event starting on Sunday morning.

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