Cirtek Motorsport - Brazil's Mil Milhas report

Cirtek Motorsport takes Nelson Piquet to Mil Milhas victory with Aston Martin

Cirtek Motorsport celebrated its first win of the 2006 season at the Brazilian Mil Milhas event in Sao Paolo at the weekend. Nelson Piquet, the three-time Formula One world champion, his son Nelsinho, twice Indy 500 winner Helio Castro Neves, and the team's regular driver Christophe Bouchut, won what is believed to be the fastest ever Mil Milhas race in the event's 50 year history by five laps in the team's Aston Martin DBR9.

Preparation for the race did not go smoothly as, through no fault of the team, three boxes containing tools and the race engine were left behind in London and did not arrive at the circuit until Friday. "We had to beg and borrow tools to take out the old engine, but when the new one hadn't arrived, we had to put it back in," said team manager Rob Schirle. "On Wednesday we didn't even have a spanner. The Cirtek consignment was three sets of tyres, and a few boxes with some spares in them, and nothing else."

The equipment arrived in time for the race, and the team set about preparations immediately, preparing for what was to be a faultless event. "This is probably the best line-up I will ever have in terms of history and ability," said Schirle. "I had a double Indy winner, a three time Formula One champion and a double FIA GT champion and Le Mans winner, and they were a pleasure to work with. They didn't get on my back when the equipment wasn't there -- they all knew the situation. Come the race, everything went smoothly.

"The fact that we won the last big race of 2005 and the first race of 2006 bodes well for the rest of the season, and we will be building on it this year. I am particularly looking forward to Le Mans, which is very important to me. The chance to do Le Mans and run a competitive driver line-up against the factory and try to get a podium is one of my goals this year."

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