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“MOTOR RACING:”

“NIKI Lanik made his European FIA GT Championship debut at Silverstone. The double UK Clio  Winter Champion has decided to move up from tin-top racing into GTs and secured a drive with the Porsche-supported Prospeed team alongside Belgian Bart Couwberghs. The 22-year-old was invited to the Algarve at the end of April by the boss, Rudi Penders, to test the brand new Porsche Cup S-spec racing car. The test was very successful and Lanik committed himself to the season which will take in races across Europe. Friday’s free practice did not go too well for Ashurst Wood’s Lanik but they qualified 18th from the 36-strong field. They finished 14th in the first race but were not classified in the second.”

READ MORE ON: www.thisiseastgrinstead.co.uk

“Young Austrian talent Niki Lanik drove a great stint in the #11 ProSpeed Porsche 911 Cup S and on his race debut managed to get into twelfth place, before handing over the car to Bart Couwberghs. Eventually Bart Couwberghs finished the race in fourteenth place.”

READ FULL PRESS RELEASE:
English: http://prospeed.be/communiques/2009_05_03_Review_Silverstone_EN.pdf
Nederlands: http://prospeed.be/communiques/2009_05_03_Review_Silverstone_NL.pdf
Français: http://prospeed.be/communiques/2009_05_03_Review_Silverstone_FR.pdf

Niki comments: “It was a great sunny day, and there were a lot of people at the race track for Silverstone’s Supercar Raceday. My team mate started 28th on the grid and fought his way up to 21st place for the first half-hour stint. He then came in and did a very fast driver change, and I was out the pit quick, catching up a Ford GT on my out lap. I was then involved in a collision at Turn 1 and wrote the Porsche off. This was certainly not the way I had my weekend planned, considering I had invited 38 VIPs who watched me race from the suite.”

“I have put this crash behind me, and am training hard for Adria on 15-16 May were the team and I will be aiming for two top 8 results.”

This race can be watched live on: http://www.fiagt3.com/

Niki comments: “This was my GT debut and I learnt a lot, such as a rolling race start, a variety of cars, intercom between the team and I, a 30-minute stint, followed by a driver change, to mention a few of variables. I had a good start and fought my way up to 11th place over 16 laps, overtaking some Ferraris and Lamborghinis – very exciting stuff. I then went in the pit, and swapped seats with my team mate who finished the race in 14th place. The team were very happy with my performance - I was also the 2nd quickest Porsche out there.”

Niki comments: “I did two quick laps – I know I could have gone quicker – but this is a very steep learning curve. New tyres are around 2.5 seconds quicker on lap 2 and 3, then on later laps. I was not able to string a perfect lap together and had to settle for 18th, which is 0.736 seconds slower than the quickest Cup S Porsche. I will start 18th for Race 1. I am quite satisfied with this considering this is my first GT race and that I am up against around 38 other cars. My team mate had a similar problem and qualified 28th for Race 2.”

Niki comments: “After having looked at the data of my Practise 1 laps, and getting a pair of new tyres, I went quicker straight away, and ended Practice 2 as 15th fastest out of 36 other cars with my team mate. Qualifying should be good tomorrow, I just need to make sure I get 2 quick laps in after my warm up / out lap.”

Niki comments: “It didn’t go to well. I’ve only had 30-40 laps in the Porsche, and it is completely different to drive than anything else I’ve driven before. Running on old tyres was also not of much use. My team mate, Bart, and I were near the back of the field. We will change the set-up a little bit, put on some newer tyres, and study the data analysis before going out for practice session 2.”

Title: European FIA GT3
Location: SILVERSTONE, UK
Description: Practice, Qualifying, Round 1 & 2 of the European FIA GT3 Championship.
Start Date: 2009-05-01
Start Time: 09:00
End Date: 2009-05-03
End Time: 18:00