Friday 8 April 2011

Belgian Racing hopeful of strong home showing

Ford's Belgian Racing squad head into their home round of Zolder hoping to perform strongly in front of a partisan Belgian crowd.

The team will also field two new drivers in the No. 9 Ford GT Matech, as Belgian Vanina Ickx makes a one-off appearance alongside GT1 debutant Mathias Beche. Beche has previous experience of the Ford GT, having finished second in the car in last year's prestigious Spa 1000km.

Milos Pavlovic and Martin Matzke will once again team up in the No. 10 Belgian Racing Ford GT, and the duo are determined to improve upon two 12th place showings in the opening round at Abu Dhabi. Pavlovic has raced at Zolder several times in single seaters, while Matzke contested the GT3 round at the Belgian circuit in 2009.

"I am very much looking forward to racing this weekend in Zolder," Vanina enthused. "The level in the GT1 World Championship is super high, with only professional teams and drivers competing in the series, which means it won't be easy for us this weekend.

"As we saw in Abu Dhabi a lot can happen in the race, so we'll need a little bit of luck to stay out of trouble this weekend. I hope that by working together with both the Belgian Racing and Marc VDS teams we'll be able to find the pace we need to have a strong race at Zolder."

Serbia's Milos Pavlovic was in a similarly determined mood, saying: "Abu Dhabi was my first experience in a GT1 car and, unfortunately, we had some technical issues that compromised our final result.

"The positive point was that the Ford GT has some potential, we just need a trouble free weekend to realise it and that's what I'm hoping for at Zolder. From what we saw in Abu Dhabi I think the characteristics of the Belgian Racing Ford GT will suit the circuit, so if we can avoid the technical problems we had last time out then the rest will come by itself this weekend in Zolder."

FOTO/INFO FIA GT1 WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

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