BELCAR SERIES

PHIL QUAIFE ENJOYS BELCAR INVITATIONAL RACE AT DONINGTON

23 April 2007…/Phil Quaife, one of the leading British Porsche drivers in sportscar racing enjoyed an outing at Donington, pairing with Belgian Guillaume Dumarey for the second round of the Belcar Series, with the duo finishing sixth in the two hour race.  This Belgian GT championship makes one overseas visit in the seven round Series, and on this occasion, GPR Racing invited Quaife to partner Dumarey for the event. Quaife, 21 and Dumarey, 20, were the youngest competitors in the race and with a sixth place finish showed their older rivals their potential with their speed and driving skills through the weekend.

The two hour race requires two drivers to take turns behind the wheel, with the driver change including a pitstop for fuel and new tyres. In the pre-race practice sessions Quaife was fourth fastest, and he set the sixth quickest lap in the first qualifying session. Using the second qualifying to concentrate on race set up and preserve their tyres, it was the first qualifying session time that gave Quaife and Dumarey their starting position for the race.

Quaife was the first driver in the car for the race, staying out of trouble in the run to the first corner in the opening lap. By the end of the first hour he had moved up to fourth place, behind the Mosler, Corvette and Aston Martin, and was quicker than all the other Porsche entrants.

Just ten minutes before the pitstop Quaife made a move on two cars, having had a tow down the straight, but in his efforts to make the pass stick, there was contact with one of his rivals , in which he buckled the wheel on the left hand side of the car, necessitating an earlier than scheduled pitstop. Unfortunately radio contact had been lost with his crew, so Quaife entered the pits without being able to forewarn the team. The GPR crew reacted quickly, refuelling and changing the tyres while Dumarey readied himself to take over the driving duties.

The team dropped to tenth with the extended pitstop, but Dumarey drove well, pushing hard to improve on his track position, and finishing in sixth at the chequered flag.

Quaife said of his first Belcar race, “It was an enjoyable race with Guillaume at the weekend. I think we could have been on the podium without the lengthy pitstop, but that's the nature of the sport. The experience gave me valuable seat time in the Porsche, and the opportunity to network within the sport, as well as prove my potential on track as a leading young driver. I would like to thank GPR Racing and Guillaume for a really good weekend; it was great fun as well. I've a weekend off now, but it won't be long before I'm back in the driving seat and looking to get some more strong results finishes.”