tolimit arabia in qualifying
Dubai, Jan 13th- In the first qualifying in the history of tolimit arabia, the team around drivers Sascha Maassen, Sean Edwards, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Khaled Al Qubaisi reached 5th position on the starting grid. Due to the ‘Balance of Performance’ regulation in class A6, the team’s Porsche 911 GT3 R, however, will have to take on an additional weight of 75 kg overall for the race. The Balance of Performance regulations aim to equalize the heterogeneous field. Fast cars are slowed down by additional weight or ground clearance, as soon as they exceed a reference lap time. All in all, the drivers as well as the team management were satisfied with today’s performance.
Sascha Maassen: “In any case, we showed that we are quick. Qualifying in endurance racing, however, isn’t as important as in sprint racing. But we are of course happy to start in the front of the field in order to keep out of the traffic on the back of the grid.”
Sean Edwards: “In the second part of the qualifying, we wanted to drive a 2.04 min lap time. However, there was a misunderstanding with the timekeeping and we therefore reached a 2.03 min. This means additional weight on the car for the race. Nevertheless, we are pretty confident that we will be part of the leading group tomorrow.”
Jeroen Bleekemolen: “For me, it was a great qualifying. The car feels great and the team works together very well. Despite of the additional weight, it looks good for us for the race. There are quite a few teams capable of winning tomorrow and we are definitely one of them.”
Khaled Al Qubaisi: “It was a big day today for me. I keep on learning every day in endurance racing. I am pretty satisfied with the car and the team works together perfectly. The night training was another new experience for me that I value a lot. I am very confident that we will be among the top teams tomorrow.”
Team Manager Michael Seifert: “Being our first 24 hour race, we showed a very good performance. Tomorrow, the challenge will be to drive constantly quick lap times in order to stick to the ‘Balance of Performance’ regulations that allow us a lap time of 2.04,3 min. However, that’s the exciting thing about endurance racing: showing a constant performance over 24 hours in order to climb the top of the podium on the end.”
tolimit managing director Hans-Bernd Kamps: ” We could have gone faster. Obviously, this doesn’t always make sense due to the ‘Balance of Performance’ regulations. For tomorrow it will be important to save the car and keep out of traffic. With 90 cars on the short track, it will be pretty crowed. Nevertheless, I am absolutely sure that our experienced drivers together with our ambitious team will confirm our role as one of the top teams. We are looking forward to showing this to our partners SR Technics, aabar and Cable Tech.”
The Dubai 24 hours will start on Friday, January 14, 2011 at 2 p. m. and will end the next day. A 52‘ highlight program will be shown in more than 150 countries on channels such as Motors TV, ESPN Asia, ESPN Latin America, Fox Sports America, Fox Sports Latin America, Fox Sports Australia, Fox Sports Middle East, SuperSport Africa, Sky Sports (GER/AUT), Motorvision TV (GER), Sky Sports (GBR), Channel 5 (GBR), Teleclub (SUI), Ma Chaine Sport (FRA), TVE Teledeporte (SPA), Sport TV (POR), Novasports (GRE), Sport TV (SLO), Nova Sport (CZE), Sport 5 (CZE), Mix TV (BRA) and Abu Dhabi Sports Channel (Middle East).
Team report by tolimit arabia
