With their RAC Tourist Trophy victory “only just starting to sink in” Sumo Power GT and the rest of the FIA GT1 World Championship are preparing for the third round of the series, at Brno in the Czech Republic.
The team, with drivers Peter Dumbreck and Jamie Campbell-Walter, were handed victory in the Silverstone race after the on-track winners Young Driver AMR were disqualified from the race. However, team manager Allen Orchard says the win has only added to the pressure on the team.
“Winning at home is always special and we all feel incredibly proud to have taken the first international win for the Nissan GT-R,” he admits. “Our job now is to keep up the good work. Being a new team we have had limited opportunity to test so with each race we increase our knowledge of the car which makes us a stronger competitor.”
“We had a test at Snetterton last week and on arrival I noticed there is a new buzz about the team,” adds Campbell-Walter. “It comes from the top, from James [Rumsey] and Allen [Orchard] and spreads all the way down. We're a winning team now so the guys know they have the drive and determination to get the top results. We'll carry that confidence onto Brno and race-by-race continue to do as well as we can. I know Brno very well; the circuit has a good flow and I've won there before so I hope we can have a good weekend.”
Swiss Racing Team, the other team running the Nissan GT-R, however, find themselves in a very different situation – drivers Seiji Ara and Max Nilsson clinching a ninth place finish at Silverstone while Henri Moser suffered a massive crash at Stowe.
“We scored our first points at Silverstone but we have suffered a big delay due to Henri Moser's accident,” said SRT boss Othmar Welti. “It was a huge accident and now we have seen the video footage we can see that Henri wasn't at fault. It's a big shame as that car could have had a good result but now we are having to work 24 hours a day just to be ready for Brno.”
Fortunately it appears the team have succeeded in repairing the car for Moser and teammate Karl Wendlinger, the Austrian confident he and the team can improve on their previous showing.
The series first takes to the Brno track this Friday, with qualifying at 11:15am (local time) Saturday, the Qualifying Race at 5:30pm then the Championship Race 2:15pm Sunday.
