OAK Racing run a trouble-free test session as the team’s three Morgan-Nissans prepared for the 2013 World Endurance Championship.
The session provided teams a chance to test in a mix of conditions with rain kicking off the two-day test, before the sun made an appearance at the close. OAK encountered no problems in any of the five sessions, meaning they go in to the opening round at Silverstone in a very strong position.
“This test has been a positive one for us.” said driver of the #24 OAK Racing car, Alex Brundle. “Obviously every time we have been on tyres with representative mileage we have been very close to the pace, which is fantastic. I feel very at home in the car now thanks to the testing we have done. The sister car appears to be very competitive which is good for our own data and the analysis of the balance and the driving for the two cars. It is nice to get up and running, the car’s livery looks great this year and there is a happy team around us!”
Brundle and team-mate Oliver Pla set the second quickest time in the LMP2 class on day one, posting a 1:48.828, just 0.3 seconds off of the top time of Delta-ADR‘s Oreca-Nissan. Pla topped the night-time running session, but many teams – including OAK Racing – decided to cut the session short due to foggy conditions.
Brundle set the fastest LMP2 time on Saturday morning with a 1:48.070, while team-mate Bertrand Baguette took the fastest time of the entire test session in his #35 car in the afternoon, setting a 1:47.398.
“We’ve had a very productive two days, maybe more so for the drivers than for the team as we were unable to validate as many technical options as we would have liked due to the weather conditions.” said team principle Sebastien Philippe. “In #24 Alex and Olivier tested various technical set-ups and they had a good run. In #35 the driver line-up’s learning the ropes and getting to know one another: there’s a good ambience between them and they exchanged a lot of information. I’m pleasantly surprised by #45: Jean-Marc Merlin doesn’t have much experience, but he adapted to the circuit very quickly like Philippe Mondolot who comes from VdeV, and who got to grips with the car in almost no time even if it was his first real outing in the Morgan. The times were pretty good and very consistent so we can look forward to Silverstone in a confident frame of mind.”
