HALLIDAY RECOVERS FROM TOUGH WEEKEND FOR AUDI AT MONZA.
American based New Zealand racing driver Matt Halliday has experienced a tough initiation into GT endurance racing at the opening round of the Blancpain Endurance Series held at Italy’s Monza circuit over the weekend.
Despite setbacks in practice and qualifying, Halliday
and his co-drivers Nikolaus Mayr-Melnhof (Austria) and female driver Rahel Frey
(Switzerland), piloted their Audi R8 LMS ULTRA GT3 to 17th place out of 60
starters from the near the back of the grid.
The No. 2 Audi was competing as part of the three-car
Belgian Audi Club Team WRT whose other team cars finished 4th after being
baulked by a lapped car at the finish and 12th overall after stopping for a
puncture.
During Saturday’s pre-qualifying session, Halliday
suffered a scary off track excursion but a major setback came on Sunday when
the car stopped with a gearbox problem while exiting the pit road during the
third qualifying session with Mayr-Melnhof at the wheel. However, from 46th on
the starting grid, a spirited drive from all three drivers saw the car climb
through the field for 17th overall and 11th in the Pro category in what proved
to be an action packed race:
"The Saturday incident was a bit scary but the three
of us worked hard in the race to show we will be competitive in this series having
set the 6th fastest lap time. Our cars were a bit down on speed but perfect pit
stops and racing hard in traffic saw us constantly improve throughout the race”said Halliday after the race.
The next round of the series is scheduled to take
place at Britain’s Silverstone circuit on the 2nd of
June.
2013 BLANCPAIN ENDURANCE SERIES
CALENDER:
Round 1 - April 14th – Monza,
Italy (3 Hours)
Round 2 - June 2nd – Silverstone, Great Britain (3
Hours)
Round 3 - June 30th – Paul Ricard, France (3 Hours)
Round 4 - July 27th & 28th – Spa-Francorchamps,
Belgium (24 Hours)
Round 5 - September 22nd - Nürburgring, Germany (1000
km)
Photo courtesy of Blancpain Endurance Series &
VIMAGES/Fabre
Live streaming and live text commentary of each race
and can be seen via:
www.blancpain-endurance-series.com
For
further information visit:
www.matthalliday.com
twitter@MattHalliday1
instagram MattHalliday1
www.w-racingteam.com
www.blancpain-endurance-series.com
twitter@BES_GT
Further
Media Information:
Europe
and America Media Contact:
Fingerprint
Communications
Jessica
Meisels
Ph.
+1 310 276 7500
Email:
Jessica@fingerprintcom.net
New Zealand and Australia Media
Contact:
Kevin Lancaster.
Ph. 09 627 8219 (home)
Ph. 021 627 824 (mobile)
Email: kevlancs@xtra.co.nz
