Peter Kox with Ferrari at 24h of Barcelona
Scuderia Praha – Menx goes to Barcelona with high aims and humility at the same time. It will be the team’s first 24 hours race with Ferrari 458 GT3 but there is quite confidence given overall experience with the car. The team is no stranger to 24 hours races previously competing with 360 Modena in Spa 2003 and 550 Maranello in Le Mans 2006 and 2007.
Last race at Zandvoort was heartbreaking, leading the race 2,5 hours to go with one lap cushion and all ended in multiple cars accident. The team hope to see better face of Lady Fortune this time in Barcelona. The car has been prepared with utmost care, although no-one can take anything granted in 24 hours races as even factory teams learned. Regular drivers Jiří Písařík and Jaromír Jiřík are joined for this race by professional drivers. Peter Kox is one of the best in the business of endurance races and Matteo Malucelli brings also wealth of experience from his racing with Ferrari factory teams.
The final preparation started last Friday when Písařík and Malucelli drove during the official Barcelona test, working on setup of the car and in case of Písařík also learning the track. Both drivers were quite happy with the word done and from Thursday on the whole quartet will share the wheel of the red Ferrari #4. It will be frantic race with 70 cars entered.
Jiří Písařík: „I am really looking for my first 24 hours race and hope it will be exciting experience. I trained really hard during to summer to be in good physical shape. The test went quite well and I was able to keep good pace although it was clear that even with much smaller number of cars around than in the race judging overtaking is not easy given speed differences. It is good to have experienced team mates to work with.”
Jaromír Jiřík: „I did Spa once long time ago as a driver and also having worked with various teams as a doctor in the past I know what to experience. It has been some time since my last driving in Barcelona but there will be enough time to re-adjust to the track again. The main thing will be keep focus all the race with so many cars it is easy to make a mistake.”
Peter Kox: „24 Hours race is always a tough challenge on whatever track. It is going to be demanding race for cars and also our concentration because 70 cars around Barcelona is like speeding in the rush hour. I think that we have a very good line-up and car is well prepared. If we stay out of trouble we can aim very high.”
Matteo Malucelli: “I am glad that the team gives me chance to race with them and I am looking forward to this race and new team mates. It will be different than Le Mans or Daytona but it is part of the game to adjust. The Friday’s test went really well, we still have a little room for improvement of the handling. However, speed is not everything the main thing is consistence and reliability.”
Ivo Horn, Team Principal: “We have mainly very fond memories from 24 hours races as we finished 3rd n-GT at Spa in 2003 and 14th overall at Le Mans 2007 with GT1. Having said this we also know that 24 hours race is very tricky one and anything can happen regardless how hard you have prepared for it. We did our best and we also hope for a little bit of luck as in previous two races in Mugello and Zandvoort we were quite unlucky. If we run the whole race trouble free anything is possible.”
