|
SUPERLEAGUE FORMULA - 01.09.2008 FANTASTIC FLAMENGO MIXED EMOTIONS FOR ANDERLECHT With a great drive to second place by Tuka in the heavy rain in the second race the weekend ended also for Team Astromega on a high note. For RSC Anderlecht the weekend was disastrous however although Craig Dolby showed in the few laps he did he is truly an exceptional talent. FREE PRACTICE Thursday 28 Aug. 12:00 - 14:00 The Flamengo-car ran ok in the first session. Unfortunately a problem occured on the Anderlecht-car which was in fact the SF official prototype-car which was given to us by the organisation after the problems with the Anderlecht-car at Vallelunga. 16:00 - 17:00 For the second session of the day, Tuka was kind enough to let Craig drive his car for a few laps so at least he could get some seat time in a SF-car. But unfortunately the car had a gearbox problem on the first lap so still no testing for Craig. Saturday 30 Aug. 09:00 - 09:45 More problems on the Anderlecht-car and again no testing for Craig. With Tuka we discovered that the conditions and the track had changed completely (this is not unusual for Donington) so we could make the necessary changes for the second testing session. 10:45 - 11:15 Craig finally got to do his first laps and was quickly into the right rhytm with some very impressive lap times.
QUALIFYING This time a problem occured on the Flamengo-car as it lost a lot of power and Tuka couldn't set a normal lap time. For Craig this qualifying session came a bit early but nevertheless he was only 0.8 sec. off the quickest time in his group. RACE 1 Tuka's engine just stopped after 2 laps. A faulty sensor was the cause. Craig had an incredible first lap and got past the cars of Borussia Dortmund (Nelson Philippe, winner in ChampCar) and Al Ain (Andreas Zuber, winner in GP2) going from P10 to P8. But more tragedy as also his car suddenly just stopped. Also here a faulty sensor was the cause. RACE 2 Because of the reversed grid and the absence of AC Milan, Tuka was on pole for this race with Craig behind him in P3. Unfortunately more bad luck for Anderlecht as the car wouldn't fire up on the grid. Tuka did a great job in the super tricky conditions and finished in P2. In the end a fantastic result which was celebrated by the delegation from Flamengo including the president of the biggest football club in Brazil. It has not been an easy start for Team Astromega to this wonderful and exciting new series and it left us with mixed emotions. On the one hand super happy with the 2nd place for Flamengo, on the other hand we have the disappointment after all the mechanical problems with the prototype-car of missing out on what could have been for RSC Anderlecht and Craig Dolby. |