George Guests at Brands !
An unexpected visit to ex team Mardi Gras Motorsport at Brands Hatch on Friday 5th saw the HiQ MSA British Touring Car Championship Driver John George offered the guest drive in the AmD’s Seat Leon class B car for the weekends three Dunlop Sportmaxx races.
John George said ”what a result I came over on Friday to see my son Kevin having his first drive in a new BMW diesel in the series and had a chat with all the guys I knew around the paddock and two hours later after getting home in Guernsey I had a call asking if I wanted to drive the guest car the next day.”
He added “I was chuffed to nutts! my first drive in the car was Saturday morning for the qualifying with 30plus kilo’s of added weight to slow me down, but what fun we qualified 2nd in class and from there we managed two 2nd places and a class win, I had a brilliant weekend, loads of people having a good weekend of Motorsport.”
John also said “I must thank AmD and Dunlop for giving me the opportunity plus of course team manager Paul Hetherington and the team at Mardi Gras, my only instructions were have fun and don’t bend our car, I achieved both.”
When asked how the car compared to his normal JAG Communications sponsored Honda Integra Touring car John commented “they really are very different this is basically a road car with some very cost effective tweeks so much softer and easier to drive but with stunning performance for a basic car.”
John added “What impressed me were the tyres, I can knock out a road tyre on a track in about 30 hard laps, but these came in after a few laps and stayed good all day that must be 150 laps at full race speed with me taking touring car lines over the kerbs the lot, what can I say Mr Dunlop makes a good tyre.”
“As a series I really think any up and coming driver will find it a great place to gain experience in a friendly atmosphere that doesn’t cost a fortune, that’s why I suggested it for Kevin, he had a character building weekend with a car well down on power but I thought he handled it very maturely keeping his head down and building on lap times“
“I believe Paul O’Neill is having a go later in the year and I know he will love it”
John George will be competing in the next round of the BTCC is at Croft on June 14th
Date: 09/06/2009