Monthly Archive for February, 2007
Sean Edwards and Leo Machitski had the chance to really see what the new Porsche 997 RSR could do, in the first official FIA GT test of the year. Sean impressed everyone, setting the early pace for GT2 and being right up at the front by the end of day one. Leo was still getting to grips with the whole concept of the Porsche’s weird handling characteristics, comparing to his Aston Martin of last year.
Day two, Leo spent most of the testing time in the car and eventually pushed a little to hard and lost the car at the infamous Paribolica corner. He backed it into the gravel, just scraping the tyres wall. With the flat floor of the Porsche, the car acted like a bucket and was full of gravel. It took the team 3 hours to rid it of the gravel and it put everyone on the back foot missing the second session of the day, which was the fastest. Leo said “I tried to take more speed into Paribolica than Sean and it was obviously too much as I just lost the back end and couldn’t catch it in time!”
A bright but frosty Brands Hatch today (February 7) was the venue for the shakedown of Tech 9 Motorsport’s brand new Porsche 911 GT3-RSR, driven by the team’s 2007 pairing, Leo Machitski and Sean Edwards. The 2006 British and FIA GT3 Champions – Machitski in the UK, Edwards in Europe – have come together to take on the challenges of the next step up the GT ladder.
The first images shows Leo Machitski setting off for the first time, then completing the first lap ever by the car. That was run on the wet tyres which are customarily fitted to new race cars.