Brilliant catch-up race results in 3 points

In the second round of the FIA GT championship held at Monza Bert Longin and Anthony Kumpen finished in sixth place, after a brilliant catch-up race. Thanks to this excellent result the drivers of PK Carsport have scored the first championship points of the season.
The weekend did not start off on a high note and during qualifying it reached an all time low. "Anthony spun at a place where at least seven other drivers had spun earlier"Bert Longin told us. "Unfortunately he came into contact with another competitor, and qualifying came to an abrupt end. We'll be starting from the back of the grid. "

Not the ideal start position and definitely not an easy assignment for the PK Carsport duo. Anthony Kumpen took the start. "I was immediately able to climb up a few places but was losing some valuable time due to the traffic. The car was perfect, the tyres were excellent. We had earlier agreed to stay out on the track for as long as possible. I drove for 52 minutes and I was in fourth position as I came. Quite a few drivers had already pitted, and if you had worked out a ranking of all those who had already been into the pits we were roughly lying in seventh place. "

In the pits Bert Longin followed Anthony with suspicion. "I watched him driving and it was a complete about-turn as compared to what we had experienced on Saturday. The car was handling perfectly, and this boosted my confidence. After the team's fast pit-stop I went out on to the track. As with Anthony I also completed a long stint. I must have driven for some fifty minutes prior to coming in. "

All that remained was a short stint for Anthony Kumpen. "I rejoined the track in sixth spot and held my place. Not bad really when a weekend kicks off so dramatically as ours did on Saturday. The weather conditions weren't favourable, but the lack of expertise in setting-up the car ideally under such conditions was the main factor. That's something you have to learn. We gambled that it would rain and therefore opted for a rain set-up... and finally it remained dry the entire day. This meant that the car wasn't ideally configured and then to finish in sixth place, having had to catch up and overtake just about everyone makes you feel pretty satisfied. I would also like to congratulate the SRT boys with their excellent victory. That is really good for Belgian motor sport! "

"The entire team, we as drivers and definitely Pirelli as suppliers of tyres worked really hard and well"Bert Longin added. "The tyres were perfect, the drivers on top form. The only thing still lacking is the top speed. If you look at the race statistics you'll immediately notice that when it comes to top speed we're not amongst the top 10. We know what is left for us to do. "