GRAND PRIX WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP

[facu989x]

Republica Grand Prix Press Conference:

'Our team management have decided in order to improve our results, seeing what in the last race our car was powerfull but unreliable too, keep better our reliability:

1st) We have moved Facundo D. Baru to the tester role due to it's bad results ( even when he was the only one who scored points for the team ).

2nd) Our budget now it's 2.1m. So we will use another 1m in order to improve our reliability.

3rd) We decided to move Alexis Kamannen to the 32 car and let that Max Ta will be now the first driver from now.

Our lineup stay in that way:.
Massimiliano Ariesta (31) / Alexis Kamannen (32)
Dennis Wright (33) / Facundo Daniel-Baru (34) --- Tester's

Thanks for all and we expect better results from now.
The Republica Grand Prix Management.'

[MaxX]

Minarae:
Our 1 Stop strategy with Mannsperger worked well and having both cars in the points and one on the podium is great. We are very happy with that result and hope that we can go on this way. Rugen had some problems with the handling and was not able to show his whole potential, we are confident that he will be back on top soon.

Orchis:
Fantastic, absolutely fantastic. Due Mannsperger ran on one stop less, he had to fight really hard with older tires and Ukyo was able to take advantage of that.
This is so much more we would have ever dare to even expect! The Honda-Ukazaki-package does really well and we will try to continue that way, but first we`ll have a great party once more.

[jakesanson]

SME:
We have good reason to be happy with our car, as Lahikkanen has shown great strength to grab third. Nonda was frustrated with the car's lack of reliability. This is what we are going to take priority on over the course of the next few races, since we have already shown this year that the car is fast.

Transition:
WOW! We never thought Gabriele would qualify 2nd and finish 5th! A great race for us! To score points on our debut is a dream, and Gabriele is putting us in good spirits to give him a race win. Anything can happen, so let's see what we can do.

[Hawke]

DRTW-Viper....

We had a great race, sadly both drivers made some faults on the track.
They don't have to take al the risks during the race, they have to score point.

Again the people at the factory are working had to get the car better.
We have spend 600.000 (150 points) in reliability, so we hope all will be better in the next races.

[jakesanson]

In answer to someone's request for a carset, there will be a carset involving all thirteen of the current teams released after Race 25, ie. the end of the season. This will also include the LWS series.

[jakesanson]

Something funny has happened at SIlverstone this week.....

The SME team went to test as scheduled, when someone asked them if they ahd replaced Caleb Liu as test driver. SME racing boss Jake Sanson said, "No, not yet."

The team then asked him if he fancied an outing in his own car. Jake, who has raced in several types of racing car including a win in a touring car race in Buenos Aires for Volkswagen in the TC2000 series, and actually taking a class win at the Sebring 12 Hours earlier this year in a Panoz GTS Esperante, said "Sure, why not?"

So, rather amusingly Jake Sanson went out in Linvoy Nonda's car...

The testing times over the two days were astonishing...

Elio Lahikkanen (1:27.104)
Linvoy Nonda (1:27.316)

Incredibly though, Jake Sanson in his first ever run....

1:26.735!!!!!

The team and Jake himself were stunned!! The team went away and thought about things, with the press absolutely mesmerised by this story.

The team later gave this statement:
"We have spent the last four hours talking about these last two days of testing with SME team boss Jake Sanson, who has decided to now represent his team as a driver in the testing role. He will spend this season searching for a drive either in Indycars or the Lola World Series in order to keep his options open for 2010, but his own surprise at this rather amusing turn of events has put Jake in the mindset to go for a race drive, although he has stated that he will only ever race for SME, as it is the team that he himself has created."

Jake Sanson, 23, is British, a multiple go-karting champion, and has had regular outings in several series in the past five years, including Formula 3, British Touring Cars, TC2000, WTCC, DTM, Le Mans World Series, and Superleague Formula where he brilliantly won at Monza for Liverpool FC last year. Everyone appears to be watching the development of this young rising talent, who has even hinted at heading to Indycars with the SME team.

[jakesanson]

At a very wet Rio de Janiero, at the circuit of Jacarepagua, Round 2 of the LWS took place today.

POLE: Patrick Goosens (NP Holland)

After a thrilling race, in which the lead changed over a dozen times, the eventual winner was.....

SEBASTIEN BOUROUGSSE!!!

1. Sebastien Bourougsse (Nextdrive)
2. Kane Palmer (MWM)
3. Stefano Sampietro (Scicilia)
4. Masami Toyoma (Ssangyong)
5. Rena Hayami (Yaesu Sport)
6. Neel Shambi (Dubai)
7. Bruno Loeb (Comet)
8. Laurance Papin (Vaillante)

Fastest Lap: Laurance Papin (Vaillante)

So the 14th team in the GPWC at Rio will be.......NEXTDRIVE MERCEDES.

The race at Jacarepagua for the GPWC will be on Saturday morning.

[HF]

Unbelievable! Our spare driver gets the first points for LRMS ever! CEO Henning Fisser is very proud of young US-boy Timothy MacGibbons: "P5 is a wonderful outcome. But we still hope for Harold Fisher to return shortly".
"The other thing we can be really proud of is our second spare driver", Sebastien Bourougsse, who races for a former tema of Henning Fisser, Nextdrive. He just won the LWS and will drivein the next GPWC-race. "this is really cool, having three drivers in one race"

[facu989x]

Republica Grand Prix Press Release:

'Our team it's very happy and proud to release a update and upgrade of our current R01.

The Republica R01-B.

( below Photo of our test in Estoril )

Constructed using the base of our first GPWC car, the R01, this R01B it's and a very good upgrade in which we expect to get some points and also , good results.

Driven by Massimiliano Ariesta and Alexis Kamannen, this R01B it's our new bet to beat our bad results and get an enjoyable and very good performance through the year.

Engine: Alfa Romeo 152-N 12V
Tyres: Dunlop Special Tyres
Suspension: Republica Enginering
Transmission: Hewland GCV-A
'

[jakesanson]

The wather forecast for this weekend's race in Brazil is WET!

[jakesanson]

GPWC, Round 4, BRAZIL, Rio de Janeiro
QUALIFYING

Well, the rain certainly made things interesting, plenty of people will be shocked, disappointed and surprised.

Pole position goes to......

JORG MANNSPERGER!!

Here is the full grid:

The two drivers who failed to qualify, are:

Vincent Hattenberger (Kraft-Porsche) and
Yiasoumis Mertakis (Nagato-Volkswagen)

The field was seperated by 1.7 seconds, so for poor Hattenberger and Mertakis, bad luck has ruined their weekend.

[jakesanson]

SME:

We have unveiled a special one-off livery for Brazil, but it is our hope that we can start to use the deals we have secured for this one race throughout the rest of this season.

[MaxX]

Minarae:
A great qualifying-session for us, now we hope for a good race and the rain not messing up too much.

Orchis:
A reasonable outcome of the qualify for us, we hope that the rain could give us a chance to improve our positions

[jakesanson]

Round 4, BRAZIL, Rio de Janeiro
RACE

START:
We're away cleanly, as Timo Laiti shoots up to second behind Jorg Mannsperger! Amazing!!

Lap 2:
Laiti is really hassling Mannsperger, we wouldn't have thought that possible. WOAW!!! BIG CRASH!! THAT'S PRIET!!!

THAT'S A MAJOR ACCIDENT, he spun at the penultimate corner in the rain! That must have been aquaplaning. He looks OK but the medical centre is standing by for him. He hit the wall at 87 mph!!

[jakesanson]

So Priet's out, and so too is vd Wldenberg!!

Lap 3:
LAITI TAKES THE LEAD!! Timo Laiti, the younger brother of former GPWC winner Tero Laiti takes the lead at Rio!!!

Makki-Ohlson and Okazaki have caught them up and are ready to pounce if there is any mistakes.

Behind them, Alingas and Rugen are scrapping over 6th place.

And there goes MacGibbons off the circuit!!

He spun off just before the back straight, but unlike Priet he continues with no damage, but he is now last.