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Shanghai: Team Great Britain preview

A1Team.GBR heads east to claim third in World Cup of Motorsport for Great Britain A1Team.GBR is getting ready for the final event in the A1 Grand Prix calendar and is looking to secure third place in the inaugural World Cup of Motorsport. The ...

Edited: Mar 29, 2006, 1:03 AM

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A1Team.GBR heads east to claim third in World Cup of Motorsport for Great Britain

A1Team.GBR is getting ready for the final event in the A1 Grand Prix calendar and is looking to secure third place in the inaugural World Cup of Motorsport. The final two races in the 2006/07 Series take place on Sunday 2nd April at Shanghai International Circuit in China and it is the last point scoring opportunity for third place challengers A1 Teams Brazil and Netherlands. With a maximum of 21 points up for grabs, and with the challengers needing 18 and 19 points respectively clear of A1 Team GBR, they will have a tough job and Darren Manning, new driver to A1 Grand Prix, is determined to hold onto the team position. Regular driver Robbie Kerr is unavailable for driving duties in China so Darren Manning is taking on the mission to clinch the honour of third for his country.

Darren took the opportunity of the last event at the Laguna Seca circuit in the USA to learn about A1 Grand Prix and the car as well as renew acquaintances with the Arden team which runs the A1Team.GBR entry and ran Darren in his seasons in Formula 3000. Going back even earlier in his career, Darren is pictured above with Paul Bellringer, Chief Mechanic for A1 Team Great Britain, who was Darren's mechanic on his first race car.

Darren Manning: "I was pretty impressed by A1 at Laguna Seca. It's very different to any other series and created very exciting racing. It was good to sit in with Robbie and the engineers and see what they were doing with the set-up and how the car was driving. It was a big advantage to going in cold.

"Since then I've been preparing by working out and I've driven the Shanghai circuit quite a few times on the PlayStation so I know where the track goes but I'll be walking the track with my engineer to get the detail. The three practice sessions that we have should hopefully be plenty of time to get me up to speed. I'm going out to win races, which is how I always go about my racing. It's quite a bit of pressure with the third place at stake but I'm going out to do my best and hopefully that will be enough to secure it."

John Surtess, Team Principal: "I'm looking forward to the event in China very much. Not only are we hoping to hold onto third place but we're competing at a magnificent F1 Grand Prix circuit with world class facilities and I expect that there will be an amazing crowd. The Chinese people can't fail to have been inspired by their driver and in particular his impressive fifth place in Dubai."

Round eleven of the A1 Grand Prix series takes place at Shanghai International Circuit, China on 1st & 2nd April.

-www.a1teamgbr.com

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