Nurburgring: Bryce Washington qualifying report

WASHINGTON MAKES STRONG START TO NURBURGRING CAMPAIGN

Adelaide's Bryce Washington has made quite an impression in Practice and Qualifying for this weekend's 1000km of the Nurburgring event in Germany.

Washington -- a regular front runner in this year's Australian Carrera Cup and GT Championships driving his ADRAD Racing Porsche -- is tackling the famous European endurance event with the James Watt Automotive Racing team in what is his international racing debut.

Competing in the highly competitive LMGT2 Class driving a Porsche 996 GT3 RSR, Washington out paced his teammate Paul Daniels in practice today (Washington drove the first session, Daniels the second) before qualifying their car 15th in class for Sunday's prestigious 1000km event to be held on the 5.137km Grand Prix circuit.

The JWA Porsche is a 3.6-Litre car compared to the 3.8L examples that make up a majority of the field, Washington and Daniels punching above their weight in an underpowered car.

The class pole was scored by an Italian entered Ferrari F430 GT Driven by Stefan Zonca, Andrea Bellicchi and Marco Cioci.

22-year-old Washington was just half a second behind regular Australian competitor Allan Simonsen in the opening practice session, despite the Danish driver having significantly more experience at an international level in the faster LMGT2 Cars both are driving this weekend.

"Today was really good," Washington said.

"I was able to do the most laps in the car and also do the qualifying session. I think us having a 3.6-litre car compared to the others being 3.8 does make a difference here but we'll keep trying. The track is really good and I'm looking forward to the race."

The competitive 43-car field was headed by Pescarolo Sport drivers Emmanuel Collard, Jean Christopher Bullion and Eric Helary in their LMP1 Pescarolo C60 Judd prototype.

The 1000km of the Nurburgring, round 3 of the 2006 LeMans Endurance Series, will be held tomorrow, with the race starting at approximately 7:15PM (7:45PM Eastern) Sunday July 16th.

-www.adrad.com.au