Silverstone: Charouz Racing System preview

Charouz Racing System ready for final

The Charouz Racing System team is ready to fight for fourth place in the 2008 Le Mans Series standings in the final and decisive race of the season, the Autosport 1000 km of Silverstone. Proven drivers, Jan Charouz and Stefan Mucke, will be looking to build on their fifth place finish in the previous round at the Nurburgring and once again demonstrate the ability of the Aston Martin-powered LMP1 prototype to lead the petrol-engined cars' charge against the more powerful diesels.

The Nurburgring result was the third point-scoring race and second best result of the season so far for the Czech team, which works in close cooperation with Aston Martin Racing. Both drivers and team are currently fifth in the overall standings and have their sights set on the stretching target of finishing the season one place better, in fourth.

Stefan and Jan are looking forward to Silverstone. The Czech driver has been living in London since his high school studies and it is basically a home race for him. The young Berliner has fond memories from last year when he was third in qualifying, a feat he just recently repeated at this year's Nurburgring round.

Race History/Highlights

The first six-hour race at Silverstone (www.silverstone.co.uk) was held in 1976 and was won by John Fitzpatrick and Tom Walkinshaw in a BMW 3.5 CSL.1980 saw the first race win by a female driver, when South African, Desire Wilson took victory with Briton, Alain de Cadenet in the De Cadenet Lola-Ford. The six-hour race format was changed to a 1000 km race in 1983, to mark the beginning of what many regard as a golden era of Group C car racing (1983-1988). In subsequent years , sports cars raced for 480 km, 430 km or 500 km.

The current system of a 1000 km race with a six-hour limit returned with the Le Mans Series in 2004. The series has been racing at Silverstone every year since then, with the sole exception of 2006.

Jan Charouz: "We are heading to the last race of the Le Mans Series 2008 season. I am looking forward to it and I want to enjoy it. I have been living in London since my high school studies and I therefore consider the 1000 km of Silverstone as my home race. After all, I live only 100 km from the racetrack. Our aim for the last race is the same as before - be the best petrol powered car in a highly competitive field. Anything more would be an added bonus. The fight for fourth overall is a big challenge and will be a tough fight."

Stefan Mucke: "Following our good performance and result in the 1000 km Nurburgring race I am looking forward to Silverstone and hope that Jan and I can achieve a similar result there also at. I would also like to repeat my qualifying performance, which put us third on the grid in Germany. However, the whole team knows that the season final will be very difficult. We can get fourth place overall in both driver and team standings, so I hope that we will have also a bit of luck."

George Howard-Chappell, Technical Director Aston Martin Racing: "Obviously with this race only a few miles from our base in Banbury and being the last race of the season, we will have a lot of Prodrive and Aston Martin Racing staff watching, so it will be doubly important to try and do well. Out- qualifying the Audi's at the last race was a great experience and we will be trying very hard to get among the diesels again here. We will also have to see what the UK weather decides to throw at us! The car is unchanged from the last race and I am optimistic it will work well on this circuit. It has been a great experience competing in the LMP1 class this season and I think we have proved what we are capable of."

-credit: jan-charouz.cz