Silverstone: Creation Autosportif preview

Creation aims for the podium at Silverstone

CREATION AUTOSPORTIF TEAM PREVIEW

The Silverstone round of the 2005 Le Mans Series, the last time the championship visited the Northamptonshire track, was the scene of the Creation team's most thrilling and nail-biting race to date. The Creation car, in the hands of Nicolas Minassian and Jamie Campbell-Walter, led the event (in appalling weather conditions) for over five of the six-hour race, but were ultimately -- and heart-breakingly - pipped to the chequered flag by 6.5 seconds and the Audi of Allan McNish and Stephane Ortelli.

The Frenchman might well lead the British round of the series in 2007, this time for Creation rivals Peugeot Sport, but the Bicester-based team with the international driver line up will be fighting hard to gain that elusive podium finish which would be rich reward for the many hours of hard work, development and determination shown by all concerned. The team had a podium finish in sight at the last 1,000 kilometre race in Belgium in the middle of August, but an accident by former driver Shinji Nakano meant the Creation CA07 was eventually classified 6th in the LMP1 class.

"It will be good to be back racing in front of our home crowd again," said Team Principal Ian Bickerton. "We've been testing again since Spa, working on damping and suspension and have found half a second round Magny Cours compared to our last visit there. The car, using the third spring arrangement which we've designed, is now much easier on the tyres. Dunlop have done a lot of work with us on developing their medium tyres for our car so well done to them. We did 150 laps without any problems so it's all looking good.

"The star of the test," continued Bickerton, "was Felipe Ortiz. He found seven tenths of a second over a lap, and was very consistent in that improvement. He's now really pumped up and looking forward to this round of the series. Alongside he and Jamie will be Haruki Kurosawa who is new to the team but comes highly recommended. He drove the LMP2 Zytek which came second at Le Mans this year, and has a good deal of experience with these types of car. I'm expecting him to slot straight in.

"We will also have a number of guests at the race from our partners in the North American economic development marketing organisation, Piedmont Triad Partnership (PTP). They are coming over to the UK to talk to various businesses in the UK about the commercial possibilities of doing business in North Carolina."

-credit: creation