GT World Challenge Europe Sprint
Spa 24: Carlo van Dam qualifying report
Track time limited due to technical problems Strong first impression Carlo van Dam SPA - Dutch racing driver Carlo van Dam and his team mates will tomorrow (Saturday) start from 32nd position (9th in the GT1-class) in the 61st Spa 24 Hours, ...
Published: Oct 2, 2009, 4:35 PM
Copy link
Share on Viber
Track time limited due to technical problems
Strong first impression Carlo van Dam
SPA - Dutch racing driver Carlo van Dam and his team mates will tomorrow (Saturday) start from 32nd position (9th in the GT1-class) in the 61st Spa 24 Hours, after the Full Speed Racing-team for which he drives, completed only very few laps in the qualifying sessions held yesterday (Thursday) at the Belgian circuit. Since the Saleen S7R of the Austrian team first went out to qualify when it had just started to rain, competitive lap times could no longer be set on the wet track. During the handful of laps that Carlo did, however, he managed to make a strong first impression.
"I got to grips with the car pretty quickly", Carlo says. "During free practice I only did three laps, but when I got out of the car I was in fifth place, so that wasn't a bad start. The team, though, was plagued by electrical problems all day yesterday and the alternator and the battery failed several times. Consequently, the car couldn't do more than two or three consecutive laps and so we spent a lot of time in the pits. At the start of the first qualifying session it was still dry and that was when the fastest times were recorded obviously. As our car went out by the time it started to rain, we will of course have to start from the back. I did the second qualifying session, when it was still raining. It went well, in the first sector of my first lap I was one second quicker than the fastest time in GT1 set in that session until that moment. At the end of that same lap, however, the battery went flat again. That was quite an interesting experience; all the lights going out just when I was heading for Blanchimont while it was dark and wet..."
Starting from the back will not be too big an obstacle given the duration of the race, but Carlo recognizes the importance of the Full Speed Racing-team solving the problems that occurred yesterday if it does not want to retire early in the race. "Yesterday we could do two, maybe three laps before things broke down again, so there must be something short-circuiting somewhere in the car. One battery even exploded. Fortunately, today there will be no running here, so the team has some time to locate and solve the problem. Lets hope we can sort it out, because in the wet we were quite quick, especially because Pirelli's wet weather tyre seems to be working well."
-credit: carlovandam.nl
We want your opinion!
What would you like to see on Motorsport.com?
Take our 5 minute survey.
- The Motorsport.com Team
Read and post comments
Read also :
Share Or Save This Story
Copy link
Share on Viber
Previous article Hungaroring: Alvaro Parente qualifying report
Next article Spa: Series race one report
Top Comments
There are no comments at the moment. Would you like to write one?
View More & Comment
More from
Carlo van Dam
Changeable weather conditions foretaste for Sepang 12 Hours
Endurance
Endurance
Sepang 12 Hours
Changeable weather conditions foretaste for Sepang 12 Hours
Ferrari claim another endurance victory in Sepang
GT
GT
GT Asia: Sepang
Ferrari claim another endurance victory in Sepang
TP12 Racing take maiden GT Asia Series victory in Fuji
GT
GT
GT Asia: Fuji
TP12 Racing take maiden GT Asia Series victory in Fuji
Latest news
Five quick takeaways from US GP
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
9 min
Five quick takeaways from US GP
F1 United States GP: Kimi Antonelli takes dominant victory - but no title
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
15 min
F1 United States GP: Kimi Antonelli takes dominant victory - but no title
Joey Logano upside down in terrifying Talladega NASCAR Cup crash: "Just happy to be alive"
NASCAR Cup
NAS NASCAR Cup
Talladega II
24 min
Joey Logano upside down in terrifying Talladega NASCAR Cup crash: "Just happy to be alive"
F1 United States GP live commentary and updates - Kimi Antonelli takes win
Formula 1
F1 Formula 1
United States GP
2 h
F1 United States GP live commentary and updates - Kimi Antonelli takes win
Subscribe and access Motorsport.com with your ad-blocker.
From Formula 1 to MotoGP we report straight from the paddock because we love our sport, just like you. In order to keep delivering our expert journalism, our website uses advertising. Still, we want to give you the opportunity to enjoy an ad-free and tracker-free website and to continue using your adblocker.
You have 2 options:
- Become a subscriber.
- Disable your adblocker.
Subscribe now Already subscribed? Sign in here
Already disabled your adblocker?
Reload page
Manage Alerts
Subscribe