Press Release from Matech Racing:
Monza, 18 May 2008:
Following on from the spectacular start at Silverstone, with the two victories of the Ford GTs of Mutsch and Khan, the Matech Racing team headed for Monza, for the next round of the FIA GT3 European championship. Notwithstanding the temperamental weather conditions, both the free practice and also the qualifying sessions proved that the three Ford GTs entered by the Swiss team were on form, with 3rd, 4th and 5th places for the first leg, prior to Thomas Mutsch clinching another pole position allowing him to take on the morning heat in full confidence.
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On Saturday the first of the two FIA GT3 races was marred by numerous incidents and accidents, and unfortunately the Matech team didn’t come out of it unscathed... "Two of our three cars were involved in accidents, Ian Khan seriously damaging the #20 following contact with a Porsche. Luca Pirri, at the wheel of #19, hit a Lamborghini at the end of the straight", the team manager, Martin Bartek told us. "Not only would our mechanics need to work through the night to bring the cars up to scratch, but the Stewards of the Meeting decided to
inflict penalties resulting in losing places on the grid for the following day, the two Ford GTs finding themselves on the 6th and 18th rows of the grid!" Luckily our #21, driven by the British pair Bradley Ellis and Alex Mortimer, had a perfect race, battling it out through to the line with a Corvette before achieving a great victory, leaving the Ford GTs unbeaten in the 2008 competition. This excellent result was backed up by the 6th place of the Matech Ford Mustang FR500GT3 of Belgian Eric De Doncker and Canadian Scott Maxwell, confirming the ever increasing evolution of this power beast, whilst the drivers drove a perfect race managing to avoid the clashes and accidents. On top of that the Matech team gained some additional points in the team championship...
The Sunday race saw radio liaison problems between the team and the drivers. Result: two of the three Ford GTs came in for their pit-stops out of the regulatory time window. As such Mutsch-Khan and Pirri-Von Gartzen received a Stop & Go... which they didn’t serve out, taking advantage of a regulation allowing a car not to re-enter the pitlane as from the moment a penalty is imposed less than 5 laps from the end of the race. Obviously a time sanction is imposed once the chequered flag has been taken. This resulted in the two Ford GTs being
relegated into 3rd (Mutsch-Khan) and 14th (Pirri-Von Gartzen) places. And what about Ellis-Mortimer in all this ? On the top step of the podium no less! Another victory thanks to a faultless race... " After the crashes on Saturday, these two new victories of the Ford GTs are as excellent as they are unexpected", Martin Bartek continued.”They are in fact a great way of rewarding the team of mechanics who worked so hard throughout the night, even cutting out the damaged roll cage of #20, before re-welding it under the watchful eyes of individuals approved by the FIA! I believe that this weekend Matech Racing has performed miracles, far beyond anything seen at this level of competition.... "
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The outcome of this Monza meeting is that Thomas Mutsch and Ian Khan retain the lead in the drivers’ championship, whilst Bradley Ellis and Alex Mortimer now figure in 3rd and 4th places. When it comes to the teams: complete domination by Matech, with no less than 49 points... in fact 33 points ahead of the 2nd placed team. The team is now heading for the Nürburgring, where the second meeting of the ADAC GT Masters, the German GT3 championship, is being held this weekend.
Ford GT News
Photographs by Jacques Letihon