Newbridge Motorsport heads to Donington Park for the second round of the Britcar MSA British Endurance Championship (BEC) in high spirits (10-11 May).
The Milton Keynes-based outfit’s strong showing in Silverstone’s Britcar curtain-raiser four weeks ago has filled it with positivity as it heads to the East Midlands for the series’ second encounter.
Guillaume Gruchet, who achieved a brace of podium finishes with Newbridge’s Porsche GT3 Cup at Silverstone, currently sits sixth in the championship standings and will be hoping to replicate his earlier success on the history-rich Donington Park circuit this weekend (10-11 May).
“My main target for this weekend is to finish both races,” said Gruchet. “I’d like to improve on times I set in pre-season testing and ideally score as many points as possible to stay ahead of the two Ferrari 458 Italias in my class. I have competed at Donington Park a lot since I started racing four years ago, so I’m very confident there, but I need to be setting consistent lap times throughout the race.
“Silverstone was the first time I had long stints in the car, which felt perfect from start to finish. We, as a team, are building more confidence with every event and hopefully we can show that we have what it takes to race at the very top this weekend.”
Lining-up alongside Frenchman Gruchet is fellow BRSCC Porsche graduate, Chris Valentine, who is targeting a positive outing in the Britcar Trophy Series.
“Primarily, I would like to finish every race this weekend,” said Valentine. “I am very familiar with Donington Park having raced on the Grand Prix circuit on several occasions in the Porsche Boxster. But while I’ve raced on grooved tyres that give you a lot of feedback on how far you’re able to push the car, I’m still getting used to these new Dunlop slicks.”
Newbridge Motorsport Team Principal, Richard Tovey, said: “The team’s main aim will be to consolidate our progress from Silverstone and move forwards. We have a new video system installed in Guillaume’s (Gruchet) car that will record in-car footage, as well as show live telemetry and it will be very beneficial to see where we can squeeze extra performance out of him.
“Chris’s (Valentine) main aim is to improve on his previous lap times at Donington Park and to generally spend as much time on track as possible.”
Meanwhile, Newbridge Motorsport currently has a Porsche 987 Boxster available for use in the Dunlop MSA Britcar Trophy Series and the car will be on display outside Britcar’s hospitality unit throughout the weekend at Donington Park.
If you require any information on the vehicle or are interested in racing under the Newbridge Motorsport banner, please contact the team via its www.newbridgemotorsport.com website.