SUCCESS in the previous meeting at Donington Park cost Andy Priaulx as the 40kg ballast he was obliged to carry at Spa Francor-champs on Saturday kept him off the podium. But the Guernseyman was not too disheartened as he still has the new championship leader, Dirk Muller, in his sights.
‘I would have loved to repeat my success from last year and have a win in Spa, but all in all I cannot be too unhappy after the FIA ETCC races,’ said Priaulx.
‘I have come away from a race meeting where having 40kg of ballast can hurt with a fourth and a fifth, and I think the best I could have done was a fourth and a third.
‘Race one was tough as I had Dirk Muller and Jorg Muller in front of me. I was trying to get by Jorg but he didn’t see me and put me on the grass. But for that I may have even been second.
‘He didn’t do it on purpose and came up to me after the race to apologise so there is no hard feeling.’
Priaulx felt that he could have grabbed a podium finish in race two, but a hitch on lap one cost him dearly.
‘In race two, third was definitely on the cards, but on the first lap as we were all going into the Bus Stop we got backed up, I locked up my brakes and flat spotted the tyres.
‘This gave me bad understeer for the remainder of the race and there was no way I could keep the others behind me.’
The results left Priaulx third in the drivers’ championship on 81 points behind the two Mullers on 86 and 85, a deficit he felt he can make up at the next meeting.
‘I am not too unhappy as I am still in with a shout of the championship. I am only five points behind Dirk, who is now leading.
‘The good thing is I go to Imola light and he goes heavy.
‘Imola is a track where you get a lot of direction changing and plenty of elevation so forty kilos will definitely be a disadvantage.’
The two Mullers exchanged places in the two Spa races, Dirk winning the first from Jorg, the latter topping the podium in the second.
Jordi Gene was third in race one in his Seat - the only time a non-BMW made the top three. Antonio Garcia took third in the second race.
*AN ELECTRICAL fault forced the retirement of Priaulx’s team midway through the Spa 24-hour race.
The Guernseyman was ready to take over the driving duty from team-mate Antonio Garcia when the safety car came out and the BMW team soon realised their car was not going to make it back to the pits.
‘Standing in a pit lane as the time approaches 4am, waiting for your car to arrive and realising it is not going to is a very lonely thing to do,’ said a disappointed Priaulx.
‘As the minutes ticked by it was soon obvious that even if it was not our BMW that had caused the safety car to be deployed, it was not going to come into the pits. At that time I didn’t realise it had stopped on the track at the Stavelot corner and that there was nothing Antonio could do to coax it back to the pits.’
The BMW M3 GTR had been third overall despite an earlier problem when Garcia lost its front left wheel. He drove two-thirds of the track on three wheels before Priaulx, Pedro Lamy and Kurt Mollekens got back in front and established a considerable lead in their class.
Article posted on 2nd August, 2004 - 12.00am
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