Aberdeen’s Ryan Sharp, partnered by Austrian Karl Wendlinger, dominated the opening round of the FIA World GT Championship at Silverstone to deliver a debut victory for their new KplusK Motorsport team.
“It’s a fantastic way to start the season again,” Sharp, who won the corresponding two-hour race last season in an Aston Martin before switching to a Saleen S7 for 2009, said today.
“This is a major boost for the team and the new car. It’s the first time we’ve all raced together as a unit and to qualify on pole position and dominate the whole weekend has given everyone a huge surge in belief.
“Karl drove impeccably again and we really feel we’re in with a major chance of winning the championship this season. We’ve been close the past two seasons but have been let down by reliability issues. This year though I think we can do it.”
Sharp, whose masterful overtaking move on the Maserati of double champ Michael Bartels midway through the 120-minute race proved crucial, finished 5.499secs ahead of the German and his Italian team-mate Andrea Bertolini. The Corvette of Dutchman Xavier Maassen and France’s Guillaume Moreau finished third, a further 20s adrift.
In addition to taking maximum points in the opening round of the eight-race championship, Sharp and Wendlinger became the first back-to-back winners of one of motorsport’s oldest trophies, the Royal Automobile Club Tourist Trophy, since 1982.
“Winning the RAC Tourist Trophy once is a dream come true but to become the first driver combination to win it in successive years for 27 years, plus be the first Saleen drivers to win it is fantastic,” Sharp continued.
“Now we have a fortnight to prepare for the second round at Adria in Italy. It will be a different test but we have to make sure we maintain the momentum we’ve established this weekend.”
In the lesser-powered GT2 class, St Andrews racer Andrew Kirkaldy brought his CR Scuderia Ferrari F430GT home in third place, 39.896s behind the winning Porsche of England’s Richard Westbrook and Emmanuel Collard from France.
And in the GT4 Cup, Lesmahagow-based ProMotorsport brought their Nissan 350Z — piloted by Scot Derek Palmer and England’s Rick Pearson — home eighth on their European debut.
JM