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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Chamberlain Motorsport began the 1999 FIA GT Championship with a new driver line-up and an excellent 4th place at Monza, Italy.
Former BTCC Champion, Will Hoy rejoined the team he started racing with in the mid-1980s, and partnered Portuguese driver Ni Amorim who returned to Chamberlain Motorsport for his second season in the Chrysler Viper GTS-R, No 18. Britain's Christian Vann joined the team after a year in the FIA GT Championship with the Marcos team, partnered this year by rookie GT driver Christian Glasel, of Germany. This young partnership will compete the year in car No19.
The weekend started well with both cars putting in encouraging practice times on Friday 9th April. Qualifying on Saturday saw Ni Amorim gain 5th place on the grid for Sundays' race, whilst Christian Glasel qualified the second car in 13th position. The opening round of the series would see 25 cars lined up on the grid for the 500km race, including 7 Chrysler Vipers, 1 Marcos, 1 Lister Storm and 16 Porsches.
At the start both cars dropped one position, but by the end of the second lap they were back to there original positions. It looked as though the race was going according to plan with Ni Amorim making ground on the Lister Storm but on lap 7, as Ni approached the backmarker, a Porsche, and moved to overtake the car, the Porsche hit Ni, forcing him to spin into the gravel. After limping back to the pits, an inspection of the damage showed that the collision had left the car with a broken front right suspension. To the disappointment of the team the car was retired from the race.
In car No 19 Christian Vann was driving with exceptional skill, consistently lapping at 1min 51seconds. A careful and mature drive saw him gradually cut through the traffic to be in 8th position until lap 27 when he pitted to allow new tyres and fuel to be taken onboard. Christian Glasel took the car back out and drove like a seasoned veteran in only his first FIA GT race. Maintaining the lap times of his teammate, Glasel had moved up to 5th by lap 46.
On lap 61 the last pit stop took place, with Christian Vann returning for the last hour of the race. Driving with renewed vigour, Christian constantly set personal best lap times, including a 1 min 48 secs. With aggressive driving he was soon catching on the fourth place Viper of GL PK Racing, driven by Vincent Voss.
A heroic final lap saw Vann overtake the Voss car at the end of the main straight and take the chequered flag in fourth. Vann's final lap was 1.1 seconds quicker than his qualifying time.
A jubilant Hugh Chamberlain, Team Principal, said: "I am delighted with the performance of the whole team this weekend. All drivers acquitted themselves and whilst it is disappointing for only one car to finish, both Vann and Glasel drove with exceptional skill and determination to give the team an excellent start to the year."
Christian Vann was cautious of his last lap manoeuvre: "At the chicane I braked a lot later than Voss and I wasn't sure that I could stop, so it would either look very heroic or very silly. Thankfully it was the former."
The race was won by reigning champion Olivier Beretta and Karl Wendlinger of the Chrysler Viper Team ORECA, with their team-mates David Donohue and Jean-Philippe Belloc just 0.2 seconds behind them. The Freisinger team Porsche finished 3rd and was the only non-Viper in the top 6.
Chamberlain Motorsport now prepare for Le Mans pre-qualifying on May 2 afterwhich the team is back in action in the FIA GT Championship at Silverstone on May 8/9.
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