Langhorne
Continues to Make Gains
American F3000 driver Will Langhorne hauled the struggling BCN Competicion
team off the back row of a slowly dwindling FIA series grid by taking an improved
13th place in the timed session at Hockenheim.
The sometime IRL driver continued to build on the progress he felt he and
the team had made in the last race at Silverstone, and managed to demote the
similarly inexperienced Anglo-Irish duo of Michael Keohane and Sam Hancock
to two of the three places surrounding BCN team-mate Valerio Scassellati.
The American also benefited from previous track knowledge, having won two
Porsche Supercup races at Hockenheim in recent years.
"I'm satisfied because we improved the car's set-up," Langhorne explained,
"After seven races, I have found a good feeling with the car and I hope to
continue this development in the race tomorrow. I feel that a position into
top ten is on here."
Team-mate Scassellati also made gains during the two practice sessions, despite
not having raced at Silverstone - where Marc Hynes took over - and struggling
to get back into the swing of things at Hockenheim.
"We arrived at a new circuit for us and found a bad set-up on the car for
the beginning of the session," he admitted, "However, after that, we did a
good job, and my engineers and mechanics found some solutions for tomorrow's
race."
Team manager Jaime Pintanel was satisfied with the performance of his rookie
line-up, and shared Langhorne's belief that a top ten placing was possible
on a track where overtaking opportunities abound.
"It was a positive day for us, because we profited from the better experience
of our drivers," he said, with reference to Hancock and Keohane, who have
contested just one F3000 race between them, "I think that we are making a
good job of preparing for the race, and hope to get a position in the top
ten."