Besnard Battles In New Zealand
9/5/2004 13:38 (Press Release) -
Driver David Besnard wrestled with an under-strength engine to place 25th in the third round of the V8 Supercar Championship Series in New Zealand today. Besnard, driving in the WPS Racing Ford BA, pushed the car to its limits during the three-race program but the results were not apparent in the final placings.
“I feel like an innocent man in jail,” said Besnard.
“Gory really needs to work on these engines.”
The comments, directed towards team owner Craig Gore, were in response to a series of engine mapping difficulties that deprived the car of horsepower and forced Besnard to fight hard just to maintain track position.
“The car was excellent through the corners and was handling brilliantly, but it was well down on horsepower,” said Besnard.
“As a result I was forced to drive the car harder and that took its toll on the car and the tyres.
“We have got the chassis right and now we need to work on the engine.”
Gore responded by praising Besnard for his driving at Pukekohe Raceway and promising to find improvement in the engine ahead of the fourth round in Darwin.
“Bezzy did a great job and you could see that through the corners, but we are now well aware of the deficiencies in our engines and we will work to address it.”
WPS Racing team manager Keith Evers said the engine problem was apparent during the morning’s first race.
“We all know that David Besnard is a great wet weather performer but the engine difficulties detracted from his ability to take advantage of that skill in the first race,” said Evers.
“We worked on the problem after the first race but the reality is that we need more time on the engines to get meaningful performance benefits.”
Besnard placed 23rd in the first race and fought hard in race two to maintain that position after a disappointing start.
He slipped to the rear of the field off the grid when he experienced clutch problems but chipped away to reach a race high 20th position before finishing race two in 23rd.
It was a similar story in the day’s third and final 36-lap race, in which Besnard finished 25th.
“I don’t enjoy running around near the back of the field but the team will take some positives out of the weekend,” he said.
“WPS is new to the game and we can’t expect to get everything right immediately, but we go away from here knowing what we need to do to get on the pace.”
Besnard is now placed 17th in the championship series after the first three rounds.
Release Date: 02/05/2004
WPS Racing
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