Precision Motorsports went into the round 8 of FSR season without its main star – summer vacating Bono Huis. The team was nevertheless well prepared and stronger than in the previous races in Hungary.
World Series
After being absent in the previous race, Cyril Werdmuller and Peter Duivelaar were ready to take on a challenge of the street circuit in Valencia. First time in the World Series season all 4 Precision drivers made it through first part of qualifying into the second part. In Q2 it was Jack Keithley who handled the pressure the best and came out on top, setting a mistake-less lap and taking his first pole position with Precision Motorsports. Cyril Werdmuller started 5th, Fred Gosling 7th and Peter Duivelaar, who couldn’t get fully prepared due to illness was 8th.
The race start went smoothly, Jack keeping P1 infront of NetRex’s new driver acquisition Martin Gosbee. Cyril lost a position after the start and Fred and Peter kept their positions. After first pit stops it became obvious the fight for win would be between Jack and Martin Gosbee. Jack was running slightly conservative settings and Gosbee could keep up while planning to stop 1 less time. With the win out of reach the focus was shifted on finishing 2nd position and saving the car. Cyril, Fred and Peter were following each other closely the whole race to eventually finish without drama in P6, P7 and P8. Jack brought home a great second position, which meant extending his championship lead to 58 points. The constructors championship lead in WS was extended yet again to comfortable 200 points.
World Championship
Absent Bono Huis was replaced by Jack Keithley, who delivered Hui-esque performance already in Q2, getting his best ever WC starting position – 2nd. Jaakko Mikkonen couldn’t repeat his time from practice and had to settle for 11th, however starting on fresh tyres.
The start brought no change in order at the top. In the midfield though, Jaakko was able to avoid incidents in front of him and moved up to 7th. Jaakko’s race pace was as usually stronger than qualifying pace and he was able to make up few more positions. Luck wasn’t on his side however. A great drive by the finn, who was heading for top 5 finish came to an ending in the final stint, where Jaakko’s game crashed, resulting in a retirement. After misfortunes in Hungary, Jack’s internet and computer endured the Valencia weekend well and Jack was driving in a comfortable P2 heading into the final stint, having fended off Tali who attempted to jump Jack by pitting 2 laps sooner during all pit stops. It wasn’t meant to be though, as league’s regulations don’t allow a top 10 WC driver to compete in the World Series division, Jack had to lift on the finish straight and let Tali take P2.
Still, Jack brought home his first ever WC podium and thanks to his great performance the team hasn’t lost any ground in the constructors championship. Bono Huis’ lead was however shrank to 42 points. Bono will attempt to get some of it back already this week in Spa. In the constructors championship the gap on P2 is 105 points.
Jack Keithley commented:
"After a disapointing weekend at Hugary I needed to bounce back at Valencia, so to get 2 podiums was a very nice way to come back.
The weekend started off great with my first pole for the team, and from that starting spot I took the lead and held it until around halfway when Gosbee got around me. I stayed with him as long as I could, but we had to save the car as much as possible and make sure of finishing ahead of the top guys in the championship so coming home in P2 was a very good result for us.
Going into the World Championship race the main objective was just to get points and have a solid day, but somehow I qualified in P2 which is my best ever starting spot in WC. The team made some minor changes to improve the car, but I didn’t have the pace to challenge Morand so concentrated on running my own race pace which turned out to be good enough to gradually gap Rasmus to nearly 4 seconds as we started the last stint. On the final lap however I had to move aside as P3 was the highest O could finish and still run in WS, but I was still delighted to be on the podium in WC for the first time.
Thanks again to the PM guys for the great car and getting me to the end of 2 tough races."
Cyril Werdmuller commented:
"Qualification was ok considering a long break, p5.This was a very hard race. I struggled in my first stint after 4-5 laps because I had problems with my rear sliding. From that point I couldn't keep up with the guys in front. After my pit stop I made a change to my front wing which worked out nicely. Had a few good battles but it was just surviving to the end of the race. In the last stint I was pushing to get P5 but I spun which probably cost me that position.
Looking at the circumstances 6th place wasn't bad at all."
Team Manager Ondrej Kuncman commented:
"Certainly a very good weekend for us. Valencia isn’t too different from Hungary so I was a bit worried for our pace as we didn’t make any big changes, but we steadily worked on the car and it seemed to be enough. Main challenge was brake wear and we certainly couldn’t afford any more issues with Jack so we had to be very conservative, which worked out well. I am glad we finished with all 4 cars in WS on good positions and got some ground back in the driver’s championship. Jack has been working very hard and fully deserves the podium in WC, another awesome drive there as well. Shame about Jaakko’s game crash but that’s literally part of the game. We should have better 2nd half of the season as always so things should be good from now on."
To follow the progress of the team during the season, make sure to join us on Facebook and Twitter.
Precision Motorsports Press
Official Press Release
written by Ondrej Kuncman
www.precision-motorsports.de
World Series
After being absent in the previous race, Cyril Werdmuller and Peter Duivelaar were ready to take on a challenge of the street circuit in Valencia. First time in the World Series season all 4 Precision drivers made it through first part of qualifying into the second part. In Q2 it was Jack Keithley who handled the pressure the best and came out on top, setting a mistake-less lap and taking his first pole position with Precision Motorsports. Cyril Werdmuller started 5th, Fred Gosling 7th and Peter Duivelaar, who couldn’t get fully prepared due to illness was 8th.
The race start went smoothly, Jack keeping P1 infront of NetRex’s new driver acquisition Martin Gosbee. Cyril lost a position after the start and Fred and Peter kept their positions. After first pit stops it became obvious the fight for win would be between Jack and Martin Gosbee. Jack was running slightly conservative settings and Gosbee could keep up while planning to stop 1 less time. With the win out of reach the focus was shifted on finishing 2nd position and saving the car. Cyril, Fred and Peter were following each other closely the whole race to eventually finish without drama in P6, P7 and P8. Jack brought home a great second position, which meant extending his championship lead to 58 points. The constructors championship lead in WS was extended yet again to comfortable 200 points.
World Championship
Absent Bono Huis was replaced by Jack Keithley, who delivered Hui-esque performance already in Q2, getting his best ever WC starting position – 2nd. Jaakko Mikkonen couldn’t repeat his time from practice and had to settle for 11th, however starting on fresh tyres.
The start brought no change in order at the top. In the midfield though, Jaakko was able to avoid incidents in front of him and moved up to 7th. Jaakko’s race pace was as usually stronger than qualifying pace and he was able to make up few more positions. Luck wasn’t on his side however. A great drive by the finn, who was heading for top 5 finish came to an ending in the final stint, where Jaakko’s game crashed, resulting in a retirement. After misfortunes in Hungary, Jack’s internet and computer endured the Valencia weekend well and Jack was driving in a comfortable P2 heading into the final stint, having fended off Tali who attempted to jump Jack by pitting 2 laps sooner during all pit stops. It wasn’t meant to be though, as league’s regulations don’t allow a top 10 WC driver to compete in the World Series division, Jack had to lift on the finish straight and let Tali take P2.
Still, Jack brought home his first ever WC podium and thanks to his great performance the team hasn’t lost any ground in the constructors championship. Bono Huis’ lead was however shrank to 42 points. Bono will attempt to get some of it back already this week in Spa. In the constructors championship the gap on P2 is 105 points.
Jack Keithley commented:
"After a disapointing weekend at Hugary I needed to bounce back at Valencia, so to get 2 podiums was a very nice way to come back.
The weekend started off great with my first pole for the team, and from that starting spot I took the lead and held it until around halfway when Gosbee got around me. I stayed with him as long as I could, but we had to save the car as much as possible and make sure of finishing ahead of the top guys in the championship so coming home in P2 was a very good result for us.
Going into the World Championship race the main objective was just to get points and have a solid day, but somehow I qualified in P2 which is my best ever starting spot in WC. The team made some minor changes to improve the car, but I didn’t have the pace to challenge Morand so concentrated on running my own race pace which turned out to be good enough to gradually gap Rasmus to nearly 4 seconds as we started the last stint. On the final lap however I had to move aside as P3 was the highest O could finish and still run in WS, but I was still delighted to be on the podium in WC for the first time.
Thanks again to the PM guys for the great car and getting me to the end of 2 tough races."
Cyril Werdmuller commented:
"Qualification was ok considering a long break, p5.This was a very hard race. I struggled in my first stint after 4-5 laps because I had problems with my rear sliding. From that point I couldn't keep up with the guys in front. After my pit stop I made a change to my front wing which worked out nicely. Had a few good battles but it was just surviving to the end of the race. In the last stint I was pushing to get P5 but I spun which probably cost me that position.
Looking at the circumstances 6th place wasn't bad at all."
Team Manager Ondrej Kuncman commented:
"Certainly a very good weekend for us. Valencia isn’t too different from Hungary so I was a bit worried for our pace as we didn’t make any big changes, but we steadily worked on the car and it seemed to be enough. Main challenge was brake wear and we certainly couldn’t afford any more issues with Jack so we had to be very conservative, which worked out well. I am glad we finished with all 4 cars in WS on good positions and got some ground back in the driver’s championship. Jack has been working very hard and fully deserves the podium in WC, another awesome drive there as well. Shame about Jaakko’s game crash but that’s literally part of the game. We should have better 2nd half of the season as always so things should be good from now on."
To follow the progress of the team during the season, make sure to join us on Facebook and Twitter.
Precision Motorsports Press
Official Press Release
written by Ondrej Kuncman
www.precision-motorsports.de
