Date: 07.07.11
James Walker's Le Mans Series race at Imola today ended in
retirement when the JMW Motorsport Ferrari 458 was struck with a
gearbox problem in the latter stages of the race. In his first
season of sportscar racing James is learning more with every race
and he thoroughly enjoyed the lessons presented to him at Imola
this weekend.
Rob Bell started the six-hour race, moving up into third place
during his opening stint. Then it was James' turn to take the
wheel of the Dunlop-shod Ferrari. Prior to the race James had
only had five laps in dry conditions at Imola and that was during
this morning's warm up session so he had to quickly get up to race
pace.
"I was pleased with my pace considering how much running I've had
at Imola," said James. "The car felt very good and the changes we
made really paid off."
During Rob's next stint he continued to set the pace until he had
an 'off' at Rivazza, which cost him some time at the end of his
run. He pitted to hand over to James for his next run and he soon
got back into the rhythm of the race.
"I had a great battle with the Hankook Ferrari and managed to keep
him behind me," said James. "Going through Acque Minerali I went
for fourth gear but just got neutrals so I ran wide across the
tarmac. I got back on without any drama but from that point I only
had fourth, fifth and sixth gear. When I pitted the guys
managed to get the car back into neutral but when Rob rejoined and
tried to come back down through the gears the problem was still
there."
"Overall I think we did a good job here to sort out all the issues
we had before today," explained James. "Rob did a great job as
always and we again showed that the Dunlops match the race pace of
the other tyre manufacturers. The thing I really learned here
is that with the limited running you have to be able to jump in the
car and just get on with the job. I enjoy being thrown in at
the deep end though and I'm now looking forward to the Silverstone
race. It's a track that we all know well and I think we will be a
very strong package there."