08.11.2003 THE CARE VELOQX FERRARI 550 MARANELLO'S TAKE 1-2 IN GTS AFTER FINAL QUALIFYING AT LE MANS

After today’s two 45-minute qualifying sessions the outcome could not have been better for the Veloqx Care Racing team. Its two scarlet Ferrari 550 Maranellos will be heading the GTS category at the green flag for tomorrow’s 6 hour race, with car 80 starting in 12^th place overall and car 88 in 13^th. 

Peter Kox this morning set the provisional pole position time of 1m 35.822 in extremely cold conditions, narrowly beating team-mate Darren Turner in the sister car whose fastest time was 1m 36.288. Their nearest GTS competitor, the Saleen, improved its time this afternoon but was not able to close the gap sufficiently to the 24 Hour GTS winning Ferraris.

The team has enjoyed a trouble free week thus far, with the hours of practice being put to good use. All four drivers and their engineers were satisfied they had found a good race set up and balanced cars for the 240 lap race (the actual distance therefore being 1003.20km). The event will begin at 12 noon and will end in darkness at approximately 1800 hrs.

Peter Kox (NL), car 80: “I’m very happy to have got pole position for Veloqx Care Racing. The preparation of the car has been excellent and is a compliment to both Veloqx Motorsport and Prodrive. It’s proved easy to run and easy to maintain. It’s a good start to the weekend and we just hope for the best now.”

Darren Turner (GB), car 88: “My first few laps were a bit messed up as I had to come back into the pits to have the timing transponder re-fitted. After that I just didn’t manage to get a clear lap, and seemed to have traffic the whole time. The potential was there but I was unlucky.”