On Saturday Adrian Newey, Technical Director for the McLaren F1 team, qualified in 8th position out of a field of 33, driving the PlayStation®2 backed Ginetta car in the final round of the AVO Ginetta Championship at Silverstone, placing him on the 4th row of the grid for Sunday’s race.

Newey,  who  is  more  familiar  racing  classic  cars,  commented  after  his  first  taste  of  action  in  a modern day sports car; “Racing the Ginetta car was an enormous contrast to my GT40, which has twice the power but half the grip. By the end of the session I was adapting my driving style well and felt I was getting to grips with the car. I’m looking forward to tomorrow’s race and have been warned not to get bullied on the track. It will have to be a rapid learning curve.” Drizzly rain on Sunday morning left a very greasy and slippery surface on many parts of the track.

The  championship  rules  for  Ginetta  state  that  competitors  are  only  allowed  to  run  wet  tyres  if conditions for the race are declared wet. This was not the case, so all drivers went out on slicks for the first race of the day. Newey, racing a sports car for the first time, spun off the track during the warm lap of race one, putting him out the race. The unfortunate combination of tricky conditions and having to drive on cold slick tyres meant a total of three drivers were knocked out during the warm up lap. Newey  returned  to  action  in  the  afternoon  when  he  competed  in  the  non-championship  race, starting at the back of the grid of 33 cars.

Eager to prove his worth as a driver, Newey got off to a flying  start,  weaving  in  and  out  of  the  back  markers,  climbing  up  an  amazing  21  places  to  12th position after just 2 laps. On lap 3 Newey continued his charge, climbing another three places to 9th position. As Newey came out of the chicane at Abbey on lap 6, he was given a nudge from behind to send him spinning off the track, dropping him back to 12th position. The next 5 laps saw Newey getting in to his groove, recording impressive lap times and overtaking two  more  cars  to  bring  the  PlayStation  2  Ginetta  car  home  across  the  finish  line  in  a  very respectable 10th position.

Newey commented, “The first two laps were amazing. Cars were spinning off and flying across me. There were times when I could have pushed the car harder or take on more cars, but after the first race I wanted to make sure I got a finish under by belt. I just hope PlayStation 2 invite me back next year to drive the car again. I loved it!”