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| | | By Jan Magnussen Presse - Jan Kaiser - 19-07-2010 | | |  | | Jan Magnussen - Stevenson Motorsports Camaro.Photo: Jan Kaiser. | |
It was not the best of weekends for Jan Magnussen when he and Stevenson
Motorsports participated in the Grand-Am race in New Jersey, USA. Jan
Magnussen had otherwise qualified his Chevrolet Camaro GT.R in second
start position, the car's best-ever, and he led the race before
withdrawning with a damaged car. It was the third time during
weekend that the Camaro was wrecked.
The first time the Camaro was destroyed, was in Friday practice, where Jan
Magnussen on slick tyres hit a puddle on a slightly wet part of the track
after which the car went off and over the grass. The car hit the wall with the side
first and the speed in the collision with the wall was measured to 92
km / h, so both the car and Jan Magnussen had a rough ride. It took a
huge effort by the team to get the car ready for qualifying, even if bits and pieces
were still being fixed when the car when was rolled out in the pitlane. Jan
Magnussen, who was pretty sore after the hard collision with the wall,
thanked the team in the best way possible by setting the second best time, the best ever
qualification for the Camaro, which has been used in the Grand-Am for this year. It
promised well for the race, but by Sunday's warm-up it was Magnussens
teammate Gunter Schaldach, who made contact with the wall. He was hit
by a competitor, after which he went off the track and into the wall. Yet again, the team
started to repair the car and got it all ready for the race, which was
run late Sunday night Danish time.
Jan Magnussen, who was still sore in the neck after the accident on Saturday,
started the race in the car, and immediately put pressure on the leading the Corvette.
And it was not long before Magnussen braked himself past, despite
the competitor's assiduous attempts to block. By the first pit stop
Magnussen delivered the car to Schaldach, who however, was unfortunate when it was
Jans turn to get back in the car. Several competitors had
just been into the pits, but just as Schaldach was entering the pits they were closed
due to accidents and safety car in action. This meant that Jan Magnussen returned
to the track in seventh position. From there he fought his way to
fifth place, before he was about to pass a Porsche driven by Andy Lally, who
was not on the same lap as Magnussen. He blocked several times
although it was not a battle for position. Magnussen
hit his car in the back repeatedly through a turn, when he was very
slow and Lally lost control and went off the track. This was by the
race organisers made into a drive-through penalty for Magnussen, who
naturally lost several places in the race. But shortly after it was problemtime again when
Magnussen again caught Lally. Just as Magnussen was coming past the
Porsche, Magnussens car was hit three times and his car was had severe
damage that it could no longer continue in the race and Magnussen had to
pit.
"I am furious at Lally" Jan Magnussen fumed after the race. "He gets into
a fight that he is not even a part of. Perhaps even the organisers realised that when they changed my punishment from a stop-go to "only" a drive-trough. But as I see it, he did it to himself. He continued to block me and was very slow through the turns, so it
was impossible to avoid hitting him. If he feels he has to pay
back when I again come up to him I do not know, but I am certainly
not impressed with the antics he performed today. The expectations pre race
was very good and finally we have shown that we can be at the front of the field.
I got the second best time in qualifying in a car, where we
had not had time to do the setup properly after my collision with the wall,
so it shows that we are heading in the right direction. But unfortunately we got no
return for our efforts. "
Next weekend Jan Magnussen continues his hard summer, when he
races in the American Le Mans Series for Corvette Racing at Lime Rock.
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