Besnard Ready To Fire After Cooling Heels In Melbourne
16/3/2004 5:06 (Press Release) -
A fitter and excited David Besnard will return to the driver’s seat in the V8 Supercar season opener in Adelaide after spending the weekend in the unfamiliar role as spectator at the Foster’s Australian Grad Prix in Melbourne.
Besnard watched from the pit garages as his new team mate Mark Noske trialled the first of two cars for businessman Craig Gore’s new WPS Racing team in the V8 Supercar exhibition race at Albert Park on the weekend.
It was the first time he had been a trackside spectator, rather than a driver, for a V8 Supercar race in which his team was competing.
“It was actually quite relaxing for the first few days but by the last race I was tearing my hair out wanting to get on to the track,” said Besnard.
“Normally when I’m not driving I would be watching the race from home, so being in the pits in Melbourne was a new experience for me.
“It gave me the opportunity to watch the team at work and talk to them about the car setup without the distraction of me going off to prepare for a race.
“I enjoyed the experience but I’m ready to get back behind the wheel.”
Besnard, who has improved his fitness and shed 8kg in the off-season, will climb back behind the wheel for a test session in Queensland later this week in preparation for his return to racing in the Clipsal 500 in Adelaide the following week.
“Our team has only been brought together in the past six weeks and getting just one car to the track in Melbourne was a great achievement,” he said.
“We learned a lot about the car and by the final day in Melbourne we were showing some great improvement.
“It has to be remembered that WPS Racing has still only had about 180km on the track so we are still getting to know our cars.
“But we will go into Adelaide with a great deal more confidence and we expect to be competitive.”
WPS Racing co-team managers Keith Evers and Charlie O’Brien said the team was likely to have just one of its two Ford Falcons on the track in Adelaide.
Besnard will take the drive if only one car competes, leaving Mark Noske to sit out the race.
Noske said his drive for WPS Racing during the Melbourne grand prix earlier this month produced some promising results.
“By race three (on Sunday) we had some noticeable improvement so we have made some definite gains with the car,” he said.
“I was disappointed we didn’t get more track time but I had an incident early in race two (on Saturday) that bent the steering arm and that put us out of the race.
“But we did come back strongly the next day and it has given us some great confidence ahead of Adelaide.”
WPS Racing is based on Queensland’s Gold Coast and is being sponsored by the Sydney-based Wright Patton Shakespeare Financial Services Group.
Businessman Craig Gore is the chairman and chief executive of WPS.
Release Date: 14/03/2004
WPS Racing
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