South African race driver David Perel has now travelled over 50 000km to race just one lap of the Blancpain GT Endurance championship after his Kessel Ferrari 458 GT3 suffered a clutch failure just a lap into the Cape Town driver’s third hour stint in Silverstone’s second round of the series Sunday afternoon, that after the car suffered an engine failure even before David’s chance to drive in the April Monza season opener.
His second disappointment on the trot was that much harder considering that David had Qualified the Ferrari on AM class pole position Sunday morning after being quickest throughout the practice sessions leading up to that on his first visit to the English racetrack. “We’re out,” David rued returning to the pits a lap after taking the car out for the last of thee race stints. “The clutch failed – I didn’t even complete a full lap.
“It really is pity because I had put the car on AM class pole position,” David explained. “I was very happy this morning because this is my first visit to Silverstone and it was also cool to share the podium with my former co-driver Mirko Bortolotti who was on his class pole position too. “But most of all I was proud to be on pole position on my Blancpain GT race debut on a track I have raced on Playstation for many years.
“Silverstone is a tough track in the real world — scary actually and quite physical — especially on the neck, but I never thought I would ever be on pole position here, so yes, there certainly are some great positives to take home. “I am however here to race and to have travelled all the way from Cape Town to Europe twice and back for one troubled lap is pretty frustrating,” Perel concluded.
“Now all I can do is wait patiently for the weeks to pass and quietly hope that it will be third time lucky and that I actually get the chance to race my Kessel Racing Ferrari 458 GT3 in anger at Paul Ricard on 26 June…”