Ken
Gone but not forgotten
From Crash.net:
Embassy: Second won't be good enough
FRIDAY 18TH MARCH 2005
Embassy Racing owner Jonathan France has insisted that nothing less than victory will be good enough from his new look team during the 2005 British GT Championship.
For the new season, the team has replaced its Corvette with a race-winning Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and former SCSA champion Ben Collins will join experience Kiwi Neil Cunningham behind the wheel – a combination that France feels will give the team the chance to achieve its goal of title glory.
“By nature, I am a perfectionist, everything has to be just so, and what we don't want to do is turn up at the circuit and be second rate,” he told Crash.net, “anything less than success will not do. We have set the agenda that we want to win the championship.
“The change to the Porsche is the biggest key to this year. We've got to take the fight to the opposition and unfortunately the Corvette wasn't the car to do that. We have to put everything in place and the car is the vital ingredient. When you have a car that is as successful as an RSR, you've got to have the right men behind the wheel and Ben and Neil were my dream ticket so to speak. They came together at Thruxton [last season] and it's probably no secret that before they came together at Thruxton, Ben was already on my list of candidates for 2005. Without them we wouldn't have had the impact that we have, they are really going to make the difference.”
France also confirmed that he was confident that a successful 2005 would help the team make the step to international competition.
“Our aim for 2006 and beyond is to race at an international level,” he said. “We need to start putting those foundations in place this year and do what we should have done last season. If we can race with a good degree of competency and success in Britain, then we will be paying our dues towards international racing and we will be going as more of a know quantity.
“Whether is it FIA GT or LMES and Le Mans, we'll definitely be on the international stage next season, but we have a lot of affinity with Britain and would probably still run a car in Britain and a different car in Europe.”
Embassy: Second won't be good enough
FRIDAY 18TH MARCH 2005
Embassy Racing owner Jonathan France has insisted that nothing less than victory will be good enough from his new look team during the 2005 British GT Championship.
For the new season, the team has replaced its Corvette with a race-winning Porsche 911 GT3 RSR and former SCSA champion Ben Collins will join experience Kiwi Neil Cunningham behind the wheel – a combination that France feels will give the team the chance to achieve its goal of title glory.
“By nature, I am a perfectionist, everything has to be just so, and what we don't want to do is turn up at the circuit and be second rate,” he told Crash.net, “anything less than success will not do. We have set the agenda that we want to win the championship.
“The change to the Porsche is the biggest key to this year. We've got to take the fight to the opposition and unfortunately the Corvette wasn't the car to do that. We have to put everything in place and the car is the vital ingredient. When you have a car that is as successful as an RSR, you've got to have the right men behind the wheel and Ben and Neil were my dream ticket so to speak. They came together at Thruxton [last season] and it's probably no secret that before they came together at Thruxton, Ben was already on my list of candidates for 2005. Without them we wouldn't have had the impact that we have, they are really going to make the difference.”
France also confirmed that he was confident that a successful 2005 would help the team make the step to international competition.
“Our aim for 2006 and beyond is to race at an international level,” he said. “We need to start putting those foundations in place this year and do what we should have done last season. If we can race with a good degree of competency and success in Britain, then we will be paying our dues towards international racing and we will be going as more of a know quantity.
“Whether is it FIA GT or LMES and Le Mans, we'll definitely be on the international stage next season, but we have a lot of affinity with Britain and would probably still run a car in Britain and a different car in Europe.”
