De Paddock - kumpen met carsport in FIA GT

eindelijk bevestigd

Quote:

Team Carsport Holland have today announced their lead driver pairing for 2002. Experienced Carsport regular Mike Hezemans will be joined by Belgian young charger Anthony Kumpen in a heavily revised Chrysler Viper GTS-R.

The pairing will contest the FIA GT Championship, selected rounds of the American Le Mans Series and the partnership will begin with the Daytona 24 Hours in February.

Front running Italians Luca Cappellari and Fabrizio De Simone will drive the team's other lead Viper GTS-R, and both cars will run on new Factory Pirelli tyres.

Carsport Team Principal Toine Hezemans - pleased to announe the deal commented: "Of course I am very happy to have Mike, Anthony, Luca and Fabrizio confirmed for 2002. It's a strong line-up and one that will give us the best chance of success."

Mike Hezemans and former Paul Belmondo Racing pilot Anthony Kumpen shared a Viper run by Carsport and American Viper Racing recently at Petit Le Mans, scoring a fine 3rd in class.

Mike Hezemans added "I think Petit Le Mans was really the begining of our relationship. I am pleased to be sharing with Anthony, we're both quick and he has a lot of experience also in a Viper. He was my first choice partner after Jeroen Bleekemolen, because I think we had a good season together winning 2 races, but he hasn't decided his career and we wanted to start our programme for 2002 now."

Thrilled to join the Dutch team, Cranfield University and Focusing Sport backed 23 year old Kumpen added "I am really looking forward to the new season. We're going to be doing a lot of development and testing and I believe the Viper of Carsport Holland will be the best choice for me. I have a lot of respect for Toine and Mike, they have always been successful in racing, and I hope we can add to the success story in the coming season."

Adding to the team's strength is a new tyre deal, sealed this week by Toine Hezemans and the Italian tyre giant Pirelli. "Yes, we have a 2 year contract with Pirelli. We recently had a very impressive run on the new Pirelli development tyres at Valencia, and after breaking the lap record I decided yes we would take the challenge to win the FIA GT Championship with Pirelli."

Further cementing the relatinship with Italy, respected and versatile team Racing Box will collaborate with Team Carpsort, headed up by respected Team Director Luca Canni-Ferrari.

"This is also very good news for for both teams. Racing Box are a very good team with some excellent personnel. We have joined forces and pooled our resources. As a team we will have the full services of ex-Audi Sportscar engineer Massimo De Prete who will work with me to develop the Vipers" added Hezemans senior.

wel verbaasd over de pirelli banden.