Caistor man hits top of podium in Italian endurance race
CAISTOR resident Jeremy Griffiths has helped guide Team UK to victory in the pan-European Mazda MX-5 20th Anniversary Endurance Race in Venice, Italy.
Jeremy, who is the dealer principal at Grimsby based Nunns Mazda and lives on Brigg Road, helped to take the chequered flag in one of the four Team UK Mazda MX-5 race cars last month.
Team UK battled against some stiff competition from other European dealer representatives for each of Mazda's Continental markets to cross the line first and lift the coveted trophy.
"It's absolutely fantastic," Jeremy enthused. "I'm really proud to be flying the flag with Team UK."
In a challenging yet exciting race at the Adria International Raceway, which kept the excitement right down to the last lap, the drivers in Team UK held their nerve and guided the race-spec Mazda MX-5 home in first position to become top of the rag-top pops.
"We were out in front for the last hour of the race, but there was an incident near the end where the safety car came out, which meant it went right to the wire," Jeremy explained.
"The MX-5 was simply superb," he continued. "The set-up was perfect and our garage team did a great job in preparing the car. We took on rivals from all over the Europe, some of which were part-time racing drivers, but we were consistent throughout and that's what got us over the line in first position."
It was the first time 47-year-old Jeremy has sat behind the wheel of a race car. His competitive background has been in rallying and spans over 15 years and it was this experience that secured him a place on Team UK.
Jeremy added: "It has been a real honour to represent the UK in the event and to help celebrate 20 years of the iconic roadster."
The MX5 20th Anniversary race featured a Le-Mans type rolling start with all 27 cars going in to the first corner at over 100mph for four hours of non stop racing. The 2.7km circuit was the ideal venue for such a race, the modern facilities were superb with excellent pit facilities for the fuelling and driver changes. Each team had to determine their race strategy following two practice sessions.
Race footage on Youtube.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aJKKEwGXRm0
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Friday 10 February 2012
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