Team Zele-Racing ran a total of 3 cars during the free practice sessions today. The rebuilt Dallara Nissan World Series car was the first car to hit the track this morning. Zele-Racing driver Andi Zuber took the wheel to check the balance and setup for the still handicaped Peter Randlshofer (3 broken ribs from the Hockenheim crash). After about 20 troublefree laps he handed the car over to Randlshofer, who had to stop after a few laps.
Randlshofer:“ It´s still very painful for me to drive again. Over the bumps i can feel the broken ribs, and there´s quite a lot of them on this track. The car looks beautiful and i´ve seen what Andi was able to do with it. I have something to learn from now.“
The next Zele-Racing car on track was the GP2/05. Zuber shook it down successfully and completed a total of 15 laps.
Andi Zuber:“ The car is really nice, the balance is good and it´s good fun to drive. I am a bit uncomfortable in the car, because we had no time to check my driving position before the shakedown, but still we managed a quite impressive laptime on our first attempt. It´s nice to drive on my home track again after all these years.“
Also the Pilbeam Honda sportscar completed its first laps on the reopened RedBull Ring today. It proved to be a very competitive and easy to drive car. Andi Zuber completed 10 laps and reported:“ Unbelievable! First i thought it will be boring to drive this thing, but man i was wrong. It´s just amazing. It´s massive fun to drive the Pilbeam. It breaks excellent, it downshifts just perfect and you can throw it around the corners. I am looking forward to the Qualifying and Race tomorrow.“
Also team principal Michael Zele was happy:“ It was good to see all three cars running without any major trouble. We had such a hard time to finish everything in time for this weekend and i have to say thank you to everyone involved, especially also to my father, Hermann, who´s still spending a lot of time in the workshop day by day. We Still have to sort out some little issues, but it will not stop us from running the Pilbeam in the Quali and Race tomorrow. I am surprised how quick the little sportscar is.“
