SUGDEN TAKES SEASON’S FIRST WIN

The second round of the FIA GT Championship at Brno in the Czech Republic on May 28th gave Tim Sugden his first win of the 2006 season.    Partnered by Swiss driver Iradj Alexandre in the JMB – GruppeM Ferrari F430 GTC Sugden made up for the disappointment of overheating problems whilst leading at Silverstone in round 1 by taking a late race win in Brno.   This also made up for the disappointment in the 2005 race at the same circuit when he and Emmanuel Collard in the GruppeM Porsche had to retire from a good lead.

Sugden had qualified the car on grid 3 in GT2 for the race behind the two Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari F430 cars but ahead of the official factory backed AF Corse Ferraris of Jamie Melo and Miko Salo.    After qualifying one of Scuderia Ecosse cars had to change an engine and so started from the back of the grid leaving only one ahead of Sugden and the usual first lap crush left Tim in third place behind Melo and his co-driver from 2005, Collard in the works backed Ebimotors Porsche.   He moved ahead of Collard to run second to Melo for the first 30 minutes and then picked up a puncture that necessitated a pit stop.   The JMB crew changed the wheel and topped up the fuel getting Sugden out without losing a lap although he was now dead last, this however proved to be a very significant stop as things worked out  

Over the next 45 minutes Sugden lapped very quickly to gain places and move back onto the back of the leading bunch and as the others now pitted was able to take and consolidate a lead.    The car now had to pit to hand over to Alexandre but this was accomplished without dropping lower than 5th and so, as the others then also had to make their second stops the car was running in a close 4th place on the road which was a good position as the race entered an eventful last 15 minutes.

At this time the leading AF Corse Ferrari of Melo was being challenged by the Scuderia Ecosse car of Andrew Kirkaldy and the two touched and spun as Kirkaldy tried to pass, immediately Tim Mullen following in the second Scuderia Ecosse car spun on oil, possibly dropped after the coming together of the two leaders, Alexandre saw the spin, avoided the oil and so passed all three cars to take the lead with 7 minutes to go.     Emmanuel Collard in the Porsche was closing but could not get close enough to challenge in the time remaining and so Sugden and Alexandre ran out winners.   The win puts the JMB – GruppeM pair into joint second place in the championship behind 4 drivers sharing first place as they head for Oscherslaben in Germany for race 3 in the FIA series at the beginning of July.