Daniel Keilwitz joins Solaris Motorsport in Monza
Pescara – The italian GT Championship is ready to resume the season on the high-speed straight of Monza, the track where last year Solaris Motorsport caught its first victory – at debut – in GT world. The Italian team will race with a renewed line-up on its Corvette: the expert GT driver Daniel Keilwitz will share the Z06R cockpit with Francesco Sini for the second round of the series. Ringhio is focused to come back on top in a race that could see many fans on track, thanks to the free open paddock for all the visitors.
2010 European FIA GT3 Champion and winner of the 2014 ADAC GT Master always behind the wheel of a Corvette, Keilwitz is one of most competitive drivers of Callaway Competition, the factory that builds and prepares the GT3 racing Corvette. In the last three years, Daniel was one of protagonist of ADAC GT Master championship in Germany, where he conquered the 2013 title, he was runner up in 2012 while last year he finished 3rd in points. “I’m very happy to join Solaris in Monza for the Italian GT Championship. It’s a very competitive series with some strong drivers, so it will be not an easy race.” said the German driver, 6th at the last 24h Nurburgring “I’m quite confident that we will have a good chance to finish on podium, our main goal is for sure to win! The Corvette should match good to the track while maybe I will need some more laps during the practice because I was only one time before in Monza. I know the car is really good, it will help us to reach our goal!”
“I’m excited to be back on track to show how competitive can be the Corvette!” commented Francesco Sini, EuroV8 Series reigning champion that won his first race in GT exactly on the italian track last year “I’m very happy to share the Vette with a driver as fast as Daniel, it’s a very quick and smart guy. Monza is a very special track for me: I started my career here with the Formula Junior and I conquered on these straights my first victory. Here I caught my first podium with Solaris in Superstars, it was a great race! I started from the back and after a huge comeback I was third under the checkered flag! Last year Solaris Motorsport and I debuted in GT world here and, thanks also to Tomas Enge, we were able to set the first victory in Europe for the GT3 Camaro.” In this round of the Italian GT Championship, GT3 and GT Cup will race together in a unique grid: “It will be amazing! 40 cars all together on track! It will be very tricky for us drivers, we will have to be able to find a clean lap without traffic jam during the qualifying session and we will have to find the right way in the traffic jam during the race. Luckly, in Monza the splipstream is very important…”
After the adjustments made by engineers, the Corvette Z06R had a shakedown in Hockenheim in order to check everything is ok with the car. “We worked hard during these weeks in any directions, we think to have understood the origin of our problems and we are confident we will fix it.” Said Roberto Sini, team principal. “If faith will be with us, Daniel and Francesco could reach important results in Monza. I want to thank Callaway Competition for supporting us and our crew for the incredible job they made. We want to forget the this start of the year, our season starts from Monza.”
The second round of the Italian GT Championship is scheduled on 30th and 31st of May in Monza. The Event will start on Friday morning, with the first three practice, while the qualification session will take place on Saturday morning. All the fans can follow both the races in live streaming on the championship web site (www.acisportitalia.it/CIGT/live-streaming): Race 1 will start on Saturday at 6.55 PM, while the Sunday Race will see the green light at 3.50 PM. All the fans who will come in Monza can enjoy the free open paddock where they will have the choice to meet and take photos or signatures with their favourite drivers and cars.