Vallelunga – It was a great week end for Solaris Motorsport in Vallelunga. The Italian team scored the first EuroV8 Sereis victory with its Camaro and at the end of the day Francesco Sini grabbed the lead of the drivers standings. Really competitive on the difficult track near Rome, Solaris Motorsport collected an important win in the first race and, thanks to Sini’s sensibility, gained a good sixth place in Race 2. After two rounds, the team can focus on the championship, well knowing they have a very fast car and counting on a Francesco Sini in great form, able to be very fast and to get the best out of difficult situations at the same time.

In Vallelunga the Solaris Motorsport american muscle car produced again a great performance, despite the characteristic of the Roman track not suiting it best. After a rainy first session of practice, in FP2 Sini posted the best lap, showing his potential to all the opponents. A problem in the rear of the car slowed the Camaro in qualifyng, but “Ringhio” was able to set a good fourth time, 2 tenths far form the first row.

The win for the Camaro arrived in the first of the two races scheduled for the weekend. With a careful race, Sini was able to stay away from troubles at the start, when the safety car was deployed, and after that he took advantage of the penalty given to Kostka – who was found responsible for the incident at the start – to lead until the checkered flag, scoring his second career victory in the V8 championship and the first for a Camaro in the EuroV8 Series. In Race 2 ,the Solaris driver suffered an issue to the gearbox in the warm up lap, but he didn’t give up and, faithful to his nickname, conquered a sixth place very important for the championship.

“It was a very positive week end! I’m very happy for the victory in Race 1, it was a great present for all the team and my engineers, to repay them of the big efforts they made until now. Saturday at midnight they were still working on my car, I had to reward them! Among other things, it happened right here, our home track, and this makes the win even more special! Now i’m on top of the championship, it’s a great sensation and i don’t want to share it with anyone! This year, this is our goal! – said Francesco Sini – It was a shame for Race 2, the gearbox broke before the start. At the beginning I couldn’t use third gear and then it blocked in fourth! We demonstrated we’re very fast, we could gain some more points and with the battle between the Audis, maybe, we could have tried to take advantage. But it’s ok, that’s racing, we finished anyway and now we are first in the championship! Now we go to Mugello, we won one time there… fingers crossed!”

In Vallelunga the Italian team demonstrated to be a serious candidate for the title, confirming Monza’s good performances, where the orange Chevrolets gained three podiums. The Camaro grows up very well and now it’s fast on all kind of tracks, being at ease both with engine tracks like Monza and when it needs to have a good handling, an important factor for the rest of the season.

Roberto Sini, Solaris Team Principal, is satisfied of the Roman week end but doesn’t want to stop focusing: “On one side are very happy and proud for the Camaro’s performance. The first place in the championship after 4 races demonstrates that today victory is not just the result of chance. Francesco did an incredible job: he was clever to stay away from troubles and focused in Race 1, but he was even better in Race 2, when he was able to drive over the problems of the car, carrying it to the finish line. We clearly must improve something else if we want to win the title, we can’t have issues like this against opponents so strong. I’m very confident for the next race, in Mugello we scored a win with the Lumina in our first year in Superstars! We want to be there with two cars to fight for the Team championship too.”

The next round of the EuroV8 Series is scheduled in 15 days at Mugello, which will be the theater of the fifth and sixth rounds of the season.

<a href=”mailto:mpalumbo@motorsportrants.com” target=”_blank”>Massimiliano Palumbo</a>

See first Camaro victory in EuroV8 Series!