Monterrey Preview: Team South Africa
20/02/2006 Round nine of the inaugural A1 Grand Prix of Nations takes place in Mexico at the historical Parque Fundidora Monterrey next weekend (February 24 to 26). Team South Africa, after leading the feature race in Indonesia two weeks ago and following good results in the two preceding races in Durban and Dubai, are looking for a top three result. Stephen Simpson and Vulindlela, sponsored by Absa, SABC Sport, Telkom and Aon, have shown in recent races that they are capable of competing with and beating the top teams and the 22-year-old South African's performance in Sentul, Indonesia was his best yet. "Stephen has worked hard to achieve his success and grows in confidence, maturity and competitiveness with each race," said Team SA CEO Dana Cooper. "He showed all of us in Indonesia that he can lead a race on merit, and with a bit of luck he could have enjoyed his first victory. "We now have a really good basic set-up for the car and it's just a matter of making small adjustments and fine tuning to suit Stephen's driving style at each new circuit. "We're looking forward to racing on the Monterrey circuit, which has hosted a very popular round of the CART Champ Car series for the past five years, and we'll be making our very best effort to put Stephen on the podium once again," Cooper added. After chilling out on the beach between races in his hometown of Cape Town, a relaxed Simpson said he was feeling confident before flying out to Mexico. "We had one of the fastest cars on the track in Indonesia and, although our pit stop strategy in the feature race backfired on us, it could have resulted in South Africa's first win in the A1GP series if it had rained like it was supposed to! I'm looking forward to the race in Mexico and I'm ready for a top result." The 3,38-km Monterrey circuit runs in an anti-clockwise direction and has 12 high and low speed corners and dauntingly fast straights where speeds of upwards of 280 km/h can be expected. It is built on the site of the first steel mill in Latin America, which was closed and turned into a beautiful park in 1983. Over one million spectators attended the Champ Car Monterrey Grand Prix in 2005. |
