The Saleen S7R Captures 1st & 2nd Place in Race 1 at Val de Vienne, France
IRVINE, Calif., June 29 /PRNewswire/ — On Saturday at Val de Vienne, France, and racing with an 80 kg penalty weight/ballast, Team Saleen/Oreca again captured another checkered-flag victory! Drivers Soheil Ayari and Bruno Hernandez drove flawlessly by overpowering the Ferrari and later surpassing the Corvettes that were in a distinct field of Vipers; marking their 7th win out of 10 races for this 2006 French GT season.
The Protek team, also driving their Saleen S7R, with drivers Francois Fiat and Dominique Dupuy, captured 2nd place — just 18.6 seconds behind the leading Saleen S7R.
Saleen Race Fans Grow in Numbers as S7R Innovations Lead to Podium Wins
With continuing victories achieved by the Saleen S7R, Saturday’s top finishes further strengthens the Saleen S7R’s growing market-share of race enthusiasts, who are now cheering for America’s Supercar at every opportunity!
As the Team Saleen/Oreca ranking continues to mount, they attribute their winning record to the S7R’s power, reliability, and advanced engineering, as well as to outstanding driving, and superior race strategies over the most prestigious race tracks in Europe.
Sunday’s Challenge
As for Sunday’s race, Team Saleen/Oreca’s S7R danced with the drizzle of the rain as Ayari — who grabbed the pole and set the fastest lap by nearly 1 full second — shot ahead at the onset of the race. But as the leaders approached to lap a slower class of racecars, Ayari had to take evasive action for a Porsche which resulted in contact with a Viper, and then retired the S7R from finishing the race.
Truly a daunting finish for race fans looking to cap off the weekend with another Saleen S7R podium finish! However for the Protek team, their drivers — Fiat and Dupuy, also racing with a 40 kg penalty weight/ballast for the previous day’s 2nd place finish, brought their Saleen S7R home to cross the finish line in 4th place.
While Team Saleen/Oreca’s early retirement was an unwelcome challenge, they were able to extend their lead in the series — to 188 points in the standings — while the other championship contenders’ were unsuccessful that weekend, Team Saleen/Oreca extended their lead by 75 points in the race for the championship!
Steve Saleen, president and CEO of Saleen, Inc., said, “We knew when we formed the alliance with the Oreca Group that was right. 7 wins out of 10 races for the French GT series means that Team Saleen/Oreca is utilizing Saleen’s turnkey race technology in the S7R.”
About Saleen, Inc.
Since the company’s inception in 1984, Saleen has produced over 10,000 complete and EPA certified vehicles, more than any other specialty manufacturer. In addition, Saleen has equipped more than 600,000 vehicles worldwide, further emphasizing their commitment to excellence.
An eight-time Manufacturers’ Champion in GT sports car racing, Saleen’s corporate facilities in Irvine, California include: research, design, engineering and manufacturing capabilities, as well as the coating/paint division. Saleen also has another manufacturing facility in Troy, Michigan where the assembly and paint of the Ford GT supercar is accomplished.
Additional Saleen manufacturing sites are located in Canada and Saudi Arabia. For more information please visit www.saleen.com.
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SOURCE: Saleen