Jack Aitken heads to the Italian circuit of Misano Adriatico this weekend as he continues his progression in the GT World Challenge Europe with Emil Frey Racing.
The British-Korean driver will contest the third round of this year’s Sprint Cup season in the Lamborghini Huracán GT3 Evo with renewed confidence, after taking his best finish in GT racing so far at the previous round in Zandvoort.
Jack helped secure a superb fourth place finish in the second one-hour race of the weekend in the Netherlands following a challenging opening race the day before. In the ultra-competitive GT field, Jack again showcased his impressive pace in qualifying, recording a season’s best of seventh on the grid.
In the race, Jack fought back brilliantly after a busy start, in which he dropped a few positions, to sit well inside the top 10 approaching the end of his driving stint. A series of fast lap times enabled his team mate Konsta Lappalainen to maintain a solid sixth place heading into the final stint, with the #114 Huracán eventually coming home fourth overall, and third of the Pro class runners.
Since the hugely promising Zandvoort round, Jack has been busy testing at Spa-Francorchamps as preparations for the epic 24 Hours of Spa continue to build ahead of the race at the end of the month.
Jack spent two days with the Emil Frey team at the Ardennes circuit, having travelled straight from the Netherlands for the official test day. The test was a true mix of dry weather and torrential rain, exactly the sort of conditions which the 24 Hours is renowned for.
This weekend, however, will present a different challenge altogether for Jack. Misano is primarily a motorbike circuit that is flat, twisty and high speed. Jack has enjoyed success at the circuit before in his junior single seater career, winning a race in Formula Renault 2.0 Alps in 2015.
JACK ON… THE SPA TEST
“They say that you get all four seasons within 24 hours at Spa, and that was certainly true when we were there! These were actually the first laps I’ve driven in the wet with the Lamborghini, so it was useful to experience that. The car was really enjoyable to drive: Eau Rouge isn’t quite flat, and what I noticed was that visibility was pretty poor during the day – so it’s certainly going to be interesting at night. It was all good learning.”
JACK ON… MISANO
“One of the advantages of stepping away from just the grand prix tracks this year is that I’ve been able to experience, or re-acquaint myself, some of the other great tracks all over Europe. We did a test in the Lamborghini before the beginning of the season at Misano so we’ve got a better starting point than we had at the last round in Zandvoort. There are a few places you can overtake at Misano but there’s only one big braking point: the rest is more a flowing sequence of corners. So you have to be brave!”
JACK ON… FOLLOWING THE STYRIAN GRAND PRIX
“I spent the Styrian Grand Prix in the Ops Room with Williams, which is the next best thing to actually being at the circuit: you can follow all the action remotely with live data and listen in on the radio chatter. So it’s a great way to connect with the team and learn from a grand prix weekend, even when travel is difficult.”
JACK ON… DRIVING A VERY SPECIAL MINI
“This year I’m proud to be a brand ambassador for David Brown Automotive, which manufacturers bespoke classic Minis. So before heading out to Misano, I had a day with them at Bicester Heritage in Oxford, taking out some journalists on track and on the road with the Oselli Edition, which was great fun.”
Source. Jack Aitken
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