After making his GT racing debut last season with Team LNT, Luke Hines will switch to Damax for the 2007 British GT Championship season driving the team’s Ascari KZ1R.
Hines is also eyeing some international events during the season, kicking off with the opening round of the
FIA GT Championship, as he told
Crash.net Radio.
Q:
You’re switching to Damax for the coming season with the Ascari. How much are you looking forward to it?
Luke Hines:
I can’t wait. I’ve had a year under my belt now and last year, as my first year in GTs, I had to get used to the speed of the cars, the grip and everything else. I’ve done that now and I’m looking at challenging for the title during 2007.
Q:
How did the deal with Damax come about?
Luke Hines:
They were interested in me last year. One of their cars was behind me at
Silverstone when my car was going off and I was watching it in mirrors seeing how well the Ascari was handling – there was nothing else to do in that race! It looked really quick and caught my eye and I thought that I needed a test with the car. That test went really well, I felt comfortable and it went from there really.
Q:
One thing you can look forward to this season is a bit more racing as last year it was you in the Panoz against the
Ferrari whereas this year, there is a very competitive GT3 field. It could almost be like a return to touring cars…
Luke Hines:
That would be good! I think I did make a race of it last season against the Ferrari at a few circuits like Rockingham where we had that rivalry where we hated each other on track and like each other off it. It was a good fight and at the end of the day, the Ferrari in the FIA championship is very quick so they were a team worth beating. At the end of the day we didn’t beat them so it doesn’t matter, but this year, we will have something like 30 cars out there through the year, maybe more, so it will be like touring cars – only with a lot more speed. It should be fun.
Q:
Who do you see as being the big rivals during the year ahead?
Luke Hines:
I don’t know really. I think there are half a dozen fast drivers out there who will challenge and it will be a tough year. I haven’t really looked at the entry list as I’ve been working on developing the car and the tyres to make it as fast as possible.
Q:
Away from the British series, plans afoot for the FIA GT Championship. Tell us about that…
