by Russell Atkins
Chris Dymond has the iconic Le Mans 24 Hours round-the-clock classic in his sights after signing to compete for Team Berlanga in the
FIA GT3 European Championship this year something he describes as a 'very exciting' challenge.
The 2007 Renault Clio Cup Rookie of the Year will campaign one of the squad's Ascari KZ1-Rs alongside Erik Zwart, son of Ascari Cars owner and team founder Klaas Zwart. The squad will be run by experienced British F3 and A1GP outfit Alan Docking Racing, and with the first round at
Silverstone now less than a fortnight away on 18-20 April, Dymond has been getting into gear by joining in with the two-day group test at Nogaro in southern France.
It's a very exciting deal, the 20-year-old enthused, speaking to
Crash.net. It's going to be a little bit different, but the test went pretty well and I'm going quicker every time I get in the car.
I needed to adjust a little bit from a 200bhp, front wheel-drive car to a 500bhp rear wheel-drive one; I had to change my style quite a lot. The braking was the main thing. There are no real comparisons to make, though the only similarities are that both have four wheels and an engine!
A double podium for Ascari in the 2007 season finale in Dubai has given Dymond hope that he and Zwart will not be far from the front-running pace come round one, despite his lack of experience in both the car and hotly-fought series. Last year there were six different race-winners in ten races, and the Race Drivers' Academy member and Loughborough University sports performance student predicts more of the same in 2008.
It's going to be tough, he mused. A lot of guys have a lot more experience of GT racing than I do and know the circuits. I've never actually raced at any of the other tracks before, so it will be a bit of a learning year.
![Clio Cup graduate Chris Dymond aboard the FIA GT3 Team Berlanga Ascari KZ1 [pic credit: DMSP.co.uk]](http://pix.crash.net/thumbs/426339.jpg)
