Phil Keen says he is looking forward to his debut on the Le Mans Series ahead of the 2007 season opener this weekend at Monza.
Keen will partner Martin Short and Joao Barbosa in Rollcentre Racing's new Pescarolo for the coming season as he makes the move up from British GT racing – where he competed last season in the Eclipse Mosler – and he admitted he was excited about the season ahead.
“It's going really well,” he told
Crash.net. “The team are really nice and I'm looking forward to it. I fly out on Wednesday [yesterday] and we've been testing at Estoril and Paul Ricard and the car is really good. It's been reliable so far and hopefully it will be quick.
“I've never driven a car like it in terms of down-force and power so it will be a big learning curve but it is one that I am looking forward to. Driving a car is driving at the end of the day, but its getting used to the brakes, the aero and how much speed you can carry into the corners compared to the GT car. The most amazing thing is definitely the brakes though, it isn't the power, as you can just brake so late with the carbon brakes and you need to get it into your head how late you can brake and how quick you can go into the bends. It's just a case of practice.”
With the new season looking set to be one of the most competitive in the short history of the series, picking a winner will be far from easy but Keen said he was hoping that the Rollcentre Pescarolo will be able to fight for a place on the podium.
“At Paul Ricard during the official test, we were second quickest and three tenths of a second off the Peugeot,” he said. “I'm sure the Pescarolo will go quicker with Collard in it but you never know. We are hoping to do as well as we can do and a podium would be nice!”
