{"id":15681,"date":"2015-05-06T20:01:49","date_gmt":"2015-05-06T12:01:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/?p=15681"},"modified":"2015-05-06T20:01:49","modified_gmt":"2015-05-06T12:01:49","slug":"koutsoumidis-joins-fitzgerald-for-101-laps-of-phillip-island","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/2015\/05\/koutsoumidis-joins-fitzgerald-for-101-laps-of-phillip-island\/","title":{"rendered":"Koutsoumidis joins Fitzgerald for 101-laps of Phillip Island"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

After claiming a season high of five wins in 2014, many expected former Australian GT Trophy Class champion Dean Koutsoumidis to be a certainty to line up for the season-opener in Adelaide earlier this year, however the popular Audi driver had made other plans for the new season, preferring to make \u2018guest\u2019 appearances during the year, the first of which is the Phillip Island 101-lap enduro later this month.<\/p>\n

\"Exedra_Motorsport_Fitzgerald_DK_AusGT_PI_101_0514_med\"<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pursuing a few different things this year, details of which I\u2019ll reveal soon,\u201d Koutsoumidis explained. \u201cThat said, I was always open to offers to be a part of the Phillip Island and Highlands endurance races, and was given a fantastic opportunity to step into the #2 AFES Engineering\/Evolve Technik Audi R8 LMS ultra of Peter Fitzgerald for the Phillip Island event later this month.<\/p>\n

\u201cFitzy and I have been mates for years, but we became team-mates for the first time late last year as part of the Audi Sport customer racing Australia operation. I\u2019ve raced against him at various stages over the years and always admired his professionalism and speed as a driver, so it will be nice to join him and his fantastic family oriented crew at Phillip Island as we go after the \u2018big guns\u2019 in the 101.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m looking forward to having Dean onboard,\u201d Fitzgerald admitted. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the nicest guys in Australian motorsport, and he\u2019s actually pretty handy behind the wheel. . \u201cMy recent partner, Mike Almond, is tied up that weekend with his Carrera Cup duties, and I didn\u2019t want to distract his championship efforts, so Dean was a logical choice having had plenty of experience in the Audi.
\n<\/b><\/p>\n

\u201cI think we have a pretty good chance for a top five finish in the 101, although that could go either way depending on what the weather does, but having been third overall prior to that big opening corner accident at Clipsal\u2019s opening round, we know we have some good pace, so I think we might surprise a few people.\u201d<\/p>\n

After a quite detailed rebuild by Fitzgerald Racing Services with help from Lacey Panels and Audi Sport customer racing Australia thanks to the Clipsal incident, the #2 Audi was showing no signs of weakness during a recent test at Phillip Island, in fact Fitzgerald admitted he\u2019d bettered his personal best time by more than a second.<\/p>\n

\u201cBeing in the Audi has given me a new lease on life,\u201d he laughed. \u201cI\u2019m in better shape than I have been in recent years, and the Audi has really inspired me to be competitive again. It\u2019s a lot different to the Porsche\u2019s I\u2019ve traditionally driven in the past, it\u2019s less physical to drive but requires a little more finesse.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe aero is still the biggest thing for me at the moment, trusting that it will hold at places like the Hayshed at Phillip Island and turn one, but I\u2019m getting there and it\u2019s that confidence that will give me the extra time I\u2019m looking for.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor me it\u2019s all about time back behind the wheel,\u201d Koutsoumidis added. \u201cMy extra speed will come from technique, not car setup, and that\u2019s just miles, but we\u2019ll be alright come the 101. I was quick there last year before being unceremoniously forced off the circuit by an errant Lamborghini, so I know I can be quick again this year, it\u2019s going to be a great event and I\u2019m really looking forward to being a part of Fitzy\u2019s team.\u201d<\/p>\n

Round#2 Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli
\n<\/b>Phillip Island 101 – 22-23 May, 2015<\/p>\n

Friday, 22 May
\n<\/b>Practice#1 – 9:55am (20-minutes)
\nPractice#2 – 11:35am (20-minutes)
\nPractice#3 – 1:50pm (25-minutes)<\/p>\n

Saturday, 23 May
\n<\/b>Qualifying#1 – 9:55am (15-minutes)
\nQualifying#2 – 11:20am (15-minutes)
\nRace\u00a0(101-laps) – 2:00pm<\/p>\n<\/fb:like>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

After claiming a season high of five wins in 2014, many expected former Australian GT Trophy Class champion Dean Koutsoumidis to be a certainty to line up for the season-opener in Adelaide earlier this year, however the popular Audi driver had made other plans for the new season, preferring to make \u2018guest\u2019 appearances during the …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":15682,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[351,7104],"tags":[9362,9359,9363,9360,9361],"class_list":["post-15681","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","","category-audi","category-motorsports","tag-audi-sport","tag-dean-koutsoumidis","tag-fitzgerald-racing-services","tag-koutsoumidis","tag-phillip-island"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15681","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15683,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15681\/revisions\/15683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.fastmotoring.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}