ASH M
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Quote Team Afrox:
"Former champions Anthony Taylor and Etienne van der Linde will contest the sixth round of the Bridgestone Production Car Championship at Phakisa Freeway in the Free State on August 4 with new-look versions of their Team Afrox BMW M Performance Parts 335i racing cars.
The two cars will be sporting new BMW M Sports Package bumpers, which, while giving them a more menacing look and will allow them to run considerably cooler over race distances thanks to their bigger air intakes.
Free State race fans will be getting their first view of the new BMW 335i race cars and, in preparation for the cars’ debut at Phakisa, the team has completed many laps of testing under the watchful eye of race engineer Freddie Pretorius.
“We have accumulated a lot of valuable data with Anthony and Etienne,” said team manager Donovan van Heerden. “The Team Afrox BMWs were very good in the Durban street races, where Etienne was the overall winner after a second and a first in the two races. However we cannot rest on our laurels as our rivals will have developed their cars, too, and will be out to beat us.
“We have assessed the results of the last visit to Phakisa and focussed on the development of the 335i accordingly. Phakisa is a fast, flowing and extremely abrasive circuit and we have concentrated on achieving a well-balanced chassis and set up that will give us what we think will be race winning speed.
“Engine upgrades in the form of software updates will be introduced at Phakisa in the search for speed along with reliability. Our aim this coming weekend is to reassert BMW and Team Afrox as championship leaders.”
Anthony Taylor: After all our testing we have found a sweet spot with the Team Afrox BMW 335i. It’s a good all-round racing car; it‘s powerful and it brakes well. Our race engineer has made good progress finding a balance that will allow me to enjoy racing but Phakisa is still going to be tough and the pressure will be on. I need a good result in order to rekindle my championship hopes for 2012.“
Etienne van der Linde: On the back of a successful Durban street race I am highly motivated to do well at Phakisa. We must establish the Team Afrox BMWs as the cars to beat in this championship. I am working hard and I’m very focussed on being a consistent race winner. Our car certainly has the all-round pace to achieve this.
After five rounds, Taylor and Van der Linde are joint third in the class A and overall championship with 109 points, 31 behind current leader and defending champion Michael Stephen (Audi S4).
In addition to principal sponsor Afrox, the team enjoys backing from BMW M Performance Parts, Castrol and Akrapovic Exhaust Systems."
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