Craig Dolby - Superleague drive confirmed

eveningladies · 26 August 2008 14:01

As a few people from Exiges might know, Craig has been hoping to drive in the new Superleague Formula series for some time and his seat has now been confirmed

Superleague is being billed as a fusion of motorsport and football - a bit similar to A1GP but with drivers racing for a football team rather than a country.

I went over to Belgium with him yesterday for the seat fitting. It’s a big old car, the tub being based on a Champ Car. Powered by 750bhp V12s they should be fantastic to watch and should be only maringally off GP2 pace

You can see more information here:

Superleague Formula

Craig is racing the RSC Anderlecht car, which is prepared by Team Astromega who he won FR Belgium with in 2006.

The innaugural race is at Donington this weekend and he’s going to be up against the likes of Robert Doornbos and various F1 Test drivers, GP2, World Series and Champ Car drivers. He’s going to be at a bit of a disadvantage going into testing on Thursday as he has zero seat time and most drivers have already had 3-5 days testing. However, as Tony Pearman and Chris Pearson might confirm he adapts to new cars very quickly and is hoping to be on the pace by the end of the day.

Craig is a good lad and it would be great if anybody from exiges.com is up for the trip to Donington this weekend to support him

Mr_Pesky · 26 August 2008 14:31

I’m there

As Nick says, Craig is a superb driver, & he’s a bloody nice guy too

Mr_Pesky · 30 August 2008 22:16

Okey dokey, this is Nick’s (Eveningladies) report on today’s qualifying. Just demonstrates HOW GOOD young Craig is, & I can’t wait to see the racing tomorrow. I’m hoping to get to Donny for about 9.30.

[color:“blue”]Good day in the end today…

The car still wasn’t quite right in the morning which meant Craig missed the first practice session. So he still had zero time in the car when most drivers were on their 4th day of testing, some on their 6th and all on at least their 2nd. After his first 14 laps in the car he finished 11th out of 17, which is great going in a field of world class drivers.

When he went into qualifying he just missed getting into the pole shootout by a whisker and went a second quicker than practice, qualifying in 12th.

The engine manufacturers were still slightly concerned about the engine so he was sent out in the Rookie session at the end of the day. He was quickest in this in a 1.20.107 half a second quicker than qualifying and this was on old tyres. Apparently new tyres would have given another 3/4 second which would have put him in the low 19s right on the pace.

The cars are quick! Pole was a 1.18.5 which is only four tenths of a second off Sennas lap record.

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Mr_Pesky · 30 August 2008 22:31

PS Apparently Craners can be taken at 290kph.

That’s a piffling 180mph

jonnyfox · 30 August 2008 22:48

I tell you what mate if Villa weren’t playing Livershtewank3rf00kpigto22erjammybustardscrapheatingmakesm3vomitki22myarsetwatsoops FC I’d of made that! Good luck to him I say so long as he’s not a supporter of Livershtewank3rf00kpigto22erjammybustardscrapheatingmakesm3vomitki22myarsetwatsoopsitsthatbadsorrynooffencemeant FC

Mr_Pesky · 31 August 2008 18:43

Brilliant day out (apart from very heavy afternoon rain), but unfortunately Craig had 2 DNFs through mechanical failure. In the first race he started 12th & was in 8th at the end of lap 1, & pressuring the guy in 7th (who eventually finished 4th). On lap 3 an incident caused the safety car to come out for 4 or 5 relatively very slow laps - Craig’s car’s computer sensed high temps & closed the engine down.

He was due to start race 2 in 4th position. After completing a couple of warm up laps, his car failed to start again, whilst he was on the grid. His team mate led for nearly all the race, & finished 2nd. However, the point to note is that Craig has this weekend proved that he is quicker than him. Fingers crossed for the next couple of rounds, & that Craig can secure a drive for the remainder of the series.

It was great to see a number of exigers & Nylocers today - we had a good laugh!

[image]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v222/Exiges/SNB20461.jpg[/image]