Karen Gaillard: Good notes to start with 🎥
FIRST PODIUM At her first TCR endurance race in Monza, Young Driver Karen Gaillard lived up to expectations. A week later, she even took her first podium in Spain in a Vortex prototype. The highlights of the 12H Monza against the fascination of endurance racing again. The Topcar Cupra can be seen briefly several times. For a long time Karen Gaillard had to wait for her first car race [...]
The highlights of the 12H Monza against the fascination of endurance racing again. The Topcar Cupra can be seen briefly several times.
Karen Gaillard had to wait a long time for her first car race since winning the Young Driver Challenge 2019. At the 12 Hours of Monza, the round of the 24H Series actually scheduled for the end of March, she shared the Cupra TCR entered by Topcar Sport from Uetendorf with compatriot Fabian Danz and German Loris Prattes.
Puzzling defects
Fifth place in the TCR class in no way reflected the strength of the Bernese team. The trio was within striking distance of the leaders in second place despite differential damage before the new alternator also collapsed on what was actually a completely rebuilt car.
The exchange cost five laps. In addition, the race was interrupted by a heavy thunderstorm at exactly the moment when Fabian Danz wanted to return to the track. After that, there was no way to make up the lost time.
Praise and gentle criticism from the team boss
After all, this was how Karen Gaillard finished her first endurance race and received top marks from her team boss afterwards.
Ronny Jost: "She did very well. In the beginning, she was a bit reserved. She doesn't want to make any mistakes. That's understandable when three of you share a car. But in the future she can take a bit more risk. Her last stint to the finish was really good, chapeau!"
Experiencing a lot on and off the track
The 19-year-old from Fribourg enjoyed her first race weekend since her automotive debut as a 2019 Young Driver finalist in August 2019 to the fullest from the start.
Karen Gaillard: "I arrived with Dad in the camper as early as Wednesday and was proud to be able to drive our car over the historic Monza escarpment in the official drivers' parade after the test day on Thursday."
After her first long-distance race, she draws a primarily positive conclusion.
Karen Gaillard: "It was a rich weekend in which I learned a lot and steadily improved. Of course it's a bit disappointing that we had the potential for the podium and didn't achieve it. But at least we saw the checkered flag after twelve hours, which by no means all teams managed to do."
Guest launch in Spain
At short notice, the health specialist from Riaz came to a starting opportunity in Spain the following week. Not with a now familiar TCR touring car, but a sports prototype.
In Team Vortex SAS from the south of France, she was allowed to pilot two mini endurance races solo on the Circuit of Navarra on a home-made design with a tube-frame chassis and a 450-hp 6.2-liter Chevy V8 engine.
First podium
The young racer also solved this task with flying colors. In the first race lasting around 50 minutes, she brought her orange Vortex Light to the finish line in third place in the C3 class amidst GT4 cars and then climbed onto the podium for the first time in motor racing.
In the second race, Karen missed it by seven seconds in fourth place. The fact that she again did not make any gross mistake and did not break anything speaks for her maturity.
A good omen
Both performances, which went well, boosted her self-confidence and whetted her appetite for the next race. On September 5/6, she will contest her first 24-hour race with Topcar Sport in Barcelona.
The Bernese team knows how to win it with a youngster like Karen. Last year, her experienced Monza teammates Danz and Prattes, together with Finland's Antti Buri and Zurich's Julien Apothéloz - the winner of the 2018 Young Driver Challenge - decided the marathon in the overall touring car classification in their favor. Nothing less is also the goal in 2020.
