A Pole Position and 2 Top 5 Finishes for Sean and the AF Corse Team in Misano.
It would be the first time racing in the new 296 GT3 for Sean, his teammate Nicola and their engineer with a steep learning curve ahead.
Sean’s car 71 and their sister car 52 struggled in testing and free practice with a lack of torque and corner exit speed, even compared to the other Ferrari team running the same car.
They were constantly making setup changes which finally went in the right direction on the Saturday evening before qualifying 2 on the Sunday, changing the ABS mode, engine braking, pedal map, ride height, rear wing, anti-roll bar and TC.
Nicola started P1 for race 2 but unfortunately had contact with a gold class car which pushed him off at T6. He fell back to P4 or P5 at the pitstop and unfortunately they lost more positions as they didn’t pit under the safety car. During the pitstop itself, the car was released off the jacks before the tyres change was finished, causing a delay and the lost of another position to the Honda which came into the pits behind them.
Sean came out of the pits in P8 in class but quickly overtook the Honda and 2 other silver car competitors (including one on the last lap!) to finish the race in P5.