Fourth For Frank In Sachsenring
Cumbrian racing driver Frank Bird was back in action for round six of the ADAC GT Masters Series which was held at Sachsenring this weekend where he just missed out on a podium finish.
As usual, driving for MANN-FILTER Team LANDGRAF, Penrith-born Frank was hoping for another good showing as he once again teamed up with teenage Finnish driver Elias Seppanen for the two races in the Frank Bird Poultry Ltd-backed Mercedes AMG-GT3.
Unusually, the track near Chemnitz in Saxony region of Germany was one which Frank hadn’t raced at before so he faced an additional challenge of learning the circuit as he planned to make amends for the disappointments of the previous round at the Lausitzring.
Resplendent in the team’s green and yellow liveried ‘Junior Mamba’ car, Free Practice 1 saw them claim second fastest time before placing in sixth in the Free Practice Trophy. Qualifying 1 saw Bird end up in eighth overall, but fifth in the Junior class, from where the team posted seventh overall in the race and fourth in class, just missing the podium.
Frank and the team couldn’t quite replicate the result in the second race after qualifying in a lowly 15th overall and ninth in class, they improved to finish tenth overall and battled to sixth in class to record a pair of solid finishes.
Frank Bird: "Round six of the championship was at Sachsenring which was a brand new track for me which was cool and I really enjoyed getting to grips with it. It was a bit of a tough weekend but we managed to grind out a couple of decent finishes with P7 in race one and P10 in race two, despite a drive-through penalty. It was nice to bounce back with some decent results after a bad weekend last time in Lausitzring and hope to carry this form into the last round in
Hockenheim next month. Thanks as always to the team for their hard work, and our sponsors, and of course my dad for making it possible.”
Round seven of the series visits Hockenheim, again in Germany over the weekend of 21/23 October 2022.
Pictures (ADAC)
