Winter 2004

After helping Classic Team Lotus celebrate 50 years of Lotus cars in front of an enthusiastic crowd of 15.000 fans, Ben returned to Hethel during the winter to test a 2002 Arrows F1 car, the latest project for Clive Chapman and Chris Dinage. When finished the car is to be used for promotiontal events around the circuits of Europe and has provided valuable F1 driving experience for Ben.

28/07/2004 - Ben and K2 looking forward to Silverstone

The K2 team are busy putting the finishing touches to their Pilbeam in preparation for the 1000kms race on the 14th of August. The weekend will see Ben share driving duties with Peter Owen and Simon Pullen. After the dissappointment of missing Nurburgring everyone is focused on producing a good result in the 6 hour endurance race. Pre-race testing is pencilled in for the 3rd of August at Snetterton, when pitstops and driver changes will be practised over and over again to ensure minimum delays in the pits. The on track action starts on Friday and anyone making the trip to Silverstone is welcome to come and say hello to the drivers and crew.

01/06/2004

Ben tested with the K2 sportscar team with a view to competing in the remaining rounds of the LMES series. He shared the driving of the immaculately prepared Pilbeam/Judd with Robin Liddell.

Both were happy with the performance of the car and the team were pleased with the progress made during the day. With several other teams testing prior to Le Mans it was a good opportunity for the team to guage their competitiveness. All involved feel they have a realistic chance of challenging for the class championship.

Ben has been asked to fly to America to help with rther development on the new and improved Marshall Cooke B2K0 which the team hope to have out at the Mid-Ohio race. This is a car Ben raced to second in the ALMS championship in 2002.

Ben’s ability as a test and development driver has also led to a link up with the Norfolk based specialist sports car manufacturer, Breckland Technology Limited, helping with the development of a brand new British GT challenger.

Ben tests new GP racer

Ben was asked by Lola cars to take part in the initial testing of the A1GP car, commissioned by Sheik Maktoum. The initial set up laps were carried out at the Lotus test track at Hethel in Norfolk, UK, where ben completed 25-30 laps before handing the car over to the Prince to complete the run. Both were happy with the initial impressions of the ca, although maximum revs were not achievable on the short circuit. The initial test was followed by some “hot laps” around the streets of Dubai at the world press launch of the A1GP series.