Calloway Corvette wins in Silverstone

Calloway Corvette

Callaway Competition started with a victory into the 2010 FIA GT3 European Championship. Christian Hohenadel (D) and Daniel Keilwitz (D) won the second of two races on Sunday in Silverstone with a Corvette Z06.R GT3, developed and built by Callaway Competition in Leingarten/Germany. Also Saturday’s first race brought success for a Callaway built Corvette, Toni Seiler (CH) and Dino Lunardi (F) finished second in a Corvette of Callaway customer team Toni Seiler Racing.

The victory in Sunday’s race was a nail-biter for the Callaway Competition team. Christian Hohenadel, who started third, could take the lead after the start in tricky damp conditions. The second place Porsche of Kevin Estre put a lot of pressure on the leading Callaway-Corvette and could eventually take the lead from Hohenadel. A few laps later Estre retired after a driving error, that enabled Hohenadel to retake the lead. He handed over the Corvette to Keilwitz halfway through the race in first position. But when Hohenadel entered the pits for the mandatory driver change, he made a weighty error, when crossing the line of the pit entry, which is not allowed. The race director seized Hohenadel/Keilwitz with a drive trough penalty. After Keilwitz served the penalty, he continued the race on fourth position, but didn’t give up. In a brilliant job in his very first race in the FIA GT3 European Championship, Keilwitz fought back to the front, took the lead again, and finally won the first race in the European Championship for Callaway Competition since the season finale in Dubai 2008.

„I had a really good start and could immediately take the lead“, Hohenadel said after the race. „I had some great battles, but then I made a really stupid mistake when I crossed the line at the pit entry. You can’t see the line when you are in the car, and at this moment I didn’t thought about the line. Gladly Daniel had a brilliant race and could secure our victory.

„Christian had a very good start, drove a perfect stint and gave me the car in the lead, which was brilliant“, Keilwitz was very happy after his first victory with Corvette. „We had some engine issues in the first race on Saturday and the team had to change the engine. They worked all night and did a perfect job. The new engine worked just great.“

Hohenadel and Keilwitz had already all chances of a victory in Saturday’s first race. Keilwitz was running second, when a water hose blew in the ninth lap and forced Keilwitz to retire from the race. But Callaway Competition had still something to cheer about, when Toni Seiler and Dino Lunardi finished second in their Callaway built Corvette.

The all-Dutch line up in the second Callaway Competition Corvette, Marius Ritskes and Bernard van Oranje, drove in Silverstone their first race for Callaway Competition/Corvette and in the FIA GT3 Championship. They finished 18. in both races.