You can now download the videoclip with the best and worst moments of Faster Than Speed WS Ace drivers during the 2006 season!

The video was created by Christian Smirnoff, featuring the fantastic FTS-P6 car design. Watch Theo Gort, Gabriel Garivaldis, Swaraj Shergill and Christian Smirnoff in their best overtaking moves, battles, spins, crashes, mechanical failures and more, all the most exciting moments of the season packed on a videoclip! Enjoy it!!

Download from our Multimedia section!

We have also re-uploaded 2005's FTS WS Ace Constructors Champions Videoclip!

After winning the 2005 WS Ace Constructors' Championship and with runner-up positions in the Drivers' Championship of WS Ace and WS Amateur, improving on such a season was a very ambitious task for 2006. Now, with the 2006 season over, we can proudly say we exceeded our expectations by fighting for all World Series championships, achieving runner-up positions in the Constructors' Championship of both WS Ace and WS Pro divisions, and most importantly, two Drivers' Championship, by Faisal Niazi in WS Pro and myself in WS Ace.

World Series Ace

After last year's success, the team wanted to battle once again for the teams title. Personally, I also wished to have another go at the championship I just missed in 2005, and was determined to fight hard for it.

The first races were tough for me, as I struggled to get up to front runner's pace. Despite getting good results and some eventual podium finishes, I was far from wins. During this period, my strategy was to keep getting the strongest possible results by pushing hard and not making mistakes, while trying to improve my pace. By mid-season I started catching up, but I admit that for a while I thought the title was not possible anymore, as Ferry Koek had passed me and was leading by 14 points after Germany. But I never lost hope or abandoned the ilussion. The improved momentum, together with the new mod and an improved team testing work allowed me to have a much better performance in the last races. In Hungary, a fight with Ferry in which I managed to avoid getting passed with a heavily damaged car until he spun and retired gave me the ilussion again. I won 3 very special races, each one for different reasons. In Turkey, because it was a 1-2, it was my and the team's first win of the season and because there I felt I could be champion. Italy was special because it was the first time in 2006 I could win without any help, leading more laps than anyone else. Brazil was very special, as after winning the championship with a DNF in Japan, I really wanted to celebrate it with a finish in the last race, and exceeded what I hoped for, winning the race after an incredible battle with Steve Kasimatis which I will never forget. All in all, it was a fantastic, but hard season for me, and I'm very happy of the championship achieved and it's something I will remember forever.

As a team, we hoped for the championship, which went to Roaldo Racing with one race to go. This time it was another team's turn but I'm personally very proud of the drivers that have raced for FTS in WS Ace this year. Gabriel, with a Pole Position and many very strong races. He is a very hard team mate to match in terms of pace, and his Turkey gesture is something I will never forget. Theo, was almost unknown for us when he arrived. But I can now say he is a great driver, who did some very solid performances and I'm sure he has a great potential in simracing. Swaraj probably didn't have the season he hoped for, but I have full trust in his abilities and I'm sure he will bounce back strongly next year. I congratulate Roaldo Racing once again for their well deserved championship. It was a lot of fun to battle against them, because it was a very fair fight.

World Series Pro

In WS Pro, Faisal Niazi did an incredible job to clinch the Drivers' Championship, despite being usually unlucky. The way he managed the races to fight for the title was really outstanding. I was well aware of his talent when he arrived to FTS, but winning the title in his first year with us was honestly unexpected. Faisal achieved a win in Turkey, a Pole Position and 8 podiums, 6 of them in the last 7 races. I'm sure he would have won more races if not for some bad luck, but even when he had problems, he administered his races perfectly to take podium finishes. His team mate Colin also did a great job, showing great pace, scoring a Pole Position, a podium, and being very important for our final position in the team standings. I don't want to forget about Luis Schiavo, who left the team early in the season, but scored an important podium. In the last race, we jumped to 2nd position on the Constructors' Championship, to complete a great performance by the team in this division. I also wish to congratulate Roaldo Racing for their success in this division.

Final comments

In this way, we close our 2006 season, very happy about our performances and hoping for another succesful season in 2007! I wish to thank every member of the Faster Than Speed team and the fellow drivers and teams, who were a pleasure to battle with throughout 2006. 2007? Here we come! Thanks!

Christian Smirnoff
Faster Than Speed Team Co-Manager
Faster Than Speed WS Ace Driver

Faster Than Speed took the chance to announce their 2007 FSR World Championship driver lineup.

Patrick De Wit, from the Netherlands, signed for Faster Than Speed after his rookie season in 2006, where he finished 6th in the standings with 31 points, scoring 2 podium finishes throughout the season.

He will partner Giuseppe Marconi, who drove the last six races of the season for the team, but now joins the team officially for the 2007 season. The Italian, finished 2006 22nd on the standings with 4 points, but the team is sure of his potential to score many more in 2007.

With the new lineup, Faster Than Speed will hope to score many more points than this year, hoping for a stronger position in the championship and aiming to be back in the podium. These is what the drivers and managers had to say about the announcement:

Giuseppe Marconi: "I'm very proud and happy because I have signed again for FTS for season 2007. First of all, I want to thank Gabriel, Christian and all the guys of the team for their confidence in me although in 2006 I did few points in the WC class. However, I think that next season, working hard this winter with my new team mate Patrick we can bring surely more points. Patrick is a very fast driver and I can learn lots of things from working together with him. I would wish the team another new rich season of victories in all the classes."

Patrick De Wit: "It's a great chance for me, because the 2006 season started
in a great way for me. To be honest it was well beyond my expectations. I got a great chance by Twister-Racing, thanks to Joel Roux and Ferry Koek, because of them I made it this far. My 2006 season started great with a podium finish in the first race, and in Europe as well. Had some good and bad moments, my highlight has to be Monaco to be honest. Starting 2nd I had the speed to win there. Maybe next year? I want to be more consistent and make less mistakes!

I am very proud to drive for Faster Then Speed. You don't get every day a drive for a team where only fast drivers are in. I have had many problems with the BMW physics and hope FTS can help me with it. I want to sort that out.

I already started testing with my new team FTS, doing setup development. But anyway I want to do my best for FTS and hope we will do a much better year than 2006, together with my team mate Giuseppe Marconi, who I already know from DaSilva NetRex.

I am very happy that FTS wanted me because some performances in race 13 and 14 were not totaly ok. I hope to give it all, but like most know now I never give up a fight, ever. I hope for very clean races this year!

I am thankful to Christian and Gabriel for this chance they gave me and I will try to show them that they did not make the wrong choice!"

Gabriel Garivaldis, Team Manager: "After what has been a fairly dismal season in WC I am really happy about our 2007 lineup. The main reason for this is because this season we had too much driver swapping race after race, nobody is directly to blame but this was not what we had hoped for. So to sign two fast drivers for 2007 who we trust and can put our confidence to do well in, it is a great thing for FTS.

Patrick has shown some excellent pace throughout the season and has had some brilliant results in his first year. With some more experience now we believe he can fight for big points in 2007. We thank Kiwi Virtual for keeping a happy face when we made an agreement to sign Patrick, and we are now very happy to have him as part of the team.

Giuseppe has also shown some very good pace all season. He has shown some big improvements in 2006 moving from WS Ace in 2005, and showing that he really deserves World Championship status. He has been a little unlucky particularly towards the end of the season but we have a lot of belief in this driver and we know he can fight for strong points when he puts in the practise. We are exceptionally pleased to have Giueseppe join FTS officially and we thank DaSilva NetRex for also causing no distress in taking him over to our team.

The team will work hard over the pre-season to be prepared for 2007 and we believe these 2 drivers can take FTS to new heights in WC."

Christian Smirnoff, Team Manager: "We had a very difficult 2006 WC season. The main reason was, as Gabriel explained, that we didn't have a stable lineup throughout the season. Even if different great drivers raced for the team, we couldn't work effectively as a team as we had done in the past and in the World Series. That has had a big impact on our results this season. That's why, we signed up this lineup for 2007, which makes me excited about what they can do. Now we hope to pick up where we left with our strong 2005 season and we will be aiming to get back to the podium.

Patrick De Wit is a very quick driver. He has shown this in many occassions during the season, together with an incredible fighting spirit and determination to succeed. This has also led him to some understandable mistakes considering it was his rookie season, but we will work on that and I'm sure we will be able to extract all his potential.

Giuseppe Marconi didn't have the 2006 season he probably wanted, but he showed very strong pace in testing. Unfortunately he was often unlucky, which didn't let him capitalize on that pace, but we are sure that with a bit more luck and a hard-working winter season, he will be able to show all his potential in the races. He has also been very important for the team's success in the World Series due to his fantastic feedback in the testing sessions.

We are very happy about this driver lineup. Watch out for Faster Than Speed in 2007!"

The weekend of the last race of the season, the Brazilian GP, will be another one the World Series' Faster Than Speed team will never forget. In another perfect weekend, Faisal Niazi secured the WS Pro Drivers' Championship with a great controlled drive to 3rd on Saturday, while on Sunday, Christian Smirnoff celebrated his title with his third win of the season, achieved after a thrilling battle with Steve Kasimatis.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi only needed a 6th place finish to clinch the championship over rival Wayne White. With a slightly different approach to the race, Faisal did a fantastic job to secure a well deserved title. He is the second FTS driver to clinch a Drivers' Championship, after Christian secured his in WS Ace a week ago. Faisal drove a brilliant season, with 8 podium finishes, a Pole Position and a fantastic victory in Turkey. Despite suffering many problems in races, Faisal always kept his cool and finished only two races outside the Top 3. He ended with 9 more points than rival White.

At Interlagos, Faisal was 3rd fastest in Q1, later securing P4 on the grid in the Q2 session. Team mate Colin Penney could only join the Qualifying session late, leaving him only one run, which left him only 16th on the grid due to a spin.

In the race, Faisal drove a faultless 1-stopper race, avoiding all kinds of trouble, but still showing strong pace. The new champion ran 2nd throughout the race but in the last laps, let Pedro Licio Mega through to avoid an unnecessary battle. A wise decision, as a collission would likely change the championship's outcome. After this, and despite Wayne White's win, Faisal celebrated his championship with a 3rd place finish.
Team mate Colin had a more difficult race, after having to do an extra pitstop for a new front wing, a couple of mistakes and a drive-through penalty. Colin still managed to finish in 9th position.

With this strong result, the team also jumped to 2nd on the Constructors' Championship for the first time this season, in the last race. The team only missed the title by 15 points to Roaldo Racing, who we congratulate for the achievement!

In World Series Ace, Christian said he wanted to celebrate his championship in better style after the DNF in Japan. And he certainly did. He took his third win of the season, after a thrilling battle in the last laps against Diamond Racing Team's Steve Kasimatis. Team mate Theo Gort also ran a very strong race to clinch a season best 4th place.

In Qualifying, Christian and Theo were 9th and 15th respectively. Christian was specially not happy as he believed 3rd on the grid was a realistic target if three of his laps wouldn't have been harmed by traffic.

Despite winning, the race was far from trouble free. After overtaking Schreiber and Nuti, Christian lost control of his car and damaged the front left suspension after brushing the barriers. This, together with a later spin plus a long pitstop delayed him up to 20 seconds. Despite this, strong second and third stints left Christian fighting for victory with Kasimatis. After having a big moment with a backmarker, Steve got in front of Christian, but a great pitstop put him back ahead and in the lead of the race. Kasimatis soon closed the small gap, with a clearly faster car, and a thrilling 14-lap battle for victory started. Christian managed to stay ahead, with Kasimatis only a couple of tenths behind during this stint, and finishing just 0.241 seconds behind at the end of the race. This way, Christian finished the season celebrating his championship in style!

Theo also had a very strong race, showing very good pace to take a solid 4th place finish, with a less aggressive 2-stopper strategy.

Christian Smirnoff (1st): "Really amazing, it was the best win of my life, no doubts. The last laps with Steve (Kasimatis) pushing me so hard were really incredible, I had a lot of fun but it was terrible, I was very nervous, was suffering a lot. He was faster and in the last few laps Steve was between 1 and 3 tenths behind me all the time and he finished 0.241 sec behind. I really couldn't keep him behind any longer, those laps were so long!

But I won, third win of the season, I can't really believe it, and had the chance to celebrate the championship more than properly! After winning like this I can really feel champion!

Qualifying wasn't so good, could have ended up 3rd but had three laps ruined by traffic, so just had one clean run at the end and had to start from 9th.
The race was much better, but had my problems too. I managed to overtake Lennart (Schreiber) into T1 and then I passed Nazario (Nuti) into T3 but as I had to go a gear lower to make the corner I lost control under acceleration and hit the barrier. Damaged my front left suspension, which didn't affect me too much but worsened the car balance and made me a bit slower. Later I made a mistake and went off in Juncao as I put a tyre beyond the high kerb. In total I lost over 15 seconds plus a quite long first pitstop.

After the first pitstop, I could run faster and very consistantly, and I got the lead for a lap before the second pitstop. Before the last one I could hunt down leader Stephane (Rouault), reduced the gap quickly and he later spun. A backmarker, Mihajlo (Vicentijevic), almost costs me the race then, as he blocked me while I was lapping him in Mergulho and I had to go through the grass, I just managed not to spin, but Steve went through. I was lucky to get the position back in the last pitstop and then had the great battle with Steve for the win, which I already talked about.

A really incredible race which I won't forget. A great way to finish the championship! Thanks to Steve for that great battle and congratulations to my team mate Theo for a great 4th place!"

With the 40 points scored, and Roaldo Racing's double DNF, FTS closed the gap to end the season just 8 points behind the Constructors' Champions. Even though this means any little detail could have changed the outcome, Faster Than Speed finishes the season proud of the way we battled for the title, and shows that FTS would have also deserved it.

This race marks the end of a brilliant 2006 World Series season for Faster Than Speed. After achieving the WS Ace Constructors' Championship and two runner-up positions in the Drivers' Championships of WS Ace and WS Amateur in 2005 (by Christian Smirnoff and Swaraj Shergill), improving that result was an ambitious task. But in 2006, the achievements were doubled with Faisal's and Christian's championships and finishing both Constructors' Championships in the runner-up position. Bring on 2007!

Swedish driver Joakim Bengtsson was back to the FTS-P6 cockpit for the FSR World Championship's season finale Brazilian GP and scored the last point after a difficult race in Interlagos.

In Qualifying, Joakim set a good time to start from 9th in the grid, but was not happy about it after a spin on his second run, which could have left him further up the grid. Team mate Giuseppe Marconi didn't take part in the session and started 20th, in last position, as a consequence.

After difficult first laps, both Joakim and Giuseppe were making strong progress and both looking strong for a double point-scoring finish. Unfortunately, in only a few laps, both drivers would run into trouble.
Joakim spun on lap 15, hitting the barriers and having to pit for a new nose. The team decided to keep him in his 2-stopper strategy even if it meant his last two stints would be much longer. Joakim made a strong recovery from the back, making a nice manouver to overtake Geoffrey Veenings, despite having a damaged car and loosing time in a later collission with Danny Davison. In the end, Joakim took the last point for an 8th place finish.
Giuseppe, meanwhile, was even more unlucky. After being hit by Danny Davison on lap 19, the Italian had to retire his car, loosing him the chance of finishing in a strong position.

Joakim Bengtsson (8th): "I drove this race for FTS and got of to a quite bad start of the weekend with only 9th on the grid after a conservative first run and a spin in Turn 2 on my second. The first laps were total anarchy, possibly due to lag, possibly due to this being the last race and people not really caring anymore. Had a rough ride with cars going off and spinning everywhere and at a point I was almost last but could regain positions as other guys spun out.
On lap 15 I was running behind one of the DaSilva's, got a little close, missed my line, stepped too hard on the throttle to regain what I lost and I was heading for the wall. Front wing was knocked off and I had a 15 degree camber angle on my left front. Could nurse my crippled car back to pits for repairs and could continue. I had an interesting fight with one of the Ash's and made a nice move on the outside of Mergulho, it was easily one of the coolest overtaking manouvres I've made stick.
Then I had to defend heavily against Danny (Davison) for many laps, we collided once but could continue again in the same order. After he retired a few laps later it was all about nursing the car home and changing the pit strategy to keep me fueled up to the flag after my first pitstop was 7 laps earlier than planned due to the spin.
1 point in the end and 7 out of 7 points finishes on the highest level of simracing. Although I got a lot of help from other cars retiring this time."

This race puts an end to a difficult 2006 World Championship season for Faster Than Speed. Despite having tied the score with Ash Racing in the last race, FTS will be hoping for a stronger season in 2007, starting from where we left in 2005. Faster Than Speed will announce their 2007 World Championship driver lineup in the next days.

The 2006 World Series Japanese GP will be one Faster Than Speed will never forget, as Christian Smirnoff became the first FTS driver to clinch an FSR championship, after securing the World Series Ace Drivers' Championship. With still one race to go, Christian enjoys a 38 point advantage over 2nd placed Mark Aalberts. It's the result of a dream season for Christian, after taking back-to-back victories at the Turkish and Italian GPs.

In World Series Ace, despite the championship celebrations, the team completed the asian tour through China and Japan with no points in the bag, after another catastrophic race for the team. It was a triple DNF result, which handed the Constructors' Championship of the divisions to opponents Roaldo Racing.

Christian Smirnoff and Gabriel Garivaldis took 13th and 14th places respectively in Qualifying, while Theo Gort could not take part in the session and had to start 23th, from the last position.

Trouble would soon arrive, with Gabriel spinning off in the last of the famous S corners during the first lap. With the car struck in the gravel trap, it was an early end for Gabriel's race. After overtaking Girard, Christian continued and a 5th finishing position looked likely for him, but he clipped the entry kerb to the Degnar corners on lap 24, loosing control of the car and suffering a shunt against the tyre wall. It was Christian's first retirement due to driver error in his three years of FSR races. Theo went further but also suffered a retirement when after an accident the car was too damaged to continue.

With the triple DNF, it was still enough for Christian to clinch the Drivers' Championship, but the team missed out to Roaldo Racing in the Constructors' Championship. This way, FTS secured 2nd position in the standings and passes the crown, achieved in 2005, to the new champions. We wish to give them our most sincere congratulations for the achievement, and thank them for the very fair and exciting challenge!

Now without championship pressures, the team heads to Brazil hoping for a good result to round off the season and with a good result to celebrate Christian's championship in better style.

Christian Smirnoff (DNF): "Well, finally I'm the champion! I really want to thank everyone who congratulated me, thank you very much guys, I really aprecciate it a lot!

As for the race itself, not the way I wanted to win the championship, with a DNF, my first one by driver error in my 3 years in FSR. Race was going fine for me, pace wasn't so great but 5th looked possible but well, clipped the entry kerb to Degnar and was just a passenger from there. I will make sure I get a proper celebration with a good result in Brazil!

This championship is really a dream come true, I never imagined I could win WS when I started in 2004, but then in 2005 I was there so close with Denis Kiriakopoulos. I was happy as we had won the Constructors' then, but I was left with a feeling of... I want another go! And here I am, seemed impossible once Ferry was 14 points in front after Germany, but well, I don't really know what to say now!

What I do want to is to give inmense thanks to my team mates! Gab, you were an incredible team mate and I really hope to be able to give your help back! Theo.. thanks for that fantastic team spirit! Sunny, I know it wasn't your best season but you are part of this too! And also to the rest of the guys, for all the support and the setup work we did together... Peppe, Faisal, Colin, Dennis, etc. and all the other non-active members of the team. Thanks to Alex Cosentino, for giving Gab and myself absolute freedom in FTS.

I really, really, want all of you to feel this championship as yours too, it says my name in there, but it's of all and each one of you too! It says Drivers Championship, but the truth is you cannot win this alone.

I also want to thank all the fellow WS Ace drivers, and specially the ones I had to battle with... Ferry, it made me really sad when you quit as you still had some chances and would have loved to have that challenge as you are a fantastic driver, I really hope you come back next year! Mark... Laszlo... all of you, you are great drivers. Also a big thanks to the Roaldo Racing guys, and a big congratulations for their well deserved championship, won very fairly. It's been a pleasure to race against all of you guys and looking forward to continuing this next year! Also thanks to the other Admins for their great work of course!

I'm sure I'm forgetting about some people, sorry if that's the case. Now looking forward to closing the season in style in Brazil, hopefully with a good finish to celebrate this in a better way!"

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi took another step towards the Drivers' Championship as he finished in a fantastic 2nd place after a difficult week. Being ill during the week, and having limited testing as a consequence, Faisal had a tough race ahead.

In Qualifying, Colin Penney and Faisal Niazi took the 5th and 6th fastest times respectively in Q1 while they shared the fourth row of the grid, after setting the 7th and 8th times in Q2.

In the race, Colin suffered an accident in the first corner and had to pit for repairs at the end of the first lap. Despite his best efforts, problems in the car didn't let him continue, and had to retire from a promising position. Team mate Faisal, managed to drive a very solid race, climbing from his grid spot up to 2nd place, with another faultless drive.

With his results, Faisal Niazi now leads the Drivers' Championship by 16 points over opponent Wayne White and will now need a 6th place in Brazil to clinch the championship, even if White wins the race. In the Constructors' Championship, the team closed the gap and still has remote chances to take the championship as it trails Roaldo Racing by 26 points and Red Bull Kiwi Virtual by 7.

Turkish Born2Win driver Deniz Acarlar made his debut in the FSR World Championship for Faster Than Speed, taking FTS' best finish of the season, 5th, with a fantastic drive around Suzuka.

Team mate Giuseppe Marconi qualified the sister car in 10th place, while Deniz suffered from an electronic glitch and couldn't set a time, starting 14th as a consequence.

In the race, Deniz drove an amazing debut race, having to battle hard for position and pulling over thrilling overtaking moves over Danny Davison and later Joakim Bengtsson to reach 5th place. At the first round of pitstops, Deniz also had the pleasure to lead his first WC lap, the first one by FTS this year.
Peppe was unfortunately unlucky, as a solid drive from him ended when he suffered a connection failure with just 11 laps to go.

Giuseppe Marconi (DNF): "Lost connection with 10 laps to the end. Another unlucky race, but however I was too slow here to score some points. Congratulations to Bruno (Marques, for the championship) and my teammate for his good job. See you in Brazil."

With the 4 points scored by Deniz, the team now is just a point behind Ash Racing, and will go to the last race at Interlagos hoping to advance to 9th place in the championship, after a difficult 2006 season.

We would also like to congratulate Bruno Marques on his fantastic championship success, and the Coca-Cola Kiwi Virtual team, winners of the teams title. Well done!

The FSR World Series' Chinese weekend was a case of mixed feelings for Faster Than Speed. Faisal Niazi took a fantastic 2nd position in the Pro division at Shanghai, while the team had a catastrophic evening at the Ace division.

In WS Pro, on Saturday, Faisal Niazi clocked the 4th fastest time in Q1, but due to technical problems couldn't set a time in Q2, and had to start 8th as a consequence. Team mate Colin Penney didn't have a good Qualifying, and started from 17th.

In the race, an early spin in the second corner of the race, made things difficult for Faisal. Or at least, that's what everyone thought. But he had different ideas, as he made a brilliant recovery fighting the way through the field, overtaking many cars to finish in 2nd position, behind an unbeatable Nazario Nuti. A good finishing position looked likely for Colin, when he suffered an engine failure, which left him classified, in 11th, but 4 laps down.

With Faisal's result, and the troublesome race for his main championship rival, Wayne White, Faisal took the Drivers Championship lead for the first time this season, and enjoys a 11-point gap over retired Dani Rossi, and 20 over White. A 4th place in Japan, if he scores 6 points more than White, would be enough for Faisal to clinch the Drivers Championship! In the Constructor Championship, the team is currently third, 36 points behind leaders Roaldo Racing, keeping a slim chance of fighting for the championship.

In WS Ace, the team had its worst Sunday of the season. Gabriel Garivaldis couldn't take part in the race due to connection problems. Theo Gort replaced him, but retired early, victim of a collission. Christian Smirnoff, who hoped to clinch the Drivers Championship, retired with an unexpected engine failure.

In Qualifying, Theo and Christian struggled for pace, leaving them 13th and 16th in an incredibly competitive grid, where Kuncman's Q1 pole time was just 0.037 away from Bruno Marques' WC laptime.

Race started better for our guys. Christian made a great start, although later lost a couple of positions and took some damage to his car when Roaldo Racing's Dejan Stankovic spun in front of him in Turn 2, despite going off the track to avoid him. Despite this, Christian recovered well, overtaking both Onlineracer.de's with good speed at the end of the back straight.

Theo Gort was also running strongly, until Sebastian Keijmel spun in front of him in a dangerous place. The collission was unavoidable and left Theo out of the race with a heavily damaged car. Christian kept running, and a finish around 5th position looked likely, when white smoke started coming out of the FTS-P6's engine on lap 28. A completely unexpected failure, as the team had chosen very safe settings and had no indicators of overheating or other problems. The team couldn't find an explanation, but concluded that it was a random failure, probably influenced by the bodywork damage from the first lap incident.

Christian Smirnoff (DNF): "A terrible day. Started badly as my team mate Gabriel couldn't race due to lost connection. We brought Theo in, but unfortunately he retired early. Qualifying was a dissaster, only 16th. I didn't get any clean laps in, but even if I would have had, top 8 was not within reach.

Race pace was fortunately better, and the 2 stopper seemed the right choice as my pace wasn't too bad and was quicker than a few 3 stoppers. Had a good start, but I picked up some damage in T2 as I had to go off over a high kurb to avoid a Roaldo car who was spinning. Then I could overtake a few cars, mainly both Onlineracer.de's at the end of the back straight. I had a long first pitstop as the pitcrew repaired the damage, but I'm sure I could have fought for 5th place.
But starting lap 28, suddenly got an engine failure. It was a random one, no overheating or any other indicator. I chose very safe engine settings, thinking in the championships, and according to testing it should have lasted over 70 laps, so I have no idea what happened. First DNF this season for me.

So no championship for me today, but I'm determined to take it in Japan. Constructors got unfortunately difficult now, as we lost the lead with the double DNF, but we'll try to bounce back and win the title."

It was Christian's first retirement of the season, and the first time where the team doesn't score any points in a WS Ace event. The smoky engine delayed the Drivers Championship celebrations, but an 11th place finish in Japan will be enough for Christian to be the WS Ace Drivers Champion. In the Constructors Championship, the team lost the lead to rivals Roaldo Racing, who now enjoy a 19-point gap. With the pressure now on the Dutch team, Faster Than Speed will approach the last two races aggressively, hoping to reduce the gap and beat their rivals to the championship.

Faster Than Speed went to China with race drivers Giuseppe Marconi and Theo Gort, to take part in the FSR World Championship's Chinese GP. Theo Gort drove a solid race in only his second WC start to be finish just one position away from points. Peppe, meanwhile, had a weekend to forget after a promising week in testing.

In Qualifying, Giuseppe could only drive one lap, leaving him 11th due to traffic. Theo achieved a great laptime despite his limited WC experience, qualifying just behind in 12th.

The race started badly for the team. A spin by Giuseppe in the first corner took him into a collission with another car, ending his race after only a few meters. Theo, meanwhile, drove a very good race, to take his first WC finish in 9th position.

Theo Gort (9th): "It was a good race for me. Careful start but all around me people were in chaos, so Imanaged to stay 12th after Turn 1. After that some faster guys catched up with me and I was going a bit easy with my tyres until my first pitstop lap 20. In lap 40 I had my second and last pitstop and got in front of 10th place who was at that point suddenly 1 lap behind me. Some other people also fell out and I finished 9th. Luckily I didn't have any trouble with the front-runners as well, so an almost perfect race for me."

The team now goes to Suzuka, Japan, looking for point-scoring finishes before the last race of the season in Brazil.

The Italian GP was another great weekend for Faster Than Speed's FSR World Series drivers. In the Ace division, Christian Smirnoff took his second victory in as many races, while Faisal Niazi drove to a solid 2nd in the Pro division.

In WS Ace, Gabriel Garivaldis and Christian Smirnoff clocked the 3rd and 7th fastest times in Q1, while they qualified in 10th and 6th respectively in Q2. Gabriel clocked the 5th fastest time but was demoted 5 places on the grid because of a penalty from the Hungarian race. Theo Gort failed to make the top 8 cut, and qualified 12th.

The race had a very tough start for the team's drivers. Christian lost some ground at the start because of an incident ahead of him, and dropped to 11th, also taking damage to his sidepod after being hit by Michael Theis in the first corner. Gabriel had a much better start and quickly climbed to 3rd. Turning into the Ascari corner during the first lap, Gabriel went wide and spun his car, stopping across the track. Unfortunately, both Laszlo Bilibok and team mate Christian made unintentional contact with him despite their avoiding moves. Gabriel retired at the end of the first lap.

Christian climbed up to 5th by the end of the first lap, later taking the lead after the leaders went for their pitstops. Christian's 2 stopper worked as expected, despite a 16 seconds first pitstop, while the pitcrew tried to fix the car's damage. After taking the lead again in the second stint, Christian emerged from his last pitstop behind 1 stopper Dejan Stankovic, due to the longer pitstop. Christian started reducing the gap, but soon after, Stankovic made a mistake in Lesmo 2, spinning and loosing his front wing. The Roaldo Racing driver remained without it for the last 12 laps, in a brave try to keep the first position, but Christian, soon went side by side with him into Turn 1, making the pass in his first overtaking attempt. Christian led the last ten laps, to take his second victory in two weeks.

Theo Gort had a less succesful race, but could still make it home in 8th position.

Christian Smirnoff (1st): "I'm very happy with the win, this time without any help and leading more laps than any other driver.

Dropped to 11th after the start as there were incidents ahead, then Michael Theis couldn't make T1 and hit my sidepod, it damaged my car a bit but honestly it didn't hurt much. After that passed I some damaged cars and others spun, and was 5th after the first lap. There I unfortunately had an incident with my team mate Gabriel (Garivaldis). He made a mistake in Ascari and was across the track. Laszlo hit him and even if I managed to avoid him, it seems some damage was registered. Nothing I could do about it, but I'm really sorry about his DNF.
Started closing in on Sebastian (Keijmel) and Laszlo (Bilibok), until Laszlo spun and Sebastian collected him. Was 3rd, although then Domagoj Malezic and John Kladis pitted early and I was leading. Kept the lead until my pitstop, then was behind Dejan Stankovic who was on a 1 stopper. My first pitstop took 16 seconds as the crew tried to repair the damage on the sidepod. I got the lead again after Dejan stopped but after my second stop he was in front, and I was 2nd. From there I started reducing the gap a bit, but then he made a mistake in Lesmo 2 and crashed his front wing off. I quickly closed in but he decided to keep going without pitting with 12 laps to go. I knew he wouldn't make it but it was a brave decision from him. He still had a decent pace, but a few laps later I went side by side with him into T1 and passed him, from there, I lead the last 10 laps to the checkered flag. The car was great all race, and the 2 stop strategy worked as expected.

I'm of course really happy with the win, it is a great result for the Drivers Championship, and after this results it would actually feel even better to be champion. Just a bit disappointing about the Constructors' but we are still leading so we still have good chances."

With this result, Christian will go to Shanghai having his first chance to take the Drivers Championship, as he leads Ferry Koek by 47 points, Laszlo Bilibok by 62 and Mark Aalberts by 71. After China, only 50 points will remain for grabs. In the Constructors Championship, Faster Than Speed lost part of the gap to Roaldo Racing, but remains in the lead by 3 points. The battle for this championship will be really exciting!

In WS Pro, Faisal Niazi was the sole FTS runner. In both Qualifying sessions, Faisal clocked the 2nd fastest time, achieving his third front-row start.

In the race, Faisal showed a very strong pace, being definately in contention for the win. Unfortunately, a collission with Rogerio Castro, who was crawling into the pitlane at very slow speed, left Faisal without chances to battle with eventual race winner Wayne White. The damage to the car was important, but the team decided that it was safe to continue. Faisal made a great job to keep a strong pace and maintain 2nd place.

With his result, Faisal jumps to 2nd in the Drivers Championship, 10 points behind retired Dani Rossi. The fight for the championship is completely open, with Wayne White just 10 points behind Faisal. Brian Labode and Keith Doherty are also close. In the Constructors Championship, the team confirms its 3rd position in the standings, 40 behind leaders Red Bull Kiwi Virtual.

The team now moves to Shanghai, hoping for more succesful results, with the championships in mind!

After Qualifying, the World Championship's Italian GP looked bright for Faster Than Speed. DaSilva NetRex's Fabrizio Pescali made his debut over the FTS-P6, and after succesful results in testing, placed himself 6th in the Qualifying session. Team mate Giuseppe Marconi also made it inside the top ten, in 10th position. Points were definately within sight at Monza.

But in the race, it was clear that it was not the day. Fabrizio Pescali had an early exit, after a spectacular collission with Denis Kiriakopoulos. After an off in the first corner of the third lap, the drivers could not see each other. After the incident, Pescali's car took off doing several rolls. Fortunately, Fabrizio wasn't hurt.

Giuseppe could go further, and had some interesting battles, despite having a damaged car after making contact with Domagoj Malezic. Already running in the points, a spin in Parabolica ended Peppe's day as his engine stalled.

Faster Than Speed will now go to Shanghai, China, where we will hope to be back in the points at the end of the Asian race!

After the frustrating weekend at Hungary, the FSR World Series races at Turkey, were full of success for Faster Than Speed.

Faisal Niazi started the great weekend by winning the Pro division race at Istanbul, while on Sunday, Christian Smirnoff and Gabriel Garivaldis took their FTS-P6 for a 1-2 finish. These were the first two victories of the season for the team, and the 1-2 was the first one of the season for the Ace division, no other team yet achieved this during 2006.

In the World Series Ace division, Gabriel and Christian were 3rd and 8th in Q1, while in Q2, Christian took 4th position in the grid, ahead of all championship rivals, while Gabriel could only take 8th, affected by a spin. Theo Gort made his comeback, but could only manage 16th position in Qualifying after struggling with little testing time over the new car.

In the race, things started in the opposite direction for Christian. The FTS-P6 started moving before the lights went off, even though this allowed him to temporarly take the lead, Christian had to take a drive-through penalty for jumping the start at the end of the first lap, rejoining in 11th position. From there, Christian started an agressive recovery, displaying by far his most impressive performance of the season. While Gabriel took the lead of the race with very good pace after the retirement of Ondrej Kuncman, Christian managed to climb from 11th to 2nd after the final round of pitstops. In the last lap, team mates switched positions, to maximize the chances for the Drivers Championship, a gesture that Christian was visibly thankful for after jumping out of the car. Theo Gort retired from the race.

It was Faster Than Speed's 2nd 1-2 finish in the Ace category, after the one achieved last season by Christian Smirnoff and Wolfgang Weber.

Christian Smirnoff (1st): "1-2 finish for FTS! Unbeleivable!! In Q1, just in, and in front of Ferry. In Q2, I could drive a better lap and took 4th, in front of Mark, Fred and Laszlo, which was something I honestly didn't expect.

When the race started, for some reason, I jumped the start. I don't know what happened, but it's a mistake that shouldn't happen with my experience. I obviously took the lead in the first lap, and entered the pits for my drive through penalty. I exited in 11th place, so I knew I had a difficult race ahead. But I also inmediately saw I had good pace as I could inmediately start attacking the cars in front, lost some time behind slower cars, although some helped me by making mistakes. It was a race of pushing really really hard. After the first real pitstop I was back to 10th and after the second one, already up in 5th. The one I couldn't overtake was John Kladis as we had similar pace, so I had to push very hard to be in front of him and of Darius Trinka after my last stop. Leaded for a lap before my last stop, and when I exited from it, I was in 2nd, which I was very happy about. From there, I tuned down my engine boost and raced safe to the end.

The car was just perfect. I went faster than most guys that were usually faster than me, so it was really great and I had a lot of fun. I really hope to keep this performance level for the rest of the season!

In the last lap, my team mate Gab let me through because of the Championship, something I don't have enough words to thank him for. Today I had the pace to win on own merit though, as I lost over 20 seconds with the drive through and behind slower cars, and was just 13 seconds behind him after my last stop. I really hope I can give him this back some day!

It was just a perfect weekend, like in Canada last year. The result was great for both Championships, but there are still 4 races to go, so we need to keep pushing hard!"

Gabriel Garivaldis (2nd): "Yeah what a race! Brilliant! I had a great start, went from 8th to 4th right away. Then soon after I was in 2nd place, then after the 1st pitstop I took the lead. Held the lead for most of the race, from then on and finally moved over for Christian to take the win.

I admit that I did really want to win... Still to this day I am yet to win a race at FSR so the wait continues, but I know that Christian is going for the championship and if he was in my position he would do the same for me. You know, he's a great teammate, great friend, he deserves it.

Our strategy was perfect, our setup was similar and pretty good, so we were both quite similar in pace, Christian and I. In the end we were the only guys with 'leader-pace' not to make any mistakes or have bad luck. Great result for the championship, Drivers' and Team. I'm really happy about this, now we go to the next round with much more confidence. Go FTS!"

With this result, the team took the lead of the Constructors Championship from Roaldo Racing, and now leads by 17 points, after scoring the maximum possible, 46 points. In the Drivers Championship, Christian Smirnoff took the lead from Ferry Koek, and now leads the Twister Racing driver by 22 points, with 4 races left this season.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi took his first win for FTS, after a very solid drive. Faisal, the only FTS to take part in the race, was 2nd fastest in Q1, and later took 3rd on the grid on Q2.


In the race, Faisal quickly took the lead, to be attacked inmediately by Ben Philips. Philips spun off the track and had to retire from the race, leaving Faisal now followed by Nazario Nuti. The Italian took the lead from Faisal, but had a 2 stopper strategy to Faisal's 1, meaning that the lead was recovered after Nuti's last pitstop. Faisal took his first victory to the delight of all the team.


Faisal Niazi (1st): "Qualifying wasn’t too disappointing. My eventual grid position time was 6 tenths slower than my PB and would have only been worth one more position on the grid. I felt more comfortable starting on the right hand side of the grid, 3rd, because there was room on the outside of T1 for the start.

Pedro and Nazario collided at the first corner and left a little gap for me to take the lead just in front of Ben who had a charging start. I haven’t led many GPs so the pressure was on, this is even before I had time to consider Ben who was glued to me rear wing looking to get past. After Ben’s early exit, I had the recovering Nazario hunting me down. On the last corner I had a little slide which allowed Nazario to get along side me on the start/finish straight beginning lap 12, he misjudged something or maybe it was intentional but to me it looked as if he braked across in front of me at the same time clipping my front wing with his rear wheel. My anger at this manoeuvre soon turned into a smile as he pitted and was obvious he wasn’t one stopping like me. Towards the end of the race I had a 6-8sec lead and I just had to manage the gap.

My thanks goes out to the FTS team for helping me get my first victory."

This result, takes Faisal Niazi to 4th in the standings, just a couple of points away from the other championship contenders.

After this unbeleivable weekend, FTS goes to Monza, hoping for more successful results in the quest for the World Series championships.

Giuseppe Marconi, in his second race for Faster Than Speed in the FSR World Championship, took the last available point with an 8th placed finish in the Turkish GP at Istanbul.

Giuseppe clocked the 11th fastest time in Qualifying, although he wasn't happy with his grid position. In the second car, Andrey Lovchy, made his comeback to the World Championship, but had to start from the back. Andrey, raced for the team in 2005 and currently is part of Diamond Racing.

In the race, Giuseppe had a difficult start as he found two drivers who spun in the first corner ahead of him. As a result, Giuseppe had to recover from the last places. After a solid drive, "Peppe" took the last point-scoring position, on 8th place. Andrey had a troublesome race, with problems in his pitstop and heavy damage on the car caused by a spin. Despite this, Andrey could manage to finish the race, in 11th position.

Giuseppe Marconi (8th): "Another bad race for me. Bad qualifying this time, about 1 second slower. Unlucky at the start from P11. At T1 two cars stopped ahead of me and I avoided them by a miracle but when I went back on track I was last. Then only some funny battles with Laleau and Gaczella, but the others were too many seconds in front of me to catch them. Nothing else."

Andrey Lovchy (11th): "First of all I want to thank FTS who gave me opportunity to do this race. It was really nice to be back into the car I did my 1st FSR race with. Unfortunately I had very little experience with rFactor and when I thought that is a big problem for my pace, together with few time to practice to this race, as I was called as replacement driver - it was not really true. Of course I was very slow and knowing that I decided to do 2 stops and just going to finish the race. But as the race developed I could fight with Ash drivers at least, even when they were in 3 stoppers, I think. So I wasn't the slowest there. But my few experience cost me with other things. First I got DQ in Qualifying, but it was not bad, starting from the back I didn't have to worry about hitting someone or being hit as I had no starts with rFactor. I think I missed when lights went off, but already after some turns I was right behind other drivers. They were making mistakes, I was just running may car safe and with 2 stopper I was already 12th of 16-17 running cars or so. But when I stoped for my first ever pit-stop in rFactor, 1st I missed pits, but it's ok. I did not practised it, no problem, lost some time. But after that I wasn't able to go out of pits for 30 seconds or so. Rejoined track on last place more than 20 seconds behind other cars. I became very angry with myself, lost concentration and made a mistake, lost front wing, went to pits, next lap did other mistake and rear wing gone together with suspenssion. After that I was able to get pits somehow and do the other 60% distance with damaged car and doing all to be enough to be classified. 11th. It is my fate in FSR seems (laughs). I did 4 races, finished 3 of them and all in 11th. But I don't worry a lot. My teammate finished 8th and he was much faster then me. Even with 2 stops I had no chance to beat him. Even to beat Phil (Hildebrandt) I needed to go my limit maybe and not make mistakes at all I think. So anyway I wasn't able to get to the points and 11th or 10th, or even 9th, not a big difference. I realised I still can be a little competitive for FSR WC, but need more pracitce. And this time I did good 1st part of the race at least. Thanks to all in the back for the good fight!"

Faster Than Speed now moves to Monza for next weekend's Italian GP. It will be Giuseppe's home GP, so we hope many Italians will be cheering for him!

The weekend of the FSR Hungarian race won't be remembered as a succesful one this year for Faster Than Speed.

In the World Championship, Italian Giuseppe Marconi, Faster Than Speed's new signing, made his debut for the team. After a very strong performance in testing, "Peppe" wasn't satisfied with his Qualifying performance, which left him 11th on the grid. Dennis Johansen's car was not ready for Qualifying, and had to start from the back as a consequence.

For Dennis, it was unfortunately a short race. Dennis had to lockup his brakes to avoid running into an opponent. This caused the car to slide off and the engine shut off. Giuseppe was able to go further, and was showing a strong performance, but retired in lap 22. Double DNF and disappointment for the team.

In the World Series Ace division, the weekend started strongly as Gabriel Garivaldis took 2nd in Q1. Christian Smirnoff was 7th in that session. In Qualifying 2, Gabriel was unable to repeat his laptime and qualified 4th, while Christian repeated 7th place.

The race, unfortunately, was a dissaster. Constructors Championship rival Domagoj Malezic crashed Gabriel in the first corner, after Gabriel had made a great start, winning two positions. Domagoj's car remained pointing the wrong way in the corner, causing Ferry Koek to clip one of his tyres. Koek's car spun into Christian's path, into an unavoidable incident. The pair collided heavily, destroying Christian's front wing and suspension.

Christian got a front wing change at the end of the first lap, and managed to continue and finish the race, but the rest of the damage couldn't be repaired, meaning that the serious damaged meant the car was several seconds slower per lap than in normal conditions. Despite a fuel problem which obliged Christian to do a very slow lap to get back for refuelling in the pits, and a later crash which made extra repairs necessary in the pitlane, Christian made it home in 6th position.

Gabriel had even worse luck. Fortunately his car was not too damaged by the first corner incident, but at the end of the first lap, debutant Wayne White spun his car into Gabriel's line. The collission damaged Gabriel's car heavily, meaning he was not able to continue. This was very disappointing, as Gabriel showed he had the pace to fight for victory.

The climax of the race for FTS, was the moment when Christian had to battle against Drivers Championship leader Ferry Koek, who also sustained damage in the first corner incident. As Christian's car was sensibly more damaged, Ferry caught up with Christian and the pair started battling for position. Christian managed to keep him behind, hoping to force him into a mistake, something that happened, as Koek went off the track and ended up retiring from the race.

Christian Smirnoff (6th): "Qual sessions were ok, in Q2 I was almost half a second slower than my best but 7th was ok.
The race was a big nightmare, finished exhausted. I had a bad start, wheelspin, so lost a few positions, but when I was accelerating out of Turn 1, Ferry (Koek) hit Domagoj (Malezic), who was sideaways in the middle of the track, and he spun into my path. It was completely impossible to avoid him. Not my fault and not his either. My front wing was gone and the front suspension was completely damaged. From there on, I was between 2 and 5 seconds slower than usual, which is a pity because after the race I saw that my pace would have been pretty good.
Ferry seemed to get damage too, so he was behind me, but catching up as his car was less damaged and he could go a second or two faster than me per lap, and also he was luckier to be lapped by all the field while he was in the pits, while I had to let all pass on track. So he caught me in the second stint, but as I had nothing to lose, I tried to keep my position. I drove a bit slower than I was in the earlier laps to get better runs out of corners, and kept him behind for two laps, seeing if he would lose his patience and I could force him into a mistake, and he did, so he crashed out and had to retire.
Then I had to do a full lap in 7th gear at 120-130kph as I had no more fuel, and I had my only spin in lap 52, when I broke the car even more, it was now absolutely undrivable, so I just nursed the car home. Due to the suspension problems I had my front left tyre going over 160°C average.
So it was a real nightmare. And also really bad for the Constructors Championship, becuase even if I tried to save what I could, Roaldo Racing still scored 23 points more and are now in the lead. I now look forward to a normal race in Istanbul."

This result unfortunatelly gave the lead of the Team Standings to Roaldo Racing, who now enjoy a 14-points advantage. With Koek's retirement, meanwhile, Christian reduced the gap in the Drivers Championship from 14 to just 3 points.

In World Series Pro, Faisal Niazi did a wonderful job in both Qualifying sessions, clocking the fastest lap in both of them. It was his first Pole Position of the year and the second one for the Pro team. Colin Penney couldn't adapt to the new car as well yet, and qualified 11th.

The race was though, another big disappointment. After only 4 laps, both Faisal and Colin were out of the race. Faisal definately had the pace to win the race, as he had the pace of eventual winner Joel Roux, but with a different pit strategy, of only one pitstop.

Faisal Niazi (DNF): "Qualifying was 4 tenths off my personal best of 1:17.2 but was enough for pole in both sessions. Had a decent start and was first to T1. Drove carefully on the opening lap to get a feel for the car as I was on a one stopper, especially after low fuel qualifying. My test times for that strategy were predominantly in the mid 18s.
On lap 2 or 3, braking maker missing for T1 which threw me off slightly and gave Joel (Roux) the chance to get by me. On the following lap I had a silly spin into T1 which dropped me a couple of places followed by a major crash into the barrier on the exit of T3. Broken front wing and heavily damaged front suspension.
On a positive note, congratulations to Joel for the win! I'm sure we would have had a good fight for the top step of the podium had I kept it on the black stuff."

Faster Than Speed now moves to Istanbul, hoping for a most succesful weekend in all categories.

Faster Than Speed left Germany with succesful results in the FSR World Series German GP.

In WS Pro, Faisal Niazi and Colin Penney were 2nd and 4th in Q1, but unfortunately, Colin ran into problems and failed to set a time in Q2, leaving him 8th on the grid. Faisal, meanwhile, had also a strong Qualifying 2, clocking the 3rd fastest time, to start from the second row of the grid.

In the race, Faisal did a fantastic job to take another podium in 2nd place. Colin, meanwhile, had a slightly more difficult race, but could still finish in 4th position. Faisal and Colin were the strongest team of the race, scoring 36 points between them.

This result, moved Faisal to 3rd in the Drivers Championship, the same position that the team occupies in the Teams Standings.

In WS Ace, Christian Smirnoff and Theo Gort were 6th and 8th in Qualifying 1, later clocking the 6th and 7th quickest times in Qualifying 2, to start from the third and fourth rows respectively. Swaraj Shergill, couldn't make the Q1 cut, and started from 10th.

In the race, Swaraj unfortunatelly suffered an early exit during lap 2, after having a very promising pace in the testing sessions. Christian and Theo had good and clean races, to finish in 5th and 6th positions respectively, scoring 24 points, more than any other of the championship contenders.

Christian Smirnoff (5th): "In the Qualifying sessions I could have been a position better in each, but P6 was ok.
The race was pretty clean this time, finally. Pushed as hard as I could and didn't make any mistakes. My pace was not bad, clocked some good laptimes, but it was not enough for more than 5th. My biggest problem was that I suffered from severe front left tyre overheating, going over 145°C sometimes, which gave me understeer in the high-speed corners, but the setup was still quite good to drive.
Hopefully the new physics will help rather than hurt. Looking forward to see where we are with them."

With this result, the team enlargened the gap to Roaldo Racing in the lead of the Constructors Championship. Christian Smirnoff maitains his 2nd position in the Drivers Standings.

FTS is now looking forward to the Hungarian GP, were the drivers will have to get to grips with the new OWC06 BMW physics, hopefully with good results.

Joakim Bengtsson, from Sweden, on loan from Twister Racing, drove the FTS-P6 to 7th position in the FSR World Championship's German GP. Joakim also clocked the 7th quickest time at the Hockenheim Qualifying session.

In the Race, Joakim did a strong and determined drive, to bring two points home. Despite this, he wasn't completely happy after the race, as he beleived more was possible.

Joakim Bengtsson (7th): "I first want to thank Gabriel and Christian for putting me in the car for this race. I though I had too good pace in practice just to sit out the race and I was happy to be asked to drive. It turned out that my pace indeed was quite good. Qualifying wasn't what I'd hoped for, there was quite a lot more in the car, but a mistake in T1 cost me time on both my flyers, perhaps it was due to driving slow outlaps behind other cars that prevented me from building good temperature in the tyres.

The start was quite bad. I had too much wheelspin and lost down to 10th before the hairpin. But I could regain some of that with good strategy and some passing to be 5th at the time of my first pitstop. It was uneventful from that until Markus (Kononen) made a mistake in front of me in the middle of the third stint. That made me a little over confident that I would score big points. I lost concentration in T1 spun, brushed the wall and bent a wheel. With Neumann right under my rear wing and a bent car I had to drive at the absolute limit from there with a difficult car. He pitted earlier and I could stretch my stint for an extra lap to give me two laps in free air to set quick laptimes. It worked out and I was out ahead.

I thought I was about to make it home in sixth, but Christian (Neumann) put me under a lot of pressure and with my bent car it was diffiuclt not to make mistakes. I had a few small offs in T1 that cost me time, but on lap 65 I got the car really unbalanced there and went very wide. To avoid trouble with the marshal for this I decided to back off and let him go. I tried to take it back on the final lap, but in the end it wasn't enough. Still 7th was good but I had the pace to be 5th hadn't I made that mistake so little disappointed."

Now Faster Than Speed moves to Hungary, looking for another point-scoring finish.

Faster Than Speed had a great start to its FSR World Series French weekend, as Colin Penney took his first Pole Position in the Pro division. Team mates Faisal Niazi and Colin Penney, were 3rd and 4th in the Q1 session, separated by only one thousand of a second (0.001s). In Qualifying 2, Colin shined, to start the race from first place. Faisal, meanwhile, qualified in P4.

In the race, Faisal unfortunately ran into problems in the first corner. After running wide off the track, another competitor collided Faisal from behind, heavily damaging his car. Early exit for Faisal.

Colin's race was also troublesome. In the first lap, an incident with Ben Philips made Colin drop many positions. Despite a few mistakes, Colin could recover to take 4th position, his best result of the season to date. With this result, FTS climbed to 3rd in the Pro team standings.

Faisal Niazi (DNF): "I had disappointing performance in both Qualifying sessions, specially in Q2 relative to my personal best. Didn’t get off the line very well and ran wide into T1. Before I could get back on to the track I got hit from behind with enough force to make the car airborne and landed facing the opposite direction. At first I thought it was just a broken rear wing but after a few attempts to drive back to the pits it was clear that the rear suspension was very badly damaged."

In WS Ace, it was not a great day for the team. In Qualifying 1, both Christian Smirnoff and Theo Gort passed to the second session, setting the 4th and 8th best laptimes respectively. In Q2, Christian took 5th on the grid, while Theo kept his 8th position. Swaraj Shergill, couldn't get into the second session, and qualified 10th.

After showing an interesting step forward in pace in Qualifying, this improvement could not materialize into a good result for Christian, as some trouble with Mihajlo Vicentijevic ended his genuine chances of a podium finish. Christian eventually finished 6th, although clearly disappointed with the result. Theo and Swaraj, couldn't see the checkered flag after unfortunatelly crashing out of the race.

Christian Smirnoff (6th): "In Q1 I was 4th with 1:13.3, had enough speed in the car for 2nd, but that was enough. In Q2, with the extra fuel, the time just didn't come out, could only do 1:13.7, 5th place. Not great but I was satisfied with the position.

Then in the race everything went backwards. Had a bad start, lost two positions, and got stuck behind Mihajlo Vicentijevic. It was completely impossible to follow him, he seemed to be driving another track! He cut absolutely every corner by a big margin and took completely weird lines. I think the Admins must review whether this driver is up to WS Ace standards, becuase I don't think he is. He then took a really strange line into a chicane, so I had to change my line too, causing me to spin. The next lap I had to go off to avoid Chris Barber who spun in front of me. And in that move, my wheel got loose, causing me to go off the next lap, loosing almost 15 seconds there in the sticky gravel.
In total, I lost half a minute during the first stint. Without those problems, I could have been 4th ahead of the Roaldo Racing's and close to Glyn Cooper, at least. So it's really disappointing because I think I showed an improved performance, the pace was better than in other races, and I ended up with my worst result of the season, when I had genuine pace to fight for the podium.

We lost the lead in both championships. I hope we can recover in the Constructors one next week. In the Drivers Championship, I believe my chances are practically over, but I'll keep trying and pushing anyway."

With this result, Christian left the lead of the Drivers Championship in the hands of Ferry Koek, while the team are now behind Roaldo Racing in the Constructors Championship. Faster Than Speed will now travel to Germany, with the goal of making up the lost ground in both championships.

Unfortunatelly, the FSR World Championship race at Magny Cours, France, gave no championship points to Faster Than Speed.

Dutch WS driver Theo Gort, drove his maiden World Championship race. After a very promising performance in the difficult Qualifying session, Theo started from 13th on the grid. Theo progressed well in the race, until his car sustained damage from avoiding a car who had spun in front of him. Despite this, he could continue although he later retired when the engine stalled after a spin. Without doubt, a positive first experience for the young FTS driver.

Dennis Johansen, meanwhile, had another weekend to forget. After missing Qualifying, Dennis went off the track and crashed his FTS-P6 against the barriers in the first laps.

Theo Gort (DNF): "My qualifying was better then this afternoon (in WS Ace). 13.4 this time. In the race it was going nice, but trying to avoid someone with no rear wing I bumped the wall a bit, my own fault though. 10 laps later, unrelated to my damage, I spun and stalled. I still pressed the clutch but I was too late, so a bit dissapointing, but I still enjoyed seeing the rest of the race."

After two races without points, FTS will be looking forward to getting back into the Top 8 in Hockenheim, where Gabriel Garivaldis took a podium finish for the team in 2003, under the Flying Colours International name.

The World Championship race at the Indianapolis circuit was definately one to quickly forget and look forward to the next one.

Minutes before the start, Steve Kasimatis was called to race for his Diamond Racing team, due to the abscense of one of their race drivers. Twister Racing also called Ferry Koek in, leaving the team no chance but to withdraw one of the FTS-P6 from the race.

Dennis Johansen returned to the cockpit, but unfortunatelly didn't have his best weekend either. After problems in Qualifying which left him stranded in the pitbox, starting from the last place in the grid, Dennis couldn't have a good race. Suffering from lack of testing, Dennis crashed out during the first stint of the race. Weekend over for FTS.

Faster Than Speed now moves to Hungary, where scoring points will be once again the target.

Faster Than Speed left the United States GP at Indianapolis with a podium finish and six point-scoring finishes out of six entries.

In WS Ace, Theo Gort did a wonderful job in Qualifying to get 6th place in Q1 and went one better in Q2, getting 5th place on the grid. Gabriel Garivaldis and Christian Smirnoff just failed to enter the second group, and qualified 9th and 10th. Swaraj Shergill, making his comeback, started from 14th.

In the race, Theo Gort deserved every bit of praise, as he drove a fantastic race to be in line for a first podium finish. But despite having no team order, Theo let the first team drivers through, to maximize the Constructor Championship chances, showing his truly remarkable team spirit. In a race with various problems for him, Christian Smirnoff took 3rd position, while Gabriel Garivaldis had a very difficult race with two incidents with other drivers which needed extra pitstops for reparis, but could still take 4th place. Theo eventually finished 5th, while Swaraj Shergill had his first race finish of the season, taking 7th position. This made it a quadruple finish for FTS. 50% of the point-scoring finishers were FTS-P6 cars, showing the team's fantastic reliability record.

This result allows FTS to take the lead in the Constructors Championship with 191 points, while Christian Smirnoff maitains the lead of the Drivers Championship with 119.

Christian Smirnoff (3rd): "In Qualifying, I couldn't get into Q2, but the pace was just not there to do it. I had a lap to go two tenths quicker, but that would have left me in front of my team mate but still outside top 8.
In the race I had a difficult start as the car ahead of me in the grid, Glyn Cooper I think, spun off the grid, and was more delayed by an accident ahead. I then tried to set my pace, which was better than in Qualifying but still not good enough. Didn't have big problems but I had many small ones, including lost time in both pitstops, loosing time behind Ferry Koek who had an accident ahead and was in front with no front wing. Gabriel also had an accident with a backmarker, and I had to lockup and go to the gravel to avoid crashing into my team mate. Also in one moment, I was shown blue flags to let Mark Aalberts pass but his team mate Sebastian Keijmel was ahead instead, so I ended up loosing that position with him. And a few other small problems too.
In the end, Theo let Gabriel and me through, so big thanks and congratulations to him for a fantastic race. I'm really happy with the points scored by the team with finishing positions 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th, but the gap to the lead was not encouraging for the drivers championship. Hopefully the return to higher downforce will help."

Gabriel Garivaldis (4th): "I had a really good start but unfortunately cars were spinning in front of me so I had no choice but to run into one of them, so lost my front wing i,mediately, and had to make a pit stop on lap 1. I was really surprised that Red Flag wasn't called but maybe it was a good decision.
Then around halfway through my race after making up lots of ground, I tried to overlap Mihajlo (Vicentijevic) but he steered into my line and I had nowhere to go. Again front wing off, but this time with bad suspension damage.
I nursed the car to the finish line, and was very surprised to be in 4th, lucky for me lots of others had DNF's. With a bad car for half the race, and 4 pit stops made being on a 2-stop strategy, 4th is excellent. Hopefully I start further up on the grid at Magny Cours to avoid something similar happening at the start."

In WS Pro, Faisal Niazi took 4th place in the First Qualifying session, and 5th in the second one, while Colin Penney clocked a great laptime to be 2nd in Q1, but couldn't repeat that in Q2, and started 6th.

In the race, Faisal Niazi had a very good performance and took 5th position. Team mate Colin Penney, even got to lead the race for a while, although he couldn't keep that position as he was uncomfortable with the setup of his car. With only 3 laps to go, Colin's car had an electrical failure and he had to retire from 7th, eventually getting classified in 11th position.

Ferry Koek finished the FSR World Championship's Canadian Grand Prix in 8th position, scoring the final point of the race, despite having a tough weekend. Ferry eventually crossed the finish line in 9th place, but a technical infringement in another car later discovered by stewards, promoted Ferry to P8.

Ferry set the 13th best time in Qualifying, although he had to settle with P17 on the grid, due to a grid penalty he was carrying from the previous race. Dennis Johansen could not take part in this race. Thanks to our friends at Diamond Racing Team, Steve Kasimatis, from Greece, drove the other FTS-P6, although the team could not have his car ready for Steve in time for qualifying, so he had to start from 20th.

Unfortunatelly for Steve, his race was very short. In the second lap, Steve could not avoid a car which was over the racing line, looking in the opposite direction after a collission with another driver. Steve tried to continue but the damage was too serious to keep on going.

Ferry's race was also troublesome. Emmanuel Gaczella lost control of his car into the first corner of the race, and hit Ferry, sending him off the track and damaging the FTS-P6. He managed to keep going even though the damage didn't allow him to develop the very good race pace he had in the testing sessions. A later kiss with the wall didn't help either, damaging the car even further. Under the circumstances, Ferry did a very good job to bring the car home, although we will be left wondering what result could have been possible with a cleaner race.

Faster Than Speed took two podium finishes and a Pole Position out of the FSR World Series Canadian Grand Prix.

In WS Ace, Gabriel Garivaldis took the team's first Pole Position in that category since Ravee Ramcharan's at Monaco 2005, after setting the 3rd time in the 1st Qualifying session. Team mate Christian Smirnoff, took 7th in the First Qualifying session, with a time that would have left him 4th on the grid, but he unfortunatelly lost control of his FTS-P6, damaging the car and having to abort his run, starting 8th as a consequence.

In the race, Gabriel gave his best to take victory for the team, where FTS won with an 1-2 by Christian and Worlfgang Weber last year, but unfortunatelly, an incident with a competitor, left him no chance. Despite this, Gabriel took 3rd place, less than five seconds behind the race winner.
Christian struggled all weekend with his setup, although he showed himself happy with last minute improvements. Despite having a damaged car since the first lap, Christian took the FTS-P6 to 5th position, giving the team the best combined result of all this weekend.

Christian Smirnoff (5th): "I'm happy with P5 after never being comfortable with the setup. I only had two nights to test, and the setup didn't come good. I changed everything before Qualifying, and it was better. The pace wasn't there but I was more comfortable with it, so I could drive the race without mistakes. I was surprized to get into Qualifying 2. I could have started 4th but spun during my second timed lap and damaged the car so I had to abort the run.
Then in the race I moved well off the line but had no space at all so I had to stay on the very outside into turn 2, loosing 4 positions to 12th, nothing I could do about that. Into turns 3 and 4 of the first lap I picked up damage to my suspension as we hit each other with Mihajlo Vicentijevic. Then I made it worse by hitting the wall at the same place the following lap. Luckily it didn't affect the balance too much, and even though I didn't have any laps of testing with the new setup in race conditions, it worked well. It was good damage limitation after the testing worries, but I'll have to work very hard to improve for USA.
Congratulations to Gabriel for his Pole Position and podium, and to Ferry for the win."

This result, takes Christian to the lead of the Drivers Championship, while the team closed the gap to Constructors Championship leader Roaldo Racing.

In WS Pro, Faisal Niazi took his second podium finish on a row, as he finished in 3rd position, after qualifying 5th.

Since this race, Faisal's new team mate is Canadian driver Colin Penney. Colin already had his debut race in Canada, which was a success, as he took 7th position after starting 6th.

Ferry Koek scored 3 valuable World Championship points for Faster Than Speed in the Silverstone race, after a very strong drive.

In Qualifying, Ferry Koek and Dennis Johansen took spots 11th and 13th on the grid. In the race, Ferry did a very solid job, showing impressive pace and battling with GP winner David Greco, from the Constructors leader team.

Dennis had a more difficult race, with a couple of mistakes with a car balance he was not very comfortable with. Dennis' race ended as he lost control in Copse Corner, stalling his engine in the process.

Ferry Koek (6th): "It was a very bad qualifying run from me, only 16.7. Personal best was 0.8 seconds faster and normaly I am close to my personal best, but not this time.
So I started the race from P11 behind Laszlo (Billibok) on the right and Fausto (Pappalardo) right in front of me. I did a very good start, but Fausto didn't so I touched him from behind a little, a little bit of damage on my car but no wings lost or something like that. I think I lost a few positions at the start with this. But after that it was going very good. A lot of guys were on a heavy car I suppose, because I overtook a lot of guys in the first couple of laps. And after the first laps I started fighting for P6 with David Greco it was a very nice fight. I overtook him and he overtook me and that happend a few times. But I was almost sure he was on a 2 stopper.
After my first stint I was a few seconds in front of him and was going into the pits. And then I was driving in P11 for a few laps until all the 2 stoppers were going in and then I was back on P7 behind Greco. I overtook him very easily on the first lap he was out. He had more fuel, so I was driving away from him a little bit, but I knew David was not the one I could get with my 3 stopper as he was almost on the same speed.
So I kept on pushing until my final stop and then I was back on track on my last stint, 2 seconds in front of Denis Kiriakopoulos. He was closing the gap by a tenth every lap. And with one lap to go he was right behind me. The final lap was the perfect lap from me, my fastest lap of the race, also 16.1. That was my race, finished on P6.
And I could say it was one of my best races ever. Was pushing like hell. That's something I normaly not do, but I like it a lot and I promise to repeat it the next few races. "

With this result, FTS moved to 8th in the Constructor Standings. In the next race weekend at Canada, the team will be trying to keep scoring points, where Gabriel Garivaldis was 5th for the team last year.

Faisal Niazi claimed his maiden podium finish for Faster Than Speed by finishing the FSR WS Pro British Grand Prix in 2nd position. After the disappointment of the mechanical failure in Monaco, Faisal had no problems this time, and drove a strong faultless race.

In the First Qualifying session, Faisal set the 2nd fastest time once again, but unfortunatelly an electronic problem didn't allow him to set a time in the Second Qualifying, giving him the 7th spot on the grid. The mechanics did a great job getting the car ready for the race, and it ran reliably until the checkered flag, giving Faisal a much deserved podium finish.

Faisal Niazi (2nd): "In qualifying I was ok, didn’t match my personal best. DSL problem kept me from taking part in Qual 2. I chose a one-stop strategy because I was starting further down the grid than I would have liked. Tyres lasted well but I was a tad conservative with the cooling. After many problems this year it is nice to finally get on the podium. My thanks goes to the team for their support, especially Christian for all his work on the setup."

In WS Ace, Christian Smirnoff and Theo Gort took another double finish for the team, moving defending champions FTS to 2nd in the Constructors Standings.

Christian drove an agressive race from 10th on the grid to finish in P6, while Theo Gort had an impressive performance in Qualifying, posting the 6th fastest time, but had his race hampered by a couple of mistakes and a stop-and-go penalty for speeding on the pitlane. Theo eventually finished in 9th position.

Christian Smirnoff (6th): "In Qualifying I did a good time but it was only enough for 10th. There was not much I could do about that.
In the race, I picked an agressive 3 stopper and I had good pace in the car. Pushed very hard all the race, but unfortunatelly in my third stint when I was really on the limit as I tried to exit from my last stop in front of the 2 stoppers, I lost control after Bridge as my right tyres slightly touched the grass. It costed me around 5 seconds, which would have made the difference between 6th and 5th.
In the last few laps, I was trying to put pressure on Sebastian Keijmel, but the leader came to lap me and after that he slowed down to protect his team mate, so that was the end for me. More frustratingly, Sebastian crashed in the last lap but as I finished just behind the leader, the race was already over for me.
It was extremely difficult today as it was very competitive, so I'm not very happy with the result, but I know I pushed as hard as I could, will have to work even harder for the next one, where I won last year with a fantastic 1-2."

Gabriel Garivaldis could not take part in the race as he had a knee surgery a couple of days before the GP. Gabriel took time to rest at home, and will be able to be back for the Canadian GP.

Faster Than Speed will be anxiously looking foward to the Canada race, as in 2005 the team had its best ever WS race weekend, with two 1-2 finishes, one by Christian Smirnoff and Wolfgang Weber in WS Ace, and another with Swaraj Shergill and David Gonzalez in WS Amateur.

In the FSR World Series Ace division race, Faster Than Speed got their first podium finishes of the season, with 2nd and 3rd position for Christian Smirnoff and Gabriel Garivaldis, respectively. Meanwhile, Theo Gort also finished for the second team, in 5th position.

Gabriel Garivaldis made his WS debut this season and achieved his first podium in that category. After a great First Qualifying session which left him 2nd, Gabriel took 5th position on the grid dring the Second Qualifying, and then drove a very solid race to 2nd place, before swapping positions with his team mate.

Christian had a difficult qualifying session, missing 2nd Qualifying after losing his best run due to traffic, and had to start from 10th. Some early suspension damage to the car made the race very difficult for him, but he was able to keep fighting until the end, to take his first podium this season.

Christian Smirnoff (2nd): "In Qual I wasn't happy as I had a 1:13.5 time from the Practice session, so I think I could have easily been in Qual 2, but the time just didn't come out. In one lap I was improving by almost half a second, but Ben Philips held me up without intention. It happens here in Monaco.
Then in the race, I had a clean start, but a couple of laps later, I did a small mistake and clipped a wall and some contact with Laszlo. After that, I had some suspension damage for the rest of the race. It wasn't very serious, but the car felt very strange all race since then, specially in Ste. Devote, where it made me lose control twice there, which made the problem a bit worse, but luckily I didn't break the car.
Then I had a very nice fight with Danny Davison for many laps, he was faster as I was struggling with the car, but he couldn't pass me. We then caught Laszlo who was very slow with serious damage, and we had some contact as I tried to overtake in the chicane, was a bit optimistic but I needed to pass or Danny would pass me instead. In the end, luckily no one was damaged, and we could both pass Laszlo a few corners later. Then Mark Aalberts started to get closer but he made a mistake before catching me.
So I was 3rd, until Gab let me through to take 2nd, which was unecessary as I've told him, but I have to thank him. So double podium for FTS, finally in the podium myself and Theo 5th too, a fantastic result for us!"

Theo Gort also missed the final qualifying session, but starting from 14th, he drove steadly to a 5th place finish, despite having to do an extra pitstop to repair a broken nose cone.

Theo Gort (5th): "Nice race for me. At the start someone flew over me in a crash but no damage at all due to some unknown wonder. After that, drive, drive and drive consistantly, with some small crashes, a heart-attack spin for my team mate (Garivaldis) and one lost wing. 5th in the end, and a great team result for FTS!"

Faster Than Speed is now trailling Constructor's leader Roaldo Racing by only 9 points, while Christian Smirnoff reduced the gap in the Drivers Championship to 7 points from Laszlo Billibok.

In the WS Pro division, Faisal Niazi did a fantastic job in Qualifying, taking 2nd position in both sessions, achieving his first front row start. But unfortunatelly, all his satisfaction soon turned into disappointment, as a software failure caused Faisal to retire from P2 before he could even complete the first lap. Faisal left the circuit disappointed, but encouraged by the good showing, and looking foward to the next race.

Ferry Koek drove once again a very solid race for Faster Than Speed in the FSR World Championship's Monaco Grand Prix. After an impressive Qualifying performance around the streets of the Principality, Ferry started the race from 7th position, while team mate Dennis Johansen, had to start from 17th after a grid penalty.

Unfortunatelly, Dennis had to retire from the race after only 8 laps, as he damaged his FTS challenger. But Ferry Koek could go further, and was looking likely for a point-scoring finish after some interesting battles, including one with championship leader Roy Kolbe. But luck was not with him today, with 10 laps to go, Ferry lost control in the Anthony Noghes corner, damaging the car and stalling the engine, which meant race over for the Dutch driver.

Ferry Koek (DNF): "I did a really good qualifying run, P7 isn't bad for me. Very good start and Iwas on P6, with Dominik (Binz) and Roy (Kolbe) behind me, but after a few laps I made a stupid mistake, too much (pressure) on the gas pedal and I spun. No damage and I restarted the race on P11. From then on I was pusing like hell especially in the last stint, I overtook a few people. I never thought that it was possible but I did. And when I was behind David Greco who was on P7 I was putting some pressure on him. I think he had a damaged car, but I did a few fast laps. but then I spun coming up to the straight at start-finish line and I hit the wall. Lost front wing and stalled the engine.
And that was it, the first race after 25 races in WC finishing and in the points. But well, this wasn't my best track and I am happy that I could fight a little with the top of the ranking list."

Despite the double retirement, FTS leaves encouraged by the good performance showed, and we want to thank Twister Racing once again for letting Ferry Koek race for our team, as we will be able to see him over our FTS-P6 in many GPs this season!

Dutch driver Ferry Koek, on loan from Twister Racing to substitute Gabriel Garivaldis in the World Championship European Grand Prix, took the FTS-P6 to 7th position, scoring Faster Than Speed's first championship points this season.

After qualifying in a disappointing 14th, Ferry drove a very solid race, to finally open the points tally, and move Faster Than Speed out of the last position in the standings.

Unfortunatelly it was not all good fortunes for FTS. Team mate Dennis Johansen suffered from technical problems minutes before the race, and was not even able to start.

Ferry Koek (7th): "First race for the Faster Than Speed team. I did a bad qualifying run, about 1 second from my personal best. I started at the back off the field, but after a few laps I was already in top 8. But then I made 2 little mistakes and spun 2 times, one time I hit Martin (Dyrlund) a little, don't know if it was my fault, I was next to him and he turned in there was no way to go for me. But after all a very nice race, P7 I am happy with that."

Faster Than Speed wishes to thank Twister Racing and its manager Joel Roux for letting Ferry race, while we also want to thank Ferry for his great job this weekend!

Faster Than Speed team mates Christian Smirnoff and Theo Gort took 6th and 10th positions respectively in the WS Ace European Grand Prix. After both failed to set a top 8 time in the First Qualifying, the drivers couldn't take part in the Second Qualifying and had to start the race from the back half of the grid.

Despite this, and some serious tyre overheating issues, that could not be solved on time, Christian was driving a consistant race after a tyre compound change, and was looking good for 5th position. Unfortunatelly, after an incident when a competitor tried to overtake him, he dropped to 7th with a few laps to go, although finally regaining one position in the last lap, to finish 6th.

Christian Smirnoff (6th): "Well, qualifying was pretty tough. I made my first 1:27, going a tenth and a half quicker than my previous best. And I had two tenths and a half more in one of the laps but I spun in the last sector trying to go faster than the car as I knew even that was not enough for top 8. So I was knocked out in the first qualifying for the first time this season, qualifying 11th.

Starting from there and with the big tyre overheating problems I knew I had, front left going well over 140°C and rear tyres overheating too, this was a race of damage limitation for me.
First stint was pretty difficult, but for the second one I changed to medium tyres and even if not quick, I was able to lap much more consistantly. The idea for the whole race was trying to finish ahead of Chris Barber and Laszlo Billibok, specially Laszlo as he is first in the championship.
I was looking good for 5th place, but with only a few laps to go, Chris Barber was attacking me, and I thought I could hold him behind well, but he tried a move into turn 1 that didn't make me very happy as even though I didn't see the replay yet, I think I started turning into the corner while I was ahead, but he braked very deep over the inside kerb and into the outside, so we had contact and he left me nowhere to go and passed. A few corners later he slowed down in the middle of the acceleration out of a corner as he said he saw an unexistant blue flag, and I understeered into him, slightly touched his rear right tyre and it spun me around, also letting Laszlo through.

So I was 7th and pretty angry that all the work of the race to be in front of them and I was now behind, so I went pushing very hard but at the same time had to defend from Glyn. Barber was now a few seconds too far to catch, but Laszlo spun in the last lap, so I was 6th in the end.

So honestly, I'm not really happy, because I could have been 5th, but mainly because I want to be fighting nearer the top. It was a good race for the championship as I'm 2nd now, but I want to be in the podium as soon as possible."

Team mate Theo Gort, could also finish the race, despite lacking some race pace.

Theo Gort (10th): "Well, my race today was slow. Very strong competition today
and Ii just had no chance at all to make anything off it. Still it is good (that) I finished, despite one spin and a stop & go for speeding in the pits. Still though, I doubt the result would have been different. I hope to do better next time!"

Christian is now 2nd in the Drivers Championship, while Theo is in 7th position. The team, defending the Constructors Championship from 2005, is currently 4th on the Constructors Standings.

Faster Than Speed drivers Christian Smirnoff and Theo Gort took 4th and 6th positions respectively in the FSR World Series San Marino Grand Prix, in the Ace division.
Starting from 5th and 7th in the grid, both drivers drove a solid race, picking up more points for the team.
Christian's team mate, Swaraj "Sunny" Shergill unfortunatelly couldn't break his bad luck, and retired from the race early on. Swaraj will be hoping for improved fortunes and his first points in the following race.

Christian Smirnoff (4th): "I pushed very hard all the time but there was nothing more I could do. In both qualifyings I did laps close to my best times, and this time I improved my Qual 1 time in Qual 2, finally. Started 5th which wasn't bad.
Had a good start even though I had to avoid Ferry Koek who slided off in front of me, and took 3rd. Then Laszlo started attacking me, and I could hold him behind without problems, until the car clipped the entry kerb to Tamburello wrongly and got my car out of place so I took a short trip through the gravel and dropped to 4th. From there it was just pushing very hard, did many 1:20's which was a quite good pace for me. I made a pretty stupid mistake in the second pitstop which cost me over 5 seconds waiting there in the pitbox, but in the end it didn't change anything.
My pace was definately better than in the first two, and I pushed very hard all day, but it was really impossible to get in the podium today with the WC guys up there. So 4th is not bad, will hope to finally get a podium in the next one. Meanwhile, I keep scoring points."

Theo Gort (6th): "My race was pretty good, except for one stupid spin in lap 10 or so. I really missed the breaking point at the uphill right (hander), and took me 15 seconds to get out of that sand here.
In the end I got 6th, pretty OK, not sure if my pit-strategy was the best though. 3 stops with super softs (tyres), maybe 2 and softs would have been better."

In the WS Pro category, Faisal Niazi could finally get rid of the problems of the first two races and take his first race finish, in 6th place, after having qualified 5th. Faisal had a difficult start to the race, but he drove a solid race to take good points at the end.
Team mate Luis Schiavo was less fortunate, as after being knocked out of the first qualifying session due to a mistake with the tyres, he then failed to complete the race, having to retire with a damaged car.
It was also not the day of FTS newcomer José Sánchez, who couldn't even take part in the event due to mechanical problems. José will be anxiously looking foward to his debut at the next round.

Going back to Luis Schiavo for a moment, many have not noticed, after all the FSR press talked about AJ Allmendinger, Champ Car World Series driver, who raced this weekend in the WC and WS Pro leagues, that our own Luis is also an important international driver. He currently races in the Champ Car Atlantic Series, and has a very impressive career, which you can read here. Amongst other highlights, he is the 2003 champion of the Star Mazda Series Championship and has done 8 test days over a Champ Car of the Dale Coyne Racing team in 2005.
WS Pro sister team mate, Juan José Font, also used to race in the Formula Vauxhall and Formula Renault in England.

Faster Than Speed has left the Imola circuit with great disappointment, as the World Championship race at the venue once again gave the team no championship points, placing FTS last on the WC standings, after a terrible start to the 2006 season.

Dennis Johansen put the FTS-P6 car on P14 on the grid, but had to retire from the race after his engine stalled following a spin.
Gabriel Garivaldis couldn't even take part in the event, due to mechanical problems.

Gabriel and Dennis will be working hard to finally get the first points of the season and get the change in fortunes we need at the next race! The real season starts now for FTS!

In what was another disappointing weekend, Faster Than Speed could not open its points count in the World Championship Malaysian Grand Prix.

Hours before the start of the race, the team had to withdraw Gabriel Garivaldis from the event, due to a leg injury he sustained on an accident he was involved in a go-kart. This left Dennis Johansen the only hope for a point scoring position.

Unfortunatelly, it wasn't a good day for Dennis either. After a disappointing Qualifying session, which left him only 16th on the grid, the team decided to try a radical fuel strategy on his car, which proved to be a wrong decision. With a 1-stopper strategy, the car did not behave as expected, and Dennis could not have the pace that it was expected from the FTS-P6. Despite a solid drive to the checkered flag, Dennis finished outside the points, in 10th position.

Dennis Johansen (10th): "Not the best race for me, but with the time I've been testing I'm pretty happy I even completed the race. I sorted out the steering problem on Friday. I was having a hard time staying on track in the 2nd sector because of the heavy fuel load . I originally planned for a 2 stop strategy that was quite consistant , but after a, to be honest, embaresing qualifying performance I chose to take a chance with a 1 stop strategy , which isn't a good idea on a setup not tested for that distance. Next race I'll be more prepared and hopefully my teammate will be back on track at that time."

FTS will be hoping for better fortunes in the San Marino Grand Prix, in two weeks time. Hopefully with Gabriel recovered from his injury, and with some points to celebrate after the race!

Luis Schiavo achieved his first podium position, in his first race for the team in the World Series Pro division. After suffering from technical problems in Qualifying, that left him last on the grid without having set a time, Luis put in a strong drive to take Faster Than Speed's first podium of the 2006 season.
His team mate, Faisal Niazi, suffered from serious electronic problems during both the Qualifying and Race sessions, leaving him no chance to be competitive. After being knocked out at the first qualifying, he tried to drive on and pick at least a few points from 12th on the grid, but a brake failure ended up with any chances of a race finish.

Faisal Niazi (DNF): "In Qual 1 I realised that my accelerator pedal was damaged. There were no such problems prior to the practice session so it was a bit of a surprise. I attempted to fix it during Qual 2 but only made it worse. Now there was also about 8% of the brake constantly applied. Brake failure ultimately lead to my retirement."

In the WS Ace category, Christian Smirnoff and Theo Gort went from 6th and 8th on the grid respectively, and improved a position each in the race, finishing in places 5th and 7th respectively. Despite being collided from behind hard in the first corner, Christian recovered after some overtaking manouvres and a great pitstop by the team, while Theo, completed the first double point-scoring finish of the season for FTS.

Christian Smirnoff (5th): "The race wasn't bad. I was happy with the setup, which was much better than what I had in Australia, but I still have catchup to do, to be able to fight for the podium.
Qual 1 was good, did a 1:33.5, enough for 5th, but in the second qual, I again could not get any good lap in, and in my best lap I had two mistakes, one them costed me several tenths as I almost spin the car. But anyway I started from 6th.
Made a good start but unfortunatelly Franc hit me in the first corner, my car went flying and even though it wasn't seriously damaged, I lost quite a bit of time and had to overtake some cars. Overtook Tyndale, Peter and Theo, then Glyn overtook me after I went wide in one corner. Had an interesting battle with him, with Franc and with Chris Barber, who I could finally overtake in the pitstop. After that I had a lonely race, had a worrying moment as we almost have a missunderstanding with the leader but it was fine in the end.
Without the start incident I could have been 4th, but anyway my pace was not good enough for the podium today, I'll have to work harder."

Theo Gort (7th): "My race was pretty good, even though I didn't test much, I could still keep a steady but slow pace with only one spin about 12 laps before the end.
My start was very good, but I backed off not wanting to get close in the first corner. after that some people overtook me and then my race was pretty lonely. Still I'm happy to finish my first race in FSR."

In the next race at Imola, FTS will hope to show more competitivness and go in quest of more podium finishes!

It was a very short Australian Grand Prix indeed for Gabriel Garivaldis and Dennis Johansen. After a difficult Qualifying session in which Gabriel Garivaldis could only achieve 16th in the grid and Dennis Johansen could not set a time due to technical issues, the race couldn't go much worse, but unfortunatelly it did.

Both Gabriel and Dennis were out of the race in lap 2, after non-related incidents, which left both FTS-P6 cars heavily damaged. Gabriel was noticeably disappointed when interviewed after his mistake: "2 weeks of testing down the toilet on lap 2, I don't feel good at all. I know some points were on the way, I had a good strategy."

Faster Than Speed will be looking foward to a longer race and the first points next weekend in Malaysia!

In the World Series Ace division, Christian Smirnoff opened the team's point tally with a 4th place race finish. After qualifying 7th, Christian drove a solid and calm race to take the first points of the season for the World Champion team, despite not being able to match the lead pace.
Swaraj Shergill and Theo Gort didn't share the same luck. After qualifying in 6th and 9th respectively, Theo was running in a strong 4th place when he lost control under traction and ended his race against the wall early in the race. Despite his disappointment, Theo clearly showed his raw speed, as he set the 2nd best time in the First Qualifying session.
Only a few laps after Theo's retirement, a small technical trouble forced Swaraj into a spin, that resulted in a collission with an opponent, ending Sunny's race prematurely, as the FTS-P6 was left with serious suspension damage that the pitcrew was unable to fix.

In the WS Pro division, Faisal Niazi did a wonderful job in Qualifying, taking 3rd place on the grid. Unfortunatelly, a mistake when fuelling the car, meant he had to retire from the race as his car started slowing down due to lack of fuel before his first pitstop, ruining the very strong race he was driving.

This weekend was definately not one of the best, with only one race finish, but the team started to show what it can do, and will come back even stronger next week in Malaysia!

We are happy to officially launch Faster Than Speed's 2006 campaign. After our best ever 2005 season, with 6th position on the World Championship Constructors Standings and the Constructors Championship achieved in the World Series Ace Online, FTS starts the new season with higher expectatives and motivation than ever before.

The Car: The FTS-P6
Our panther beauty is now better than ever. Based on last year's award winning FTS-P5, the FTS-P6 is definately the best car on the Formula SimRacing grid. You can find some exclusive shots of the car in action here.

Driver Lineups
Gabriel Garivaldis will once again drive the for the team in the World Championship. This year, he will be joined by Danish driver Dennis Johansen, who had already raced for the team in 2003, when it was named Flying Colours International. 2005 driver Allan Jensen will not be racing in FSR this year.

In the World Series, the World Champion FTS team, now the team to beat will once again feature championship runner-up Christian Smirnoff, with Swaraj "Sunny" Shergill, the 'FTS driver of the 2005 season', who made the jump from the Amateur to the Ace division, to show his skill amongst the most competitive in the World Series. In the second team, Theo Gort, from the Netherlands, will join Christian and Swaraj in this division.

In the Pro division, FTS have an all-new lineup. Faisal Niazi, one of the main championship contenders of the Amateur division in 2005, will be now driving for FTS, teaming up with two new drivers from Venezuela: Luis Schiavo and Juan José Font.

The Website
The website features many changes. Apart from some design improvements, you will find an updated team description (The Team), pictures of the new FTS-P6 and our new FTS car museum (The Car), all the results and statistics of the 2005 and now 2006 FSR seasons (Results & Statistics) and an all-new Multimedia section, where you will find pictures, videos, wallpapers and more!

The Sponsors
Two new sponsors joined the team: RaceHall (http://www.racehall.com) and DestroY Software (http://www.destroysoftware.com.ar). A very kind welcome to them!

The 2006 season
After our success in 2005, the team is ready for a new challenge, repeating and improving what was achieved. With that in mind, we say GO GO GO!!! This will be Faster Than Speed, 2006!