Mark Blundell Q&A

"It's not a situation which has just happened, it's just that Martin needs to be somewhere else and I'm just filling in. He'll be back in his rightful place. I've done it twice with Murray in Canada, when Martin went to Le Mans and I was racing in the States. Obviously working with James is different, but I know him very well."



"Yeah, it was a very good test, very constructive. We had a little bit of trouble in the morning and we were a little bit off in terms of downforce and set-up, but reviewing it over lunchtime quickly put it together and got that right. Everything ran faultlessly, really. The engine was very strong and no reliability problems showed up, so I'm quite happy."



"I think the team was put together in a short period of time, and expectations were quite high. Everyone's learned from last year, basically. The car is pretty similar to last year's with a few modifications done by Lola. There are a couple of things that we should still have but we haven't got yet, and we'll try and continue to work on those before the race, even. I think we just came armed and a lot more confident."



"We were very quick in the wet, but if you look at the times we did at the pre-qualifying weekend, we could run 3s behind them. That's relative to what we can in race trim as well. Bearing in mind that we're a 675 car, and also the possibility exists that we might be able to run a little bit longer on a tank of fuel, you can work out yourself that it might be quite sensible."



"First of all we want to win our class, that's the main aim obviously. Secondly, I think the target would be to be competitive, because if those angles that I've just mentioned are true, then there's every chance that you might see us on the podium. There's no reason to think otherwise. Julian Bailey knows how to pedal a sportscar, and Kevin McGarrity has a lot of single-seater experience, is extremely fast, and now has a little bit of experience under his belt in those cars. We have a sensible outfit."



"No. I've had a couple of opportunities to go to Indianapolis this year. One thing for me was that I had to commit because of the situation with ITV, but on the other hand there was quite a bit going on for me to go to Indy. But I only wanted to go if the package was going to be right, if it was funded properly, the engineering side of it was correct, and the engine was capable of doing the job. At that point in time there wasn't anything out there that suited. Saying that, as of last weekend I got offered a very competitive drive, but it was too late. And I think you need to make sure you go and do the work to make sure you run properly there."



"I'm still the last English guy to win an oval race, and only the fourth Brit in history to win a 500-mile race. It's quite probable that I'll have a go for it next year and we can have a good run."