And It's Go, Go, Go...

Qualifying sessions 1 and 2, La Sarthe -- The DEWALT/RSS Morgan Aero 8 GT(N) will line up for the start of the 2002 Le Mans 24 hour race at 4pm on Saturday, June 15 after qualifying with a lap time of 4 minutes 16 seconds. The time was clocked by DEWALT/RSS driver, Richard Hay during the final night time qualifying session last night, and placed the team ahead of two Ferraris, one Porsche and the Spyker and a creditable 6 seconds behind the class pole.

The new best time, a full 11 seconds quicker than the team’s previous best, was greeted by loud applause from the grandstand crowd when the car came in for a pit stop.

The team has been working extremely hard to overcome some of the teething problems encountered at the preliminary test session in early May. Last night’s achievement is testament to their toils – the car ran reliably for a total of six hours over the four qualifying sessions without problems or incident and produced consistent times throughout.

All three drivers were thrilled with the progress that has been made. Richard Hay commented: "Most of the problems we were experiencing before have been ironed out and the car was running extremely well. We knew the car had more to give, and it gave it to us last night.

"This whole experience is new to us all and the qualifying sessions gave us the opportunity to really get to grips with the circuit before Saturday. We were improving our times and gaining more experience with each lap," Hay continued.

Charles Morgan, Managing Director, Morgan Motor Company was thrilled to see the Aero 8 out on track for the first time at La Sarthe. "It looked absolutely fantastic out there and the roar of the engine………," he enthused.

"All the hard work is paying off - the car and the team have fully justified their place on the grid. I wish the team the very best of luck for the race."

Racing in the 2002 Le Mans 24-hour is part of a two-year programme for Morgan and the DEWALT sponsored RSS team.

Richard Stanton, team owner and lead driver commented: "Le Mans is a unique race and competing here has been a huge learning curve. We will do our very best this year and come back next year much stronger."

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