May 24, 2002
Antonio Irissari, BA Racings test/reserve driver, qualified an excellent 6th for this weekends Monaco Grand Prix yesterday, a performance that has greatly impressed his team management.

The Colombian fought off serious software and hardware glitches in the build up to qualifying, and was able to set a very quick time straight out of the box...who knows what else could have been done with more time?

Mal McKee had even more problems however, he literally flew in on his private jet - jumped into his car - drove 1 flying lap - then flew out of the circuit again! ..

"Mal has basically saved out bacon today", commented Dan Lawrence [acting team manager], "I was due to drive here, but asked Mal to fly over and set a laptime 'just incase' I didn't have the time to qualify. Unfortunately I did not have the time, so would like to really thank Mal for his efforts. I am not sure if he will race, but at least we have 2 cars on the grid! ..which always stands you in good stead!"

Lawrence has been extremely busy with issues outside of F1 recently, hence his current lack of time, something he felt the need to defend;

"I think things have got a little crazy lately! I have so many things to do and only very few hours in the day to do them. Thankfully I seem to have settled into a rythym with my studies and the GPVWC ..meaning I can now put more effort into the GPVWC side without feeling guilty for not studying! :)"

Irissari and McKee were both unavailable for comment at the time of issuing this press release..

"hehe! they were last seen entering the playboy yacht in the harbour", Lawrence concluded, "...let's hope they are not too tired to race!"