A blistering run from midfield saw Thomas Erdos salvage valuable points in round two of the 2004 FIA GT Championship last weekend at Valencia in Spain. By rights this should have been RML’s first podium of the year, but a refueling problem compounded by an error by the race officials, penalising Erdos and Newton for a pitlane infringement by another squad, cost them dear.

The team arrived in Valencia having done little of significance to their Saleen racecar since Monza. “We’ve made no real changes,” admitted Erdos ahead of Friday’s free practice sessions. “We’re even running the same engine, although we’ve had little option. Everything else is fine, though, and the team is really starting to work well together.” This became evident in the day’s second session, when Tommy emerged second quickest in less than idea conditions. “It was a very wet run,” he conceded “but ending up P2 was very encouraging.”

In truth, the Brazilian had been quickest for most of the session, and was only pipped at the very end when the all-new Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Murcielago R-GT took advantage of a drying track to post BTD. This aside, it had all looked very promising for the various Saleen crews, with both RML squads prominent and the Konrad pairing quickest in the morning.