FIA GT CHAMPIONSHIP ROUND 1 – ZHUHAI (CHINA) SUNDAY 25 MARCH 2007

Barwell Motorsport proved that it can race with the world's best GT teams on Sunday, when drivers Jonny Kane and Jonny Cocker brought the Gigawave-supported Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 car home in eighth place overall (and second Aston) in round one of the FIA GT Championship at Zhuhai, China. In doing so Barwell scored an FIA Championship point on its debut at this level.

This year's FIA GT championship features one of the toughest GT1 entries that has been seen for many years, with the world's top teams, cars and a star-studded list of drivers. In an eventful opening race the Barwell Motorsport Aston led the field at one stage during the pit stops, but then our long first-stint strategy was seriously compromised by a lengthy safety car period shortly after our first pit stop. Although a top six finish had been on the cards at one stage, we still fought back to claim eighth place after winning a dramatic fight with the JetAlliance Racing Aston DBR9 of Karl Wendlinger in the last five minutes.

Race Event – 2 Hours (69 laps)

The phrase ‘In at the deep end' very accurately sums up Barwell Motorsport's debut in the FIA GT (world) Championship. Having taken delivery of the ex-factory team Aston Martin DBR9 in mid-January, we managed a shakedown test day in Spain and about 30 laps in the wet at Snetterton before we said goodbye to the beautiful silver machine as it boarded a plane for China. The majority of our 14 GT1 rivals, including factory-blessed teams from Aston Martin, Maserati and Lamborghini, have all been at this game for at least the last two FIA GT Championship seasons…!

So, we were on a steep GT1 learning curve…about the car, the championship, the race strategy, the tyres, not to mention racing at a circuit in China that we had never seen before! However, in our favour we had assembled the most experienced Barwell crew ever seen, two very good drivers, and we knew that we had some good information on the car and help from Aston Martin Racing.

The Saturday morning free practice sessions were held in mixed dry/wet/damp conditions – just about the worst case scenario for us as we needed some consistent running to help accelerate our progress. Still, we served notice of our arrival on the GT1 scene by being quickest for most of session 1, courtesy of being the first car on the track whilst it was still dry at the very start of the session!

In terms of race strategy there were two compounds of slick dry tyres from Michelin to choose from. The GT1 regulations state that you have to start the race on whatever tyres you qualify on, but if you chose a softer (slightly faster) compound then it would require two tyre changes during the race. The harder compound would compromise your pace in qualifying but would mean that only one tyre change would be needed during the mandatory two pit stops. After consultation with Michelin we opted for the harder compound strategy, which would mean the first driver doing a long opening stint, followed by the second then having to complete a minimum 35 minutes before handing back to the first driver to do a short final run to the finish. It would be at this second stop where we would get the big payback over the other strategy, as we would save approximately 20 seconds of tyre changing time. Strangely, there was only one other car in GT1 that followed the same strategy…however this just happened to be the reigning FIA GT Champion works Vitaphone Maserati of Michael Bartels/Thomas Biagi…!!

So, we went into the short 15-minute qualifying session with very little dry running experience, and were disappointed with the end result of 14 th overall. The best Aston of factory team BMS Scuderia Italia could only manage 6 th pace, however, and was one second off pole. We were a second off this pace, partly due to the harder tyre and partly due to Jonny Kane not hooking up his best two sectors, but Kane had reported back that he was suffering badly from the rear brakes locking up which made any sort of consistent fast running very difficult. It was now clear that the ‘point & squirt' nature of Zhuhai didn't suit the Aston very much (and favoured the ‘torquey' Corvette), but also that we had a problem with the rear brakes of our car which we couldn't have identified during the wet free practice sessions.

We changed the configuration of our rear brake discs and pads overnight, and then sent Kane back out in the Sunday morning warm-up to evaluate the situation. We were delighted when he reported that the brakes were significantly better, but also a little frustrated knowing that we could have done a lot better in qualifying.

Kane made a cracking start, however, which immediately put him ahead of the other Aston Martin DBR9s of Lechner (JetAlliance Racing) and Mondini (BMS). He then became embroiled in an absolutely superb scrap with Mondini and the Reiter Lamborghini of Kox. These three dueled it out for many nail-biting laps, with the Barwell Aston going side-by-side with the Lambo many times. Kox certainly made it hard work for Jonny to get through, but our former British F3 Champion showed his mettle by sticking to his task and claiming 11th place on lap 10. Mondini had slipped ahead during this battle, however, but Jonny hunted him down and was right on his tail as he pitted on lap 23. This was an incredible performance from Kane, who was keeping up a fast and consistent pace on his long stint despite extremely high temperatures and melting humidity.

Our strategy meant that most of our rivals were pitting before us, and so Kane gradually moved higher and higher up the order as the laps rolled past. On lap 35 the leading Biagi Vitaphone Maserati (on the same strategy as us) peeled off into the pits, giving the Barwell/Gigawave Aston a two-lap moment of glory as we led our very first FIA GT race! The pits beckoned it in for fuel, tyres and a replacement driver however, and we re-emerged in 10th place on the road.

Jonny Cocker hopped in to the driving seat, and despite only having a handful of laps in the car under dry conditions, he quickly started to get down to a good pace and was reeling in the BMS Scuderia Italia Aston of Monfardini. We now had a full tank of fuel and tyres to do the rest of the race, however, and so only needed to change driver at our second stop. Our immediate rivals on the road would all need a long fuel stop and a tyre change as well, so we knew that the race for the three or four places ahead was going to come to us…….that was until the safety car came out on lap 46… and stayed out whilst a problem with the kerbs at a corner was sorted out by the circuit maintenance crew. This safety car period went on for 11 excruciatingly slow laps, and meant that all those cars on the ‘tyre change / re-fuelling second-stop' strategy were able to carry these stops out under the safety car (once their second driver had done 35 minutes in the car). The advantage of our strategy, and that of the race-leading Maserati, had now been completely eradicated. To make matters worse, our strategy of a longer first stop meant that we were a lap down on the leaders at this stage and the safety car period meant that we were powerless to get that back. We did manage to get our second stop done whilst the safety car was still out, however, which at least didn't doubly-penalise our situation.

When the pack was released on lap 57, a problem for the Mondini/Monfardini BMS Aston promoted us up to 9th place behind the JetAlliance Racing DBR9 of Wendlinger/Sharp. Kane was now back behind the wheel of our Aston, and with the bit between his teeth he reeled off a series of stunning laps which matched the pace of the 4th placed BMS Aston of Jamie Davies and was only a few tenths of a second slower than the race leaders. Wendlinger was struggling in his car, which seemed to be killing its rear tyres, and with five laps to go Jonny had the Austrian former F1 driver in his sights (who had won the last FIA round of 2006 in this car). He then pulled off a superb manoeuvre around the outside at the first corner on lap 66, to claim eighth place and put the Barwell/Gigawave Aston as the second DBR9 on the road. Jonny then comfortably reeled off the remaining three laps to bring the car home to a happy Barwell crew.

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