LANDMARK FIRST WIN FOR BIO-ETHANOL ASTON MARTIN AT SNETTERTON |
First ever-British national championship race victory for a Bio-Ethanol car Barwell Motorsport made further motor racing history at the weekend, when Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker claimed the first race win for Paul’s Bio-Ethanol-fuelled Aston Martin DBRS9. The Snetterton 2-hour, re-fuelling format race was an extremely tough and hard-fought encounter, which featured at least seven cars in the hunt for victory. Whilst our wins at Donington were achieved mainly through having very strong pace, this time there were plenty of cars faster on the day than Paul and Jonny’s Aston, but their result was achieved by some very good consistent driving, excellent team strategy and faultless pit work by the Barwell crew. Backing up our third victory of the season were two further solid results from the sister Aston Martin DBRS9s of Guy Harrington/Ben Butler in third position (their third podium in a row), and Tom Alexander/Michael Bentwood in fifth place. This continues our incredible 100% finishing and points-scoring record for the 2007 season, with all three Barwell Motorsport cars claiming top eight points-scoring finishes in the five races held to date. DriversCar #1: Paul Drayson / Jonny Cocker (Chassis DBRS9 / 003) Race – 2 Hours / 95 laps There was controversy surrounding the Snetterton race, in that the championship organisers had incorrectly allowed the cars that normally run on the hard compound tyre (as stipulated by the FIA equalisation process at the heart of the British series’ technical regulations) to compete on the soft compound Avon rubber. This meant that the Mosler, Ascari and Dodge Viper teams (that should have been on the hard tyre) were all able to run their cars significantly quicker than would normally be the case. This unfairly benefited the ‘amateur’ drivers in these cars, who were then able to run similar pace to the ‘pro’ drivers in the Astons, Porsches, Ferraris and Lamborghinis, who were all running to the correct FIA-sanctioned car equalisation formula. Despite this handicap against us, we worked hard on getting a superb set-up on the DBRS9 for Saturday’s qualifying session, and an absolutely on-the-limit, scintillating lap from Jonny Cocker planted the Bio-Ethanol Aston on pole right in the closing stages of qualifying. Michael Bentwood was in the hunt for pole as well, but his last flying run just fell short to put him fifth behind the two Ferraris and the Cole brothers’ Mosler, which was much higher up than normal due to the soft tyre anomaly. Guy and Ben were slightly disappointed with their 12th fastest lap, which didn’t match the much better pace that Guy had shown in the earlier Saturday free-practice session. There was drama as the cars formed up on the starting grid for Sunday’s race, as the second-place Ferrari of Daoudi/Lester missed the pit lane closing window and would have to start from the back of the grid with super-quick French pro Daoudi at the wheel. This gave Paul (starting the pole-position Aston) a nice bit of breathing space, however, and he made the perfect getaway from his first-ever British GT pole start to lead the field into the opening lap. Behind him there was mayhem, as Phil Burton spun the third-placed Ferrari and cars were moving everywhere in avoidance. Tom and Guy made the most of the situation and by the end of lap one had moved up to third and seventh places, respectively. On lap two Paul lost the lead to the flying Mosler but got his head down and started to reel off some excellent times, to consolidate his second position from the remainder of the chasing pack. By lap five there were four cars hunting the Bio-Ethanol Aston down from a distance, with the Jones twins’ Ascari heading this group from a charging Guy Harrington (now up to fourth) and the two fastest machines on the track – the Daoudi Ferrari and the Adam Jones-driven Lamborghini Gallardo, as these two professional drivers really pushed hard to fight their way through the pack. Paul was still putting in a really strong performance after 25 laps, with his only ‘hiccups’ coming when he arrived upon much slower backmarkers and had to lap them. He caught one particular car at the worst possible point on the track – the super fast and long Coram bend – and was forced to lift off the throttle which led to a pretty wild high-speed ride across the grass. Paul did very well to collect this heart-stopping moment and only lose a few seconds, but this incident, and another with a backmarker Ascari had cost him valuable time to his pursuers. By this stage Guy had succumbed to the Italian stampede, after enjoying a superb scrap over the course of several laps with both the Ferrari and the Lambo. Guy had done an excellent job in holding his own in this very experienced driver company, but the superiority of the Italian cars under braking was clear to see. All three of these cars had demoted the Jones Ascari, and with the Lambo now taking over the lead of the hunt, he had Paul in his sights. Drayson put up a spirited fight, but also didn’t want to lose too much time himself, knowing that Jonny Cocker would soon be taking over from him and would then be reclaiming the places from the slower drivers going into the Italian cars. By lap 32 he had been demoted by Adam Jones, Daoudi and Guy in the sister Barwell Aston, but as long as he could keep relatively in touch with this group (and the race-leading Mosler) for the remainder of his stint then the car would still be a strong contender for victory. Looking equally capable of taking victory at this stage was the Harrington/de Zille Butler car, which Guy was still pedalling extremely well in fourth place. With Ben able to lap at very similar pace to Guy, this combination (the Championship leaders going into Snetterton) was still in a great position to catch and pass the three cars ahead, and thus repeat their win at Donington. Guy was gamely trying to stay in touch with the Ferrari ahead, but here again backmarkers were playing their part and he seemed to lose out more in the traffic. The backmarker situation had allowed the Jones twins’ Ascari to squeeze past Paul, and this car was enjoying the benefits of the soft tyres to also close up on Guy as the race approached the 40-lap mark. Tom was able to hold his own in the top six during the early stages of the race, but the extremely hot day meant that the Aston’s cockpit temperatures were well over 40 degrees and this was taking its toll on his concentration as the race approached the pit stop period. This meant that he was forced to reduce his pace, and dropped the car down to 10th position. He had still done enough, however, to give Michael a fighting chance of claiming another good result for the Donington race winners. We were now approaching the start of the refuelling pit stops, and this is where things would get really interesting! All cars had to make a mandatory minimum 90-second refuelling / driver change stop, and then after this change tyres if necessary. We had to make three of these stops, including changing all four tyres on each car, in the space of an eight-minute window ! We know that re-fuelling a hot GT car is a very hazardous activity, and any number of things can cause a big problem during this process. With the tyre stops against the clock, every second lost here could also have a drastic effect on the outcome of the race, especially if some of our rivals decide that they can ‘double-stint’ their tyres and therefore avoid a tyre change. We therefore spent two hours practicing ‘dress rehearsal’ pit stops on the Saturday evening, with drivers also included, to make sure that we would be properly drilled for all three cars come the race. Strangely, we were pretty lonely in the pit lane during this pit stop practice time…. So, the top six race order prior to the first round of stops on lap 42 was Cole Mosler, Jones Lambo, Daoudi Ferrari, Guy’s Aston, Jones Ascari, and Paul’s Aston. Our pre-determined strategy was to stop the Bio-Ethanol car first (as it is not so critical on fuel consumption), followed by the Tom Alexander car (with Michael then doing the longer stint as the faster ‘pro’) and then Guy and Ben’s car third as with two more equal drivers it is less of an issue to have different length stints. Fortunately for Paul, there was a brief safety car period just as he came in for his stop, which Tom was also able to benefit from. The unfortunate loser in the safety car scenario was Guy, who then had to make his stop under full racing conditions that cost his and Ben’s car time in the race. Whilst the Barwell Motorsport crew had performed three absolutely stunning pit stops, with no fuel dramas and ‘hot’ tyre changes in under 20 seconds (using only two wheel guns and four people, as per the regulations)…many of our rivals were experiencing varying degrees of problems and disasters down the rest of the pit lane…! The Cole Mosler took 20 seconds longer to service than our cars, the Lambo somehow lost a whopping two minutes in the pits and the Daoudi Ferrari suffered a race-ending fire. By lap 50 all of the stops had been completed, leaving the Mosler with a 20-second lead from Jonny in the Bio-Ethanol Aston, the Jones’ Ascari which hadn’t changed tyres, the Harris/Bryant Porsche which had benefited from the safety car stop time, followed by our other Astons now being driven by Ben and Michael. The bad news for us was that Jonny’s car was suffering from a handling imbalance, as a result of the knock it had received on the front end during the rather rude collision with the backmarker Ascari earlier. The good news was that Jonny was still able to catch the Mosler at three-quarters of a second a lap, and also hold the gap to the cars behind. The further good news was that both Ben and Michael were rapidly closing in on the Bryant Porsche. This pattern continued through to lap 62, when the Bryant Porsche blew an engine hose and deposited fluid all over the track, Whilst this spelt the end of its race, it also caused high drama for those cars arriving first at the corners which had been turned into ‘skid pans’ by the spilt fluids. Unfortunately, one of these was Michael, who was a hapless passenger as his car spun and collected the tyre barriers at the first corner. Luckily he was able to continue, but a lap down on Jonny’s car. Also spinning on the oil was the Cole Mosler, which handed the lead to Jonny immediately on lap 63, although Jonny was due to catch him in 10 laps time anyway and thus would have taken the lead of the race in any case. This also promoted the Jones’ Ascari to second and Ben’s Aston to third, and Michael was able to recover from his moment to resume in sixth place at this stage. With 30 laps to go, Jonny now had a commanding 30-second lead over the Ascari, although our worries were now focused on the handling problem that was making it increasingly harder for Jonny to keep a strong pace. Cocker’s super smooth style is ideally suited to this type of job, however, and he managed to nurse the car along whilst still maintaining a good consistent pace. A few laps later and the complexion of the race changed again as a three lap safety car period bunched up the pack, and allowed the Jones Ascari to wipe out much of Jonny’s advantage. Conversely for Ben, however, this was good news as it also gave him a shot at the win again. Ben took this opportunity with both hands and started to reel the Ascari in rapidly whilst also dealing with a gaggle of backmarkers. By lay 80 the gap was down to two seconds and it looked like second place, at the least, was on for the Caterham graduates Ben and Guy. But Ben’s pace then dropped off dramatically over the next six laps, as he reported the steering wheel being knocked out of line and some strange handling. This situation then seemed to correct itself with five laps to go, but the Jones Ascari had pressed on and put itself out of reach for the erstwhile Championship leaders. This had been a great drive from both Ben and Guy, however, and as they are both still getting quicker and quicker they are becoming a consistent threat for victory in every race. Also putting in his usual highly professional performance was Michael Bentwood, and without the costly spin on the Porsche’s fluids this car would also have been in the hunt for another podium spot. Michael set the fastest Aston race lap, and was able to claw back a place from the Gardiner/Fenton Dodge Viper to post a fifth place finish for him and Tom. The main concern for the Barwell crew in the closing stages was now whether Jonny’s seven-second lead would come under threat from the healthy Ascari. Paul and the team stood nervously on the pit wall watching the gap on the timing screens as each lap passed, with fingers and toes and everything else crossed! Jonny was putting in yet another supreme performance as he looked after a far from happy Aston and soaked up the pressure. Him and Paul wanted this win very very badly, however, and Jonny was not about to let his guard drop at this stage. Celebrations duly erupted as Jonny took the chequered flag to score a historic victory after an action-packed two hours of GT racing. Top 10 Results – Avon Tyres British GT Championship Round Five – Snetterton 1. Cocker/Drayson Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9 Avon Tyres British GT Championship – Drivers Top 15 Points (after 5/14 races) 1. Paul Drayson Barwell Motorsport 34 Avon Tyres British GT Championship – Team Trophy Top 10 Points (after 5/14 races) 1. Barwell Motorsport Aston Martin DBRS9 46 |