Gruppe M - FIA GT Championship - Bahrain
FIA GT Championship Round 11
The Clean Sweep

GruppeM rounded off a fabulous season in the FIA GT Championship by recording their eleventh win of the year, making it a clean sweep of victories for Kenny Chen’s British-based outfit. Not only has the squad comfortably secured the 2005 GT2 team title, but Marc Lieb and Mike Rockenfeller have also been confirmed as co-holders of the drivers’ crown. If claiming the team title was almost a foregone conclusion from the very beginning, the fight to be best among the drivers was a much closer contest, with Emmanuel Collard and Tim Sugden giving their German team-mates a close run for their money all year. In the end it was simply a case of a better finishing record – almost wholly down to luck, as they readily acknowledge – that gave car #66 the edge, but with six wins to five, Lieb and Rockenfeller also had the numerical upper hand. It had been five a-piece coming into the final round, and the “old guard” would have dearly loved the satisfaction of beating their younger rivals by picking up a sixth victory in the last round of the season, but it was not to be.

Practice & Qualifying
After their one and only DNF of the year in Dubai last week, Lieb and Rockenfeller arrived in Bahrain with the unfamiliar luxury of a weight advantage. Having finished on the podium every race this year the #66 has always tended to carry the greater penalty, whereas Collard and Sugden have seen their leaden passenger yo-yo on the scales from one week to the next. Their win in Dubai ensured that the #88 would be the heavier car for Bahrain, leaving Lieb and Rockenfeller 25 kilos better off, and perhaps it showed. The champions were fastest in both periods of free practice, and headed into First Qualifying on Thursday afternoon knowing they had the potential to be at least a second quicker over the five and a half kilometer track.

It wasn’t all down to the ballast, however. “We arrived with high hopes,” said Adam Deborre, chief engineer on the #88, “but for some reason we were just slow. The balance wasn’t bad, but the car wasn’t behaving as it had for the rest of the year. We had the same set-up – and I hadn’t lost the ball overnight – but for some reason it just felt weird. I think we’ll find something amiss when we strip it down.” In the end Mike Rockenfeller (taking qualifying duties in the #66 this week) rounded off his first handful of laps with a best of 2:01.468. Even his very first flying lap (2:01.776) would have been good enough for pole, and while he did go out again, having broken two-oh-one three times before the pitstop, he never quite ducked under two minutes and two seconds again.

GruppeM has always been stringently fair when it comes to allocating qualifying/first stint duties to the drivers. Normally, it is taken in strict rotation, but with an eleven-round season that would have given one driver a guaranteed advantage, so the #88 drivers tossed a coin in Bahrain. That gave qualifying to Tim Sugden, leaving Emmanuel Collard to start the race. Tim’s best lap of the session was his first. A time of 2:02.882 briefly topped the charts, but that was as good as it got. It was not the easiest of runs for the Yorkshireman, who was in and out of the pitlane several times in his search for a few tenths. He never found it, and had to be content with second place. It can’t have been easy to accept, but eight out of Rockenfeller’s twelve flying laps were faster, and demonstrated more eloquently than anything else just how debilitating those extra kilos of lead were to the #88 car’s performance, when combined with the handling issue. “The engine was also down on power, and I put that down to sand, perhaps, from Dubai,” said Deborre. “Either way, we were losing straight-line speed. The ballast was some part of that, but certainly not all. For us to be so far off it has to be more than just the set-up not being quite right – you don’t lose that much time.”

Three hours later and the cars were back out on track for Second Qualifying. On the whole it was actually the quicker of the two sessions, which is rare these days, but Rockenfeller couldn’t match his earlier pace. In truth, he wasn’t really trying to, although a mistake on what would have been his best lap probably cost him a confidence-boosting faster time. Having already managed a quicker time in practice (2:00.766) he and Lieb were confident they’d already done enough, and concentrated instead on race set-up. Despite this, Rocky’s fastest lap, at 2:02.458, was still better than anyone else’s, but was almost a second shy of his previous best. “It is quite good to be on pole,” he said. “It is the first time that we have had less weight in the car than our team-mates, and it has made things a little bit easier for us. In free practice I was over seven-tenths quicker than in qualifying, and the first qualifying was a bit slow, so the gap could have been bigger.” Steve Bunkhall, engineering the #66 car, felt sure Rocky could have managed a sub-two-minute lap if they’d given him a new set of tyres. Tim Sugden, on the other hand, did manage to make a two-tenths improvement during the second session, but 2:02.615 was still more than a second adrift. “Having 75 kilogrammes of ballast in the car does not help, and today we were fighting a lot of understeer,” said his co-driver in the post-qualifying press conference. “We were faster in the second qualifying [than we had been in the first] and we found a good set-up for the race. Still, I think it will be very difficult and there will be a close fight tomorrow.” He was also conscious, probably because he’s been there himself, that having three cars tightly battling for the GT2 lead might make things mid-field a little more challenging for the GT1 cars. “I hope that we will not disturb the GT1 race!” he said. “They will have to overtake three GT2 cars at the same time, and that could be difficult!”

So GruppeM had its eleventh straight pole of the year, but for the first time this season the works-backed Porsches faced a genuine challenge. Having previously luxuriated in the knowledge that they had two or three seconds in hand over everyone else in the GT2 field, things weren’t so comfortable in Bahrain. The Spyker Squadron’s C8 Spyder not only makes a glorious noise, but it has also been showing a fair turn of speed of late. Jeroen Bleekemolen’s 2:02.922 was a mere three-tenth’s off Sugden’s second-session best, and would have beaten the earlier showing. What a pity the Dutch team hasn’t been around for more of the season, as there’s no doubt that both the championship – and GruppeM’s drivers – would have welcomed the added zest their presence has brought to these final Middle Eastern rounds. Fourth place on the GT2 grid fell to the #86 GPC Ferrari 360, just ahead of Moro and Kaufmann in the #97 Lammertink Porsche.

Race
There is considerable enthusiasm for motorsport in some of these far-flung locations, and it is sometimes interesting to see how actively the local organisers promote their events. They also seem to do so much more in their efforts to attract spectators.

The promotional image for the final round of the FIA GT Championship (above) was unique, and included a view of a GruppeM Porsche. Out around the circuit much else was also done to keep the spectators happy while they waited for the track action to begin, with a broad variety of entertainment and activities. These included, for the first time ever in Bahrain, the opportunity to go bungee jumping . . . well, it’s not easy – or necessarily very elegant - in traditional Arabic costume. Other less revealing attractions included passenger rides on the Adventure Drive Arabia, the region’s top 4x4 course, as well as white-knuckle circuit action in Apache and Caterham racing cars. Younger spectators could visit the “Magic Island” area, with challenges like the inflatable bungee run, a bucking rodeo bull, a climbing wall and massive bouncy castle. Elsewhere, four huge Bedouin-style tents had been erected where local craftsmen were selling their wares, while professional entertainers – including clowns, stilt walkers, jugglers and costumed characters – mingled with the crowds. I mention this only to highlight the difference between these often well-attended meetings in countries not traditionally associated with motorsport and others nearer to home where spectator numbers sometimes fail to reach expectations. Lessons to be learned, perhaps?

No such lessons required within the GruppeM garage, where they’ve clearly got things honed to a fine art. However, having battled hard to secure pole, Mike Rockenfeller and Marc Lieb faced an uncertain time in the hours just before the race. After the end of second qualifying on Thursday it had become clear that the engine in car 66 wasn’t 100%, and the decision was taken to replace the unit before anything went seriously wrong. “For a time we thought we would have to start from the back of the grid,” said Mike Rockenfeller, but then a quick check with the organisers revealed an option that would still allow the champions to start from pole. “The rules say that if you qualify with one engine, and then change that for a new one, you must go to the back of the grid. Luckily, because we were replacing the broken engine with one that was already several races old, we didn’t have to start from the back.” Steve Bunkhall confirmed the details. “All the engines are sealed units. The engine we fitted went in fresh at Oschersleben, but hadn’t been rebuilt since. That meant it had already done five races.” It was a great relief, and allowed Rockenfeller to take up his rightful position on the inside of row eight, directly alongside Collard in the #88.

The race was scheduled to get under way at two-o’clock, local time, and would run for three hours. This would mean that the closing laps would be run in twilight, with the chequered flag dropping at five. The start, when it came, was a few seconds early, and began with a mad skirmish into Turn One. It was a bottleneck that offered some openings, and Emmanuel Collard was one of those to find a gap. “I was caught up behind a lot of other cars, and they were braking heavily onto the inside,” said Mike Rockenfeller, trapped amid the throng. “Manu, who was on my left, was able to go round the outside and overtake me.” One of those tripped up by the congestion was the #12 Labre Competition Ferrari 550, originally running seventh. It dropped back to fifteenth, becoming the filling in a GruppeM sandwich. “I wasn’t going to take any risks, not right at the start,” suggested Rockenfeller. “I knew we had been quicker all week – in practice and qualifying - so I felt confident I could make up the ground and we would have a good race.” By the end of the next lap he’d not only proved his point, by passing Collard, but the two Porsches were also showing the Ferrari a clean pair of heels. “I passed Manu into the last corner,” said Rockenfeller. “I braked late on the inside and slipped through.”

Once in front, and with clear track between him and the GT1 tail-enders ahead of him, Rocky was able to start building up a fair-sized lead. It grew at the rate of about two seconds every lap, and by lap ten it stood at as many seconds. Collard wasn’t running slowly, however, although he was finding that the car’s extra weight had not improved the tendency towards oversteer. Sadly, the anticipated challenge from the Spyker Squadron’s C8 never materialised, and by lap four the silver and orange Spyder had already retired with water-pump woes. This left the #86 GPC 360 in third place, some twenty seconds or more down the road, with the Labre 550 somewhere in between. Rockenfeller was enjoying himself. “It was very easy,” he said. “I pulled away quite quickly, and had a gap of fifteen seconds or so very soon.” Lap eighteen, in fact.

That became somewhat academic two laps later. “The radiator hose burst coming up to the main straight,” explained Adam Deborre. “Luckily Manu spotted it straight away and was able to dive down the pitlane at the last moment.” He trundled the Porsche slowly down the pitlane leaving a pitiful trail of fluid behind him. Although the oil flags were being shown, this wasn’t an oil leak, but a coolant problem for the GruppeM mechanics to fix. Unlike Dubai, where the broken pipe on the #66 was inaccessible without hoiking out the engine, the team was able to replace the broken hose on the #88, but not before the car had slipped four laps behind the class leaders. Sugden would take over driving duties and re-emerge in last place overall, confirming, as if there was any doubt, that good fortune clearly hasn’t smiled on the #88 this year. How often have we seen them suffer in this way? Their fantastic fight-back in the Spa 24 Hours comes to mind, and in terms of the proportion of the race remaining, they now faced an even greater challenge in Bahrain. Could they battle back into contention?

On pace alone they couldn’t catch Rockenfeller or Lieb, although there was a good chance they could regain considerable ground on the rest of the GT2 field. Tim set off with typical verve and determination, immediately throwing down a succession of laps that were among some of the fastest yet done in GT2, although nothing that could quite match Rockenfeller’s class best, who’d managed a 2:02.660 with full tanks on lap seven. That would remain his fastest for the first stint. On lap 31 he headed down the pitlane to hand over to Marc Lieb.

It proved to be a difficult pitstop. “Rocky was on his in-lap and we didn’t know there was a problem,” said Steve Bunkhall. “Adam [Deborre] was watching on the TV monitor, and saw one of the airjacks hanging down. It was his guys that brought the trolley jacks through, to make sure they were ready, and that was symptomatic of the whole season – hard fought but sporting.” The quick-thinking crew had the manual lift into service in a matter of moments, but by the time they’d changed the tyres and completed the stop, two valuable minutes had been lost. “We knew we would have to do pitstops like Nascar from then on,” said Rockenfeller, unsure how they’d face the next driver change for his closing stint.

It gives you come idea of the lead Rockenfeller had established when you learn that Lieb came back out onto the circuit still at the head of GT2, although almost within sight of Moccia in the #74 Ebimotors Porsche. Lieb’s second lap was a 2:02.423, and his fastest of the race. The delay in fitting those new tyres had been worth it, but would Rockenfeller be able to enjoy a similar treat when he stepped back into the #66? That was largely down to whether or not Lieb could build up enough of an advantage, and how well GruppeM thought the pit crew might cope with another manual wheel-change.

With only five laps out of thirty dipping into the two-oh-fours, Lieb’s stint was exemplary. Not only did he recover all the lost ground, but his lead stood at the equivalent of more than two full laps by the time he came back down towards the garage to hand back to Rockenfeller. “My stint was pretty boring,” shrugged Lieb. “I had nobody to race with, and I missed that. The weather was quite hot, but the car was so easy to drive I didn’t really even break a sweat. Doc did a really good job with the car, and that’s one thing we’re really proud of this season. At the start of the year we didn’t quite understand each other’s way of thinking, but it got better and better all though the year. Now we are working together really well, and that has made it much easier and great fun. This time Doc just told me to stay out there and save the tyres, thinking we might have problems with the pitstop and have to double-stint.”

It was lap 64 when he dived back down the pitlane. “Marc did a really good stint,” said a grateful Rockenfeller. “The gap was plenty big enough for us to change the tyres. The guys were fully prepared this time, and they did a really good stop, even with the manual jacks,” said Rockenfeller. “The second stop was so much quicker than the first,” agreed Lieb. “It was very impressive, actually. I think the guys enjoyed it!” They didn’t exactly rush, and they certainly took no risks, but it was all sufficiently slick to ensure that Rockenfeller came back out onto the circuit still leading and with time in hand. Not only that, but he had new tyres. “I was able to push a little bit,” he said modestly, when it was confirmed that he’d clocked 2:01.821. That wasn’t far short of his qualifying time.

By contrast, the #88 Porsche was in a less enviable position. Tim Sugden had taken over after the enforced stop for repairs to the cooling system and had worked hard to drag the car back up through the order. It was a huge deficit, but he had done well to move back into 19th position overall, seventh in GT2, by the time he handed the car back to Collard. The Frenchman then set-to in similar fashion, and the recovery continued. Had this been a longer race – a round of the LMES perhaps – then there’s little doubt that a podium was certainly possible, but with only an hour to go to the flag that seemed unlikely here, but that wasn’t preventing both drivers trying their utmost.

In the end, time ran out, but it was a valiant effort. Collard took the chequered flag in a very respectable 16th overall, fifth in GT2. Given a few more laps he might well have caught the Lammertink Porsche for fourth, but the podium was another lap beyond his reach. Not so Mike Rockenfeller, who sailed across the line to take a sixth win of the year for the #66 pairing, tenth overall. “It turned out quite easy for us,” he said later. “Perhaps if [Manu and Tim] had not had the problem with the water hose it might have been a very close race. We only had 25 kilos less, but speed wise we were definitely quicker, but with the airjack problem, well, you don’t know.” Adam Deborre was positive that the outcome would have been very different. “With their airjacks not working properly, each pitstop was taking a couple of minutes or more. Had we not had the radiator hose problem, we’d have won that race easily.”

Third went to Luca Drudi and Luca Pirri in the #86 GPC Sport Ferrari 360, with Luigi Moccia and Paolo Rapetti third in the #74 Ebimotors Porsche. Those six points meant that Moccia ended the year third (or fifth, depending on how you calculate these things) in the GT2 Drivers’ Championship on 55 points, 23 behind Tim Sugden and Emmanuel Collard, with Marc Lieb and Mike Rockenfeller rounding off their fantastic season with a total of 102. “It’s been a really good year – surprisingly good, in fact, since I didn’t do much in the US,” said Marc Lieb. “You could call it a perfect year,” he continued. “I won two twenty-four hour races; Le Mans and Spa, and then two championships, with the FIA GT and LMES, and that’s something very special. I was lucky to have good teams and good team-mates, and it has been so much fun. Yes, this has probably been the best season I’ve ever had.”

Mike Rockenfeller has shared much of Marc’s success, and also his co-driver’s high opinion of GruppeM. “We had only had one DNF this year, so we knew the car was always well prepared. That was the biggest point, so I have to say a big thanks to all the guys in the team, especially our engineers, Carl and Paul. They always gave us an excellent car. Thanks also to Marc, obviously. We both had to drive! I’d also like to thank the other two drivers for making it such a close season. They were always nice to work with, but they gave us a good fight. It’s a shame they were so unlucky. It made it easier for us, of course, but you want a good battle and a close championship. In the end, this year was just about who had more wins, and we had that by one. We were even on quickest race laps, I think, but one up also on poles. That shows how close it was, all the way. It would have been nice to have had both cars on the podium for the last race, but as a team, we still won every race.”

At the moment Mike has nothing sorted for next year, but Marc’s future is a little more established. It is not, however, one of retirement, as was widely, and erroneously reported in Autosport a few weeks ago. “That was bull***t!” he said, somewhat passionately. “I had a big argument about that yesterday, and we’ve sorted things out now, but that was all made up! It was not nice and not what I’d said and I’m definitely not retiring next year. I will still be a factory driver for Porsche, but I will also be continuing with my university career. I may do less races, perhaps, but I am still definitely a factory driver. Where I will race isn’t exactly settled, although it should be in the LMS, but not sure what team – although it will be a Porsche, but not the prototype - definitely GT. There will be a decision over the next few weeks, and then we can announce something.”

If Marc knows where he’s going, we’re not yet sure what the plans are for Kenny Chen and GruppeM. They’ve had a fantastic year, representing Porsche in the FIA GT Championship. Their outings in the LMES were less satisfying, perhaps, but leave a chapter unfinished, and one that Kenny may want re-written. There is also the tempting proposition of Le Mans next year, with one place assured on the grid for GruppeM in June, thanks to their winning performance in the FIA GT Championship. They wrapped up the teams’ title early on, with an accumulated total of 166 points and a margin of more than 120 over their nearest rivals.

That dominance generated some unjust criticism from various quarters, blaming the team for an apparent demise in GT2 at this level. It’s something both Adam Deborre and Steve Bunkhall are quick to counter. “We were accused of spoiling GT2 this year, but I believe the other teams just have to up their game,” says Deborre. “We just got more out of our drivers, and kept on pushing and developing the car. If you compared our times with those of Freisinger last year, it was pretty even. I think there were a couple of circuits where Freisinger were quicker than us, but they had far more from the factory than we’ve had. We never had the same degree of support.” The importance of the drivers was something that Steve Bunkhall (right, on the podium) has also been keen to stress. “We have a stellar driver line-up,” he said. “If the other factories could look towards helping out with the other teams, we could find four or five cars next year with good drivers, and everyone would be enthusiastic again.” As for the suggestions that the faster teams should be penalised, either by added ballast, smaller restrictors, or other devious means: “Would the FA ask Manchester United to play with eight players just to give the others a chance? I think not! I seriously believe that it’s just one of the cycles you see in racing from time to time,” continued Bunkhall. “We hear Ferrari is coming back, so imagine a grid with two or three new Ferraris and two Spykers, and suddenly people will be saying, isn’t GT2 great.” Deborre agrees. “The Spyker has shown considerable promise, and they have developments planned for next year. If they come in with a couple of cars, and if the new 430s come in as well, and we can maintain our relationships with Porsche and Michelin, then we could have a classic year in GT2. Two Spykers, two Ferraris and our two Porsches would be the recipe for a real ding-dong championship.”

In the run-up to Christmas we’ll be looking back over GruppeM’s season and thinking ahead to what lies in store for this hugely successful team in 2006. In the meantime, we wish everyone associated with the team every success for the future, and also offer a final word of congratulations to one of the team’s youngest drivers; Jonathan Cocker, who followed his 2004 British GT title with GruppeM by winning the Porsche Carrera Cup Asia. All in all, it has been an amazing year for Kenny Chen and GruppeM.
Marcus Potts