Gruppe M- FIA GT Championship - Oschersleben
FIA GT Championship Round 7
GT2 Team Champions

To the evident delight of Kenny Chen, team owner at GruppeM, the squad wrapped up the GT2 team title in the 2005 FIA GT Championship at Oschersleben on August 28, with another impressive one-two result for the two-car squad. For an outfit that has dominated a championship so comprehensively that the FIA has even altered the rulebook, GruppeM has been going through a rough patch these past few weeks and was desperate for exactly this kind of result. Two rounds of the LMES without a finish, one including the writing-off of a much treasured chassis, and the loss of another car during the Spa 24 Hours, made for a month of hard work back at the workshops – on those few days when the team was actually given enough time to return there. With so many back-to-back events, some of GruppeM’s personnel have been living out of suitcases since June, and they arrived in Oschersleben looking for a return to good fortune and the easy-running days of early season. It seems they found it, but Round Seven was not without incident; highlighting the close rivalry within the squad and the evenly-matched nature of the two pairs of GruppeM drivers.

The #88 had been fully rebuilt after the original chassis – the one that won the British GT title for GruppeM in 2004 - suffered terminally in a major accident during the Spa 24 Hours. With the Silverstone LMES race in between, there had been little time to prep the car ahead of the first day of free practice at Oschersleben, but Tim Sugden and Emmanuel Collard still had the opening Friday session ‘all to themselves’, after the #66 encountered a minor gearbox glitch, Tim (below) and Emmanuel comfortably topping the GT2 timing screen with a best of 1:28.625.

By the afternoon, however, Mike Rockenfeller and Marc Lieb had something to play with, and came out to claim the top spot with an impressive 1:27.772, two-tenths quicker than their team-mates. Their combined advantage within the class looked unapproachable, with nearly three seconds separating the two GruppeM Porsches from the third-quickest GT2 runner, the Ebimotors 996 of Busnelli and Moccia. Even so, there was still a lot to play for between the four drivers themselves, and with a 75 kilo differential, it was going to be a test of character for the two Germans in car 66.

A win at Spa, alongside a lowly (yet remarkable) result for Sugden and Collard, had meant a huge extra dollop of lead for the #66, and it would hamper their pace all weekend. That became evident when qualifying started on Saturday morning. An early 1:27.614 from Sugden sent the #88 to the top of the GT2 screen, but Mike Rockenfeller bettered that with his second lap of 1:27.473. Sugden made a brief pitstop, then went emphatically faster. His next flying lap was a stunning 1:26.952 – the first and only time any of the GT2 cars would duck under the twenty-seven second marker. “That felt good!” said Sugden afterwards. “It always is when you are on pole! We had no problems here, and we wanted to be quick; we’ve had so much bad luck in the last few races. We made one or two little changes, we altered the rear bar a little bit and then I went out and had a clear lap.” Provisionally at least, GT2 pole seemed beyond reach, even for the likes of Rockenfeller. Mike responded with a spirited 1:27.202 to move within a few tenths, and continued to plug away for the rest of the session, but couldn’t get any closer. “The 75kg penalty makes it difficult to beat a lighter car, but Tim did a great lap. I still tried my best,” said Rockenfeller in the press conference. “In the race, the penalty weight will make it even more difficult as the tyres will wear quicker. At the end, the one with better luck will win. So far this year, Tim and Manu have been really unlucky, which is why the gap in the Championship is so big. Our goal is to finish the race – first would be perfect, but we will be happy with second.”

By early afternoon, with the conditions dry and sunny, the track temperature had risen and conditions were significantly slower. Only three cars made any improvement, and even those were marginal. Sugden still emerged quickest in GT2, but a best of 1:28.959 was all of two seconds off his earlier time. Rockenfeller was similarly afflicted, and could only manage a 1:29.254. Third up, and confirming its status as best of the rest this season, came the Ebimotors 996, this time a mere one-point-five seconds adrift.

If all this suggested that things were going to be boring in GT2, then think again. It only takes two to tango, and a pair of very closely-matched cars can also make a highly entertaining duel. Perhaps that’s one stipulation the FIA has got wrong; by insisting that cars within a team must look so similar. A little more differentiation between liveries, and the spectators might be in a better position to appreciate the finer points of intra-team rivalry - and there’s no shortage of that within GruppeM. Just over half-way through the season, and Lieb and Rockenfeller lead the championship, but Collard and Sugden are not out of the running. Oschersleben was going to be their opportunity to close the gap, and the Frenchman especially was determined to make the most of it. Fastest again in Sunday warm-up proved that.

Race
So the two GruppeM Porsches lined up fourteenth and fifteenth on the grid for Sunday’s start, but not side-by-side. The cut had given Sugden, starting the #88, an edge by placing him on row seven, alongside the #4 Konrad Saleen. Rockenfeller, first stinting the #66, would start directly behind the GT1 car, but with two others to his right and the G2 Balfe Mosler directly behind. Boxed in by cars with more grunt would prove to be a significant disadvantage when the lights turned green. Sugden, way out on the right, had a clear run, and was able to find the space he needed to slot in behind the Lamborghini Murcielago of Norman Simon, and lie thirteenth as they completed the opening lap, retaining that despite losing a place to the recovering Konrad Saleen on lap two, as Simon spun. No such luck for Rockenfeller. The Saleen’s poor start had baulked the Porsche into Turn One and allowed Balfe through in a neat move up the inside. Similarly, while detained by the yellow and black S7, Rocknfeller watched helplessly as both the #23 Wieth Racing 550 Maranello and the #20 RAM Racing Saleen slipped through on his right, following the unhindered Sugden. “The lights went green, and I tried to accelerate, but he just didn’t go on the power,” said Rockenfeller later. “I had to brake again. I tried my best, but I wasn’t going to take too much risk at the start of the race. Tim took more risk, and he was lucky.” By the end of the first lap Rockenfeller had got back ahead of the Mosler, but still had the frustration of seeing three GT1 cars between himself and Sugden.

Some of that balance was redressed on the sixth lap, when the #23 Ferrari encountered brake problems and was forced into an early pitstop, but a simultaneous best-GT2-lap-of-the-race from Tim Sugden of 1:28.322 ensured that the gap between the two GruppeM cars remained steady at around five seconds. For the time being the Ram Racing Saleen remained the filling in the GruppeM sandwich, until clutch problems sidelined the car on lap 12. Moments later the #3 575 GPC Ferrari also pitted with damaged bodywork, leaving Sugden in 12th and Rockenfeller eight seconds behind in 13th.

Although the #88 was clearly the quicker of the two cars, and easing away steadily, the difference between their pace was perhaps not as significant as 75 kilos might have suggested, and Sugden was only able to pull away to the tune of half a second or so each lap. That extended slightly on lap eighteen, when the recovering Simon in the Lamborghini muscled through on Rockenfeller, and extended the gap to nearly ten seconds. “I tried to give him room,” insisted Rocky, “but when he overtook me on the back straight he pushed me wide onto the dirt. That gave me a lot of pickup, and I lost grip for a couple of laps. We are not the kind of drivers in GruppeM who try to block the GT1 drivers. We know what to do, and we give them room, but he wasn’t very nice! I had a lot of problems with traffic in that first stint!” Simon’s pass on Sugden six laps later was a far cleaner move, accentuating the differential, but with a thirty second lead already established over the next-placed contender (the Balfe Motorsport Mosler) and third in GT2 long-since lapped by Sugden, it was clearly going to be another two-horse race.

Matters had settled down by lap thirty, with the two GT2 leaders running thirteenth and fourteenth overall, and lapping in similar times; typically 1:29 or 1:30. Then, with forty laps completed, Rockenfeller headed for the pitlane to hand over to Marc Lieb. “I was about fifteen seconds behind when I pitted,” admitted Rockenfeller. “We also took the pitstop a little early.” The race was just short of an hour old. “It was a really good pitstop,” said his partner. “Mike had done a fantastic in-lap, and I had a good out-lap, and we made up some ground. It’s very difficult to stay in front with the extra 75 kilos, and it was making a huge difference.”

It was indeed a quick and efficient stop for the #66, bringing Lieb back out on track just behind Sugden, who had yet to pit. Although a lap apart, the two GruppeM cars continued to battle it out, Lieb having a discernible pace advantage over Sugden at this point. “I was pushing really, really hard, and catching him,” admitted Lieb. “I wanted to try and get in front after their pitstop, and I could see that Tim’s tyres were going away.” There was no doubt that the Yorkshireman’s rubber had suffered, and he was keen to hand over to Emmanuel Collard. The call came at the end of lap 48, but Tim’s in-lap was hampered when he come across a spinning Lister Storm; the encounter costing him several seconds, and then leaving him not knowing quite how hard he could push for the remainder of the lap. To top that, he then overshot the box as he swept in to the pitlane, catching one of the team a glancing blow and setting up an awkward misalignment for the refueller. “Mike and Marc know this circuit a bit better than Tim,” explained race engineer Adam Deborre. “They can push, so we lost a few seconds on the in-lap. Then Tim overshot the box by a few inches – it was my fault, I moved the board back a bit too soon - and the refueller was out of place, so that also cost us. In fact, it all went a bit pear-shaped from then on, and the delay cost us the lead.”

All in all, it was a slow stop for the normally exemplary crew, and the truth of this became evident when Collard emerged back on track to discover that a fifteen second advantage had evaporated, and he was now staring at the tail of Lieb’s Porsche.

The Frenchman set off in hot pursuit, exploiting not only his marginally fresher tyres, but also the significantly lighter car, to bear down rapidly on the #66. Catching Lieb was one thing, passing quite another, especially with two such evenly-matched combinations. They were running nose-to-tail in fourteenth and fifteenth, both moving up a slot when the late-stopping Mosler pitted on lap 52, and then another place when the #4 Saleen made a lengthy pitstop on lap 62. Lieb was doing a masterful job of fending off Collard’s attentions, but the frustration was starting to take its toll. When Lieb ran just a little wider than usual at Turn Three, at the start of lap sixty-three, Collard seized his opportunity. “He was never able to outbrake me, so could never be next to me, but he just touched my rear left rear with his front right bumper,” clarified Lieb. “The car started to slide, but I was able to steer against that, but then he accelerated again, and pushed me for several metres, got me off line, and then passed me. I nearly ended up in the gravel. If he had been next to me I’d have opened the door for sure, but he went on the throttle and pushed me through the whole corner. Not very nice, especially between team-mates,” he added with an almost audible shrug. “It’s really difficult to overtake on this track,” said an unrepentant Collard. “We had a small contact, that was all.”

Back in the garage, other members of the team saw events unfold. “I watched it all on screen,” said Lieb’s team-mate. “The other car was quicker – with the kilos it should be, and Marc tried to hold him back, but he was always very fair. Marc was a little on the outside, there was a little gap, and Manu saw that, but he wasn’t really close enough to make the pass. They were not side-by-side. If you touch another car with your front bumper, you’re not next to him! There shouldn’t be a penalty, but it’s not something you should do between team-mates. The first touch was OK, but to go on power was not nice.” Adam Deborre, running the #88 again this weekend, had a slightly different viewpoint. “Marc was driving very defensively, but it all looked fair,” he said. “The car’s are so equal that the only advantage we had was the weight. Manu had to force the move. Marc messed up the apex on one corner, Manu saw the opportunity, and went for it.” Steve Bunkhall, tending the #66 as usual, was in a charitable mood. “The guys were racing, and perhaps Manu was a little bit more aggressive than he might have been, but it happens.”

Once in front, Collard was able to pull away – to the tune of one or two seconds each lap. “Marc had lost his rhythm after that,” explained Rockenfeller. “Of course, you don’t like it when something like that happens to you. It plays on your mind. Marc’s rear tyre was also touching the bumper, so he was taking it carefully.” On lap sixty-five the Lister pitted from 11th for a second stop-go penalty, incurred for crossing the white line at the pit exit, allowing both GruppeM cars through, and thereby set up a period of consolidation and stability for the two Porsches. It all became somewhat routine, with Collard and (a still indignant) Lieb circulating in eleventh and twelfth overall. And so it remained as the race entered its final hour, with third place in GT2 being held by the #69 Porsche of the Proton pairing of Rieds, already four laps down on the leaders.

Lieb pitted soon afterwards to hand the #66 car back to Mike Rockenfeller. “Marc was unlucky at the pit entry with a slow Ferrari, and that cost us another few seconds,” bemoaned an increasingly frustrated Rockenfeller, who responded in suitable style with his fastest lap of the race: 1:28.753.

Seven laps later, Emmanuel Collard came in to complete his middle stint (Tim Sugden ready, above, Adam Deborre in th ebackground), returning the #88 to Tim Sugden. This time it was a more typical stop for the leaders, allowing Sugden to resume the race still holding on to a very comfortable margin. Aside from benefiting from the misfortune of others; the #9 having a starter problem and the #17 a sticky wheelnut, both gifting places to the GT2 front-runners, it was an uneventful final hour. Sugden, his lead secure, was even able to ease back over the final handful of laps, dropping his pace well below the one-thirty mark, and sometimes slipping into the thirty-twos or threes. “I told Tim he could ease off over the last few laps,” confirmed Adam. “There was a point when I told him Mike had just done a 29.5, and on the next lap Tim did a 29.4, so we knew he had plenty in reserve if we needed it.” Rockenfeller was trying his best, but the weight was telling. “I was pushing really, really hard,” he insisted. “I wanted to get a bit closer at the end.”

The chequered flag dropped after 121 laps of racing, with Tim Sugden taking a first win for himself and Manu since Round 4 at Imola.

Rounding off the top ten, Mike Rockenfeller was satisfied, but in no way delighted, to finish second. “Without the 75 kilos, they wouldn’t have had a chance. We were better than them!” he declared. He’d finished seven laps clear of the third-placed Proton Porsche in fifteenth - a string of GT1 cars and the Balfe Mosler splitting the GT2 pack. “With the extra 75 kilos, we did well to keep the pace,” said Rockenfeller. “It was a good race, though. We tried everything, but we weren’t just lucky enough. To be honest, I didn’t expect to win, but at the end we only dropped two points, and that’s what’s important for the championship.” His co-driver agreed. “I think this weekend, without the 75 kilos, we’d have been way quicker,” said Lieb. “Mike did an excellent job in qualifying, and Doc gave us a fantastic car. In every way, the team did a fantastic job. We were very happy with our performance, but we could not get near enough to a win. If you’d asked me on Wednesday or Thursday, I would never have thought we could be within a second of the 88. In the end, we were far closer than we expected. When I look back on this tomorrow, I’ll probably be happier.”

Kenny Chen joined his drivers on the podium.

Steve Bunkhall, ever pragmatic, recognised the result for what it was; an excellent second place for the heavyweights. “For a while we could see a chance for us to win, so perhaps we feel a little disappointed, but it was really just a case of maximising points for the championship. With the extra 75 kilos we came here looking for second, and that’s what we got. Under the circumstances we were a lot closer than we expected to be, and both drivers did exceptionally well, but then so did the #88.”

Next stop for the team is another round of the LMES at the Nurburgring. This time just one car will fly the flag for GruppeM. Following his sizeable accident at Silverstone, Tim’s beloved ex-EMKA Porsche will not be racing again, and with the Yorkshireman committed to a drive in the ALMS at Mosport, Jonathan Cocker will be without a seat. It also looks unlikely that the duo will be around for the final round at Istanbul in November as well. As a result the ACO has given GruppeM special dispensation to re-designate the Noble Group car as number 88. “It was always nice to have two cars,” said Karen Coombes, assistant team manager with the squad, “but it’s just one of those things. The Chinese car will become #88. It’s supposed to be luckier! In fact, the Hong Kong government was surprised that the English car was running #88 and the Chinese was #86, but Tim and Jonny had been in the championship since the start of the season, so had precedence. When we asked the ACO, they agreed to let us swap over and run the Hong Kong car as #88 for the rest of the year. We’re very grateful.”

The team was scheduled to stay in Oschersleben for two days after the race to complete their preparation work on the Noble Group car, with only a new engine left to fit when the truck arrives at the Nurburgring later this week. Then they have just three days between the end of that race and their departure for round eight of the FIA GT Championship in Turkey. “There will only be 30 kilos between us next time,” grinned Rockenfeller. “We get rid of 25, they get another 20 added in, so that should make it closer, and we’ll have a good chance to beat them.” If he and Marc do win, then that’s the title wrapped up, but they have to finish well down the order – and see Collard and Sugden victorious - to give the #88 drivers any chance at all. It will be the perfect venue for a showdown, however. Everyone in the team is looking forward to seeing the new Istanbul circuit. None of the drivers has raced on the new track before, but having watched the recent F1 race there with avid interest, they are all, to a man, eager to get to grips with what is being hailed as one of the best drivers’ circuits in the world. “It looks really good,” enthused Rockenfeller. “A lot of fast corners, and up and down, and some good overtaking opportunities. I’m really looking forward to it.” Lieb agreed. “It looks brilliant! I can’t wait to go there.”

GruppeM will arrive as 2005 FIA GT2 teams champions.
Marcus Potts