Gruppe M LMES Round 3 - Silverstone 1000 Kilometers
August 12th-13th 2005

For any other team with a less professional outlook, the schizophrenic lifestyle that GruppeM’s personnel are forced to follow would be totally bewildering. One week they’re running two Porsche 996 GT3-RSRs in the FIA GT Championship, and a fortnight later they’re preparing another two completely different - yet confusingly similar - cars in the Le Mans Endurance Series. The only common denominator, at least on track, is Tim Sugden. This weekend he’s sharing the #88 GruppeM Porsche with his racing partner of last season’s British GT Championship, Jonathan Cocker. Making a second appearance in Europe, and sharing the #86 Porsche, was the Hong Kong duo of Matthew Marsh and Darryl O’Young.

Both pairings were looking on Silverstone to break a run of bad luck that has dogged GruppeM throughout this season’s LMES, from round one at Spa, where Sugden and Cocker (the solo entry for GruppeM on that occasion) failed to finish after engine problems, and then through round two at Monza, where neither car finished. Despite this, the Italian race was still an encouraging debut for the Noble Group-backed #86, with O’Young qualifying seventh on his first appearance at this level, and then Marsh running fifth, before a massive blow-out sent him spinning into the gravel at the Ascari corner.

Free Practice
Having lead their class in both previous races before retirement, Sugden and Cocker arrived at Silverstone with much to prove, but matters didn’t get off to a hugely encouraging start. The four practice sessions on Friday each brought woes of varying magnitude to both GruppeM cars. Tim Sugden could only manage eighth in class in the day’s opening forty minutes, and was bettered by Matthew Marsh in the #86, who was well pleased with a best of 1:55.127 to stand fourth in GT2. “The car was oversteering quite a lot from the very beginning,” said Sugden. “But we didn’t do a lot of running in that first session anyway, with everything being so new.” This was a reference to the fact that the car had been extensively rebuilt since the last outing at Monza, where a rare strut failure had ended the #88’s race somewhat prematurely.

By early afternoon the positions had been reversed, with the #88 moving up to third in class after Sugden achieved 1:53.771, but matters were still not right with the car. “It was just the same as before,” bewailed the frustrated Sugden. “We’d made a whole stack of changes, but they’d made no appreciable difference. There was still this oversteer problem, and on top of that, we were also having problems with the gear cut (on the sequential gearbox). It would work fine for a lap or so, and then revert to the default setting. Each time we pitted, it reset again. That was when we realised that the oversteer problem might be related.” The team was now sure that the handling was being compromised by a fault in the differential, and made the agonising decision to remove the engine and fit a new transmission unit. “It was a huge step to take,” explained Sugden, “but we couldn’t afford to embark on another race knowing there was a possibility of something already going wrong.”

The #88 has been running a Ricardo gearbox this season, and the drivers really appreciate the ‘box. Apart from anything else, the Ricardo unit offers a gear-cut that operates within 32 milliseconds. The standard unit – and the one they’d have to replace it with – cuts in 75 milliseconds. To the uninitiated this sounds like a modest distinction, but over the course of a full lap here at Silverstone it can equate to half a second, and that’s the difference between pole and the second row. Making the swap, however, is not a straightforward process. Once the engine is out, all the mountings, linkages and ancillaries also have to be replaced before the more standard box can be installed, so it was a laborious chore for the #88 mechanics as they toiled through most of Friday – and right through the day’s third session – in order to have the car ready for a run in the evening.

That left only the #86 to fly the flag for GruppeM (and Hong Kong) in the afternoon, but it fluttered only briefly, as did the engine - all too literally. A misfire brought Darryl O’Young back into the pitlane after a mere two laps. “We’ve had some electrical problems,” suggested O’Young. “I felt there was something wrong straight away, so came straight back in again. I’m sure we’ll have it fixed for the night session.” It was especially frustrating for the Chinese driver, who had been growing in confidence as he became more accustomed to the Silverstone circuit. This is his first experience of the British track. “I was just starting to get the hang of it towards the end of the second session,” he said, “so I was really looking forward to getting out there again.” Steve Bunkhall later confirmed that the problem had been traced to a fault in the electrics, and was easily fixed by the simple replacement of all the plugs and ignition leads.

If all this is new to Darryl, Matthew Marsh is no stranger to Silverstone. He can trace his enthusiasm for motorsport all the way back to the days when he came here to watch the Group C races as a schoolboy, and has raced here many times since. Even so, the move up to this level causes Matthew to admit that he still has a lot to learn. “I’ll never be as quick as someone like Tim,” he concedes. “It is so good to be able to talk to someone like him. I can ask his advice, and he gives it! He has already helped me enormously, and I’m already going a lot quicker than I was. He’s talked me through some of the corners; explained where I can find more speed. It’s great to have someone like Tim on the team. He helps us all.”

Finding that speed was not to happen in the day’s final session, since setting quick laps was not the issue. With the race itself scheduled to run well into the dark of Saturday evening, all drivers were required to complete a minimum of three laps in similar conditions on Friday – in effect, an out-lap, a single flyer, and then a return to the pitlane. Many teams chose to do that and little more, but GruppeM’s tribulations of earlier in the day meant that they would be one of the few to take advantage of the full hour.

Although the #86 car’s misfire had been cured, Darryl and Mathew still needed more time in the car. “They did four timed laps each,” confirmed Steve Bunkhall, who oversees the Noble Group #86 at LMES weekends. “Neither of them has raced here in the dark before. In fact, it’s Darryl’s first run of any kind in the dark, so it was important to give them as much opportunity to experience what it’s like around here at night. Tomorrow only one of them is likely to be driving actually in the dark, but it’s important that they both know what to expect.” Half an hour later, the car was back in the garage, job done. “The car’s now working well,” grinned Bunkhall with relief and satisfaction. “We’re now very happy with the way it’s going, so there’s no need to keep pounding round.”

Adam Deborre, running the #88 as usual, had no such satisfaction. His two drivers were out there right to the bitter end, attempting to address the ongoing issues of the car’s handling. Tim started the session, but handed over to Jonathan Cocker after about twenty minutes. “Jonny hasn’t done many laps in the dark,” was the explanation. The youngster had been on GruppeM’s Spa 24 Hours squad last year, but the car had retired before he could do any stints through the night, so the team was allowing him every opportunity to prepare for this weekend’s race. The problem the team now faced, however, was one of having to undo all the “fixes” they’d attempted during their search for the root cause of the oversteer. “It’s like we’d been giving the car too many pills to cure a headache,” said Tim Sugden. “Now we’re having to take them away again, one at a time, in an attempt to restore the balance.” Friday night, in the dark, was neither the ideal time nor place to attempt that, but they did make some progress.

Qualifying
They’re a democratic lot at GruppeM, and with Darryl having qualified the #86 at Monza, it would be Matthew’s turn at Silverstone. Similarly, Jonathan Cocker would be given a chance to qualify the #88. “I’m really looking forward to it,” said a visibly enthused Cocker. “It puts me under a bit of pressure, but I know what I have to do. I was as quick as Tim in the dark last night, so I’m hopeful. We’ll just have to see how it goes.”

The GruppeM cars were not the first out on track, and Andrew Kirkaldy had already thrown down the gauntlet in GT2 by the time the two Porsches were heading down the pitlane. The Ferrari topped the screen with a 1:53, briefly lost it to the #82 TVR, and then reclaimed the top slot with a 1:51.778. He’d then better that with a 1:51.713 and call it a day, confident that half a second was a safe margin. What could GruppeM achieve?

Jonathan Cocker’s first flyer was a 1:55.529, and that looked quite encouraging, being enough for fifth, amidst a group that had already completed several more laps than the GruppeM car. The next lap was slow, at over two minutes, and could be attributed to ‘looking for space’, but when his next was only a modest improvement on his first, at 1:55.197, there were some concerned looks in the garage. That concern appeared fully justified when Tim Sugden appeared, helmeted and suited and clearly ready to step aboard. Cocker and the #88 duly arrived in the pitlane, where the two drivers completed a swift exchange, leaving Tim with a mere five minutes before the session closed. The car had dropped down the order to ninth in GT2, and the expression on Cocker’s face as he pulled off his helmet told its own story. Gone was the familiar cheeky grin, and in its place there was the furrowed brow and dead-pan eyes of someone with a lot on his mind. Perhaps he was concerned that people might think the car’s poor standing was his fault, but he needn’t have worried. Sugden only had time for two flying laps, and the best he could manage was a 1:56.273. Clearly there was something seriously wrong.

Heads-together at the back of the garage, Adam Deborre and his drivers discussed the problem. It appeared that the car was not handling well at all, and while the understeer was now in hand, the Porsche was now porpoising badly. “We’re running out of time,” said Steve Hagger. “There’s no more testing left. Our next session is the race.” They would try to find the cause, and address it, but when the car headed out again there was no second chance. By comparison, the Hong Kong car was running far better. Matthew Marsh had started with a 1:57, but his first true flyer was a 1:54.480, followed next by a marginal improvement at 1:54.435. It would prove good enough for seventh.

So the GruppeM Gremlins appear to have struck again. The team that dominates the FIA GT Championship just can’t seem to carry their good luck through to the LMES. “They’re always different problems,” insists Adam Deborre, “and they’re always pretty unique. We’ve never had a diff problem on a Ricardo gearbox in five years. We’ve never had a strut fail, like we had at Monza, and the broken rod at Spa was another first. Each failure has been one of those things that ‘never happens’. Yet we know that the car is inherently good. Tim did a 1:53 on Friday in a car that had a partially solid back axle and tons of understeer. We know the car’s good, and the really frustrating thing is, nobody can say we’ve not been quick. We had pole at Spa, we led the (GT2) race at Monza, and we could have won both. The car and driver combination is the most consistent out there, but it never seems to come together.” One day the dice have got to roll in GruppeM’s favour, but we’re still waiting.
Marcus Potts