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

Race
On Saturday morning we were discussing the run of bad luck that has followed GruppeM throughout their LMES season, and suggesting that it was time the tide turned in their favour. Before the end of the day we’d know that fate had frowned once again on the squad, yet bitterly so. We’ve followed many teams over the years, here at dailysportscar, but don’t think we can ever recall such sustained misfortune as has befallen GruppeM over the first three rounds of this year’s LMES. It was hard to believe it could get worse, yet it did . . .

After qualifying in the morning, it was evident that the #88 car faced an uphill struggle, even before the race had begun. The awkward handling that had manifested itself on Friday evening as a bone-jarring bounce was still there, despite the team’s endeavours to isolate and cure the cause. Jonathan Cocker, taking the start for the race, radioed in to the team on his out-lap to say that the vibration – or whatever it was – had not gone away. He made his way round to the grid nonetheless, knowing there was nothing the team could do before the race began, but agreeing to pit at the earliest opportunity. There were disconsolate looks on the faces of the #88 pitcrew as they gathered round the car, and their demeanour wasn’t helped by the weather. They weren’t the only ones. You had to feel sorry for the grid girls. Lycra’s an unforgiving material, especially when there’s not a lot of it, but when the wind’s blowing and the rain’s falling in a relentless, chilly drizzle, it’s not easy to look glamorous. Some tried, most failed, and they were stuck there for more than half an hour.

The mood around the #86 Noble Group Porsche was a little more buoyant. Darryl was psyching himself up for his first LMES race start, and it would take some guts to contemplate being just one small Porsche amid a field of forty-six cars. Not making that any easier was knowing that the rain had been falling for the best part of three hours, and was due to carry on for another three as well, so visibility from the eighteenth row would be negligible and conditions treacherous. Even so, he managed to look confident, smiling and taking on board the last-minute advice from Steve Bunkhall and his co-driver, Matthew Marsh.

At least Darryl and Jonathan had been warned by their team that the race would begin with two green-flag laps, so were ready for the second lap when it came. One or two others had to make a swift stab on the brakes as they came out of Woodcote, having been expecting the lights to go green and start racing. Luckily there were no incidents, but there were some close calls. It would also mean a late start, with the pace car not pulling aside until seven after four, but when it did, the result would be awesome. Vast plumes of spray erupted into the sky as the leaders broke for Copse, a thick Niagran mist blocking out the view for drivers and spectators alike. Only Nicolas Minassian, quick to take the lead in the Creation DBA, had a clear line of sight to the track ahead, while everyone else was faced by a wall of spray. Amazingly, there were very few incidents.

Despite the novelty of his situation, Darryl made a strong start, and picked up a couple of places on the opening lap, although he was probably unaware of it at the time! “I’m not that familiar with the circuit, and especially not in the wet,” he said, “so I took the first few laps very cautiously. It felt like these other guys had a lot more experience in the rain than me, and several got away from me.” In actual fact, very few did, and he was maintaining a very respectable pace. “I was focusing hard on each corner, trying to judge the braking point through the spray, and by the eighth lap I was doing some decent times. Once the track started to dry a little, I was able to start overtaking again.” The facts tend to tell a different story, and the Chinese driver began his overtaking a little sooner, having passed six cars on lap two alone! Some of those were the more unfortunate ones who’d suffered mishaps in the spray, but the rest were his rivals on the track. “I felt it was going rather well,” he said.

Not so Jonathan Cocker. He headed straight back into the pits at the end of the second lap. He was only there for a couple of minutes – long enough to lose a lap, but little more – before he was sent out again, confirmation ringing in his ears that there was nothing the team could do, and he’d have to battle on regardless. He’d resume second-to-last, but it was tough going. After another eight laps of discomfort and frustration, he headed back into the pitlane, where Tim Sugden was waiting, suited and helmet, ready to see if he could bring his experience to bear. It was soon evident that even the Yorkshireman’s skill and insight couldn’t find a quick fix. There wasn’t one. The duo would have to press on regardless and make the most of a bad deal, although Tim’s pace did steadily begin to improve.

O’Young wasn’t exactly enjoying himself – nobody with any sense could say that driving through torrential rain, aquaplaning from one puddle to the next, while squinting through a misty windscreen could be described as fun – but at least he was making progress. He’d latched onto the back of Phil Hindley, who was moving rapidly in the Tech 9 Porsche, and followed the blue and silver #97 through the mist. It netted him another position, and by lap eight, while Sugden was strapping himself into the #88, Darryl moved into 28th place overall.

Not long after this, with confidence growing, he did his fastest lap so far at 2:18.266. Tim Sugden, languishing in 40th place overall, was already three laps down on the lead, but his pace was picking up too. His fourteenth lap was a 2:16.240, followed two laps later by a 2:12.911. It would prove to be the #88’s fastest lap of the race, but bordering on the limit of its ability under prevailing conditions. Next time around Sugden was forced wide by the combination of rampant oversteer and slippery track and pitched off into the gravel. He made a precautionary visit to the pitlane that cost another lap, but was able to resume without further delay. There was no choice. They’d simply have to take it steady, and cope with the handling as best they could. It was depressingly frustrating.

O’Young’s progress continued unabated. As the race neared half an hour, he moved into 26th spot, and then, on lap 21, overtook Simonsen in the #98 James Watt Porsche to claim 24th. That was fourteen places in a little over thirty minutes, although some of these were GT1 and LMP cars dealing with problems and incidents. Over the next minutes several of those would climb back up through the pack, depriving O’Young of some of his gains, but he would still complete the opening hour in 25th place overall, a respectable 8th in GT2. Tim Sugden, who might have been fully justified in thinking that leading the class by the end of the first hour might have been a more fitting reflection of his and the car’s true ability, would instead find himself 37th overall, 15th in GT2, and five laps off the lead. Instead it would be his regular FIA team-mate, Marc Lieb, who would be watching the Sebah Automotive Porsche, with co-driver Xavier Pompidou at the wheel leading GT2, an impressive 9th overall.

Amazingly, despite the conditions, the race had progressed thus far without any major incidents. That was about to change, and a new phase began with the first deployment of the Safety Car on lap 29. In effect, it would become an almost permanent feature of the race for the next two or three hours, only disappearing occasionally for brief interludes between torrential rain and the next accident. During this period, Sugden moved up to 36th, and O’Young pressed on into 22nd. It was building up into a good run for the Hong Kong supported car, although twenty-five year-old Darryl was finding it exceptionally testing. “Occasionally it felt as if the tyres were going off, there was so little grip. Coming down the main straight there were times when I was looking at both walls alternately as the car aquaplaned from side to side.” He was managing to enjoy himself, and as he came to terms with the unfamiliar track and demanding conditions, even found himself able to race alongside those that had been coping with this kind of thing for years. “I was dicing with the GT2 leader for a lap or two without realising who it was,” he said. “It’s difficult to tell who’s behind you sometimes, but he got passed me, and I was able to stick with him.” This put O’Young in the prime seat to witness Pompidou’s embarrassment, when the Frenchman went straight on at Abbey and buried the Porsche in the gravel. It was a brief pause in an otherwise stately progress, but proved that anyone can make mistakes in such appalling weather.

That, unfortunately, was as good as it was going to get for O’Young. Another safety car period started as the leader completed lap 35, and Darryl slowed to join the queue. “That’s when I started to hear strange noises from the gearbox,” he said. “A couple of laps later they waved the green flag, and that’s when the gearbox let go. I couldn’t find first or second, but Steve told me to look for third, and it worked. I was able to come back to the pitlane by slipping the clutch.”

“We were hoping it was something like a driveshaft,” said the #86’s race engineer. “We could have fixed that in 20 minutes, but it wasn’t.” Instead it was instant retirement for the Noble Group entry, with a broken gearbox. “I feel so disappointed for the team,” said the disconsolate Darryl. “It was all starting to go so well.”

His co-driver, Matthew Marsh, was able to find plenty about Darryl’s run to give him optimism for the future, even if he’d never actually had a chance to drive. “There are lots of positives to draw from the weekend,” he insisted. “First of all, Darryl did a great job in the car – really great. He’s done very little car racing compared to most of the other guys out there, and he’s certainly never started a race in conditions like these. He couldn’t even see the green light! It would have been so easy to make an error, yet he didn’t. Maybe it’s also good that we have these disappointments when we’re not actually losing a huge amount. It’s not like we were heading for the podium or anything. It’s incredibly difficult to get to the end in these races, and we need to learn that. In the race programme it says we’re ‘on the pace’. People may see us as a couple of odd blokes from the other side of the planet, but we’ve shown that we’re competent and can run at a reasonable pace – and have a lot of fun doing it!”

If Darryl had stopped, Tim Sugden had not. The #88 was still circulating, with Tim hoping to salvage something from the race, but the prospects didn’t look encouraging. Being stuck behind a safety car for so long may have made the driving easier, but it wasn’t improving Sugden’s position. The #88 was still lying 34th at this stage, but with only intermittent racing permitted between safety car periods, he wasn’t making up a lot of ground. By the end of the second hour he had only risen to 28th, handing the car back to Cocker at just gone half-past six. No sooner had he helped his co-driver into the driving seat, than Sugden was frog-marched off to see the stewards, accused of having overtaken the safety car. From a man of Sugden’s experience that hardly seemed likely, but the explanation was simple enough. The #88 had been coming though Copse on one of the many occasions when the safety car was leaving the pitlane, and at race-pace the Porsche had swept past the Audi as it neared the end of the exit. Technically, however, it had not moved across the white line that defines the end of the pitlane, so Sugden was perfectly within his rights to keep going. Case dismissed.

Jonathan Cocker would drive a long, but largely uneventful, stint. The pitstop had knocked the car back to 30th overall, but over the course the next hour and forty it would climb steadily back up through the order, entering the fifth hour from 27th. Soon afterwards he made his only error of an otherwise excellent stint, going straight on at the end of the pit straight. “I had a small off at Copse,” he conceded “It didn’t make much difference. In fact, I don’t think it really even cost us any time at all.” There’s a massive tarmac run-off on the outside of Copse, and it’s usually a case of making the most of this and returning to the track as soon as possible. The rain had eased to a light drizzle by this stage, a hundred laps into the race, and the pace was picking up. Cocker had the satisfaction of overtaking the GPC Ferrari for 26th, and then the Pillbeam, before rounding off his stint by taking 24th place from the #95 Peninsula TVR just before it pitted. From last place (but one) at the end of the first lap, Cocker and the 88 were now running in a much more respectable 24th overall, seventh in GT2. It was getting seriously dark by this stage, and visibility was not good, but Jonathan had coped well.

With the leader on 118 laps, Jonathan pitted. No sooner had Tim climbed back into the cockpit than it started to rain again – although the lull had been so brief that track conditions had never really had chance to improve. It was a quick pitstop, and characteristic of GruppeM on a good day, so Sugden resumed racing and started hour five still holding 24th overall, closing on Lefort in the #73 Ice Pol Racing Porsche, but with a lap or more to make up. “The car was still oversteering like a pig, but we were making up ground even so, and the tyres were just starting to come in,” was Sugden’s view. All other eyes were on the outright lead, however, where Allan McNish was closing on the Creation DBA in his Oreca Audi R8, and about to make a memorable pass. Certainly the TV producers were concentrating on this enthralling battle, so nobody quite noticed when the #88 stopped setting fresh laptimes on the timing screen. It actually happened two laps after McNish took the lead, and Sugden was coming through the fast right-hander at Bridge.

Suggy negotiated the two Brooklands left handers as usual, and was just getting back on the power for the short stab between Brooklands and Luffield when the massive plasma screen, overlooking the complex, suddenly cut to a head-on view of the leaders thrashing down Hanger Straight towards Stowe. The glare of headlights, main beam straight into the lens, flooded out across the track, just as the #88 Porsche came alongside. Having just negotiated Silverstone’s nether regions, where all was total darkness, Tim’s eyes were only just starting to adjust to the brightness that marked out the stadium section. The sudden change was staggering. “I was so dazzled, so disorientated, for a split second, maybe more, I didn’t know where I was. It was almost like being drugged,” he said. “I’d just got on the power for that short section between the two corners, and then the screen suddenly burst into life. It was such a shock! I can’t even begin to explain it. Then, when I refocused, my first thought was, that’s grass, not track.” Slick with moisture, the grass offered no resistance at all. Tim tried desperately to steer the car away from the fast-approaching barrier, but it was too late. “I couldn’t believe what was happening to me. I was that far wrong with it, and I thought to myself, you can’t go off here. You never go off here! Then I hit the wall really, really hard.” His initial reaction was to berate the marshals who came to help him – not for anything they’d done wrong, but just because of the thoughtless poitioning of the plasma screen, but then the realisation of what had happened set in. He made his way disconsolately back to the garage.

“I don’t know what to say,” he said, his voice full of bewilderment and disappointment. “I’ve never done anything like this in my life before. I’ve never heard of anything like this happening to anyone. I can’t explain it properly.” He was inconsolable, and quite understandably so. It wasn’t just a case of having had a very rare accident, and certainly not because they’d failed to finish the race - by now he and Jonathan have grown somewhat accustomed to that particular feeling. No, it was the realisation of what had happened to the car, and to the #88 car in particular. “All the left rear corner is pushed in,” came the apologetic tone. “It’s finished.” Not until after the race, when the battered Porsche was brought back to the GruppeM garage on a low-loader, did the true extent of the car’s condition become clear. This had been a very heavy impact indeed, and even with a shroud pulled hastily over, it was easy to see that the car had suffered badly. “The old girl’s finished,” concurred Steve Hagger, his face a picture of abject disappointment. Adam Deborre, chief engineer on the #88, was beyond words.

To understand why a group of grown men (and one woman) can be brought so close to tears by the sight of a jumbled mass of metal, glass and plastic, you have to appreciate that GruppeM’s LMES #88 is – no, was – a very special Porsche. “I was there when we took delivery of the car in ‘99,” said a glassy-eyed Adam. “We were up all night getting her stickered up ready for Daytona. We’ve been together ever since. It’s been a long journey, but it all ends here.” Adam, like so many of the GruppeM pitcrew, was a former member of the EMKA race team, and they’d lived with that chassis through thick and thin, through rough times and times of great success. The fact that the car is – was - six years old and still competitive should tell you a great deal. This was no ordinary 996 RS, but I’m not the one to tell its story here. In due course, and perhaps we should wait until we hear a more detailed prognosis from the team, there’s a wonderful history to be written about the car. We hope to be able to bring it to you.

Long before that happens, GruppeM must compose their thoughts and decide where they go from here. The team has an enormous amount on its plate, and so little time to achieve it. In just over a week’s time the squad must head to Oschersleben for the seventh round of the FIA GT Championship, but before that they must completely rebuild, from a bare chassis, the other #88 Porsche; the car that was written off in the Spa 24 Hours. All credit to Porsche, who had a newly painted chassis at the Hemel Hempstead workshops by the Tuesday following the race, but that has to be fully built, prepped and tested before it can be raced, and this past week has been devoted to preparations for Silverstone. No sooner do they get back from Oschersleben than they’re off to the Nurburgring for the next round of the LMES, by which time they must, at the very least, have the #86 car rebuilt with a new gearbox and ready to race. What are their chances of having a replacement ready for the LMES #88? “We’re good, but we’re not that good,” shrugged Karen Coombes. “These races are virtually back-to-back all the way. I just don’t think we’ve got the time.”

I leave the final words to Tim. “Sometimes I hate this job, I really do. How on earth can we be so unlucky? I don’t want to feel this bad ever again.” As a journalist, I don’t want to witness it either. Sometimes life just isn’t fair.
Marcus Potts