GruppeM– Donington Park – Saturday April 3

Morning Practice
Official free practice for this weekend’s opening round of the British GT Championship took place at nine this morning on a drying Donington Park track. The GruppeM Porsche GT3 RSR emerged fifth quickest with a best, from Jonathan Cocker, of 1:10.589, although Tim Sugden was first out in the #38.

“I did a few laps early on, just to try to find the set-up,” explained Sugden, “but the team wanted to give Jonnie as much time in the car at this stage as we could.” Team principal Kenny Chen picked up on this. “Jonathan went out for the second half of the session. We thought it was best to let him get more experience in the car. This is a big step up for him after his season in the Porsche Carrera Cup. The competition here is a lot tougher and he needs to learn as much about the car as he can. I expect that he’ll settle in very quickly, perhaps after two or three races, and then you can expect to see him doing very much better. I certainly think he’s got great potential.”

Cocker was the golden boy of last year’s inaugural Porsche Carrera Cup. At only sixteen years of age he came under intense media scrutiny, and no small degree of inter-team rivalry developed with the season. Jonathan rose above that to end the year fourth overall in what became a hugely competitive series. He narrowly missed his maiden win, but picked up two seconds, two thirds, and rarely finished lower than fourth. It was an impressive performance, and by the time he cut a slice out of his seventeenth birthday cake at Brands Hatch in August he was a widely respected, and much liked, member of the Porsche racing community.

With only the Brands Hatch test under its belt, the car is still a factory-fresh youngster itself, being one of the very few brand new RSRs allocated to the UK this year. This means, inevitably, that the team is still playing catch-up in terms of set-up and working familiarity. “The car feels better and better every time I go out,” explains Cocker. “It feels very good now, and it’s starting to meet my expectations. I had an idea in my mind of what it should be like – more downforce, more power, more of everything (when compared with the Carrera Cup cars he’s previously driven), and it’s now more like what I imagined.”

Here are Jonathan, Team Owner Kenny Chen and Tim.

Tim Sugden explained, in general terms, what the car was now like. “We’ve changed the car quite a lot (since Brands Hatch) and it’s improved in great leaps in some areas, perhaps not so much in others. I suppose you could say we’ve made two steps forward and one back, but it’s going in the right direction.” The team is obviously getting very close to what they believe is the true potential for the car, but as always, it’s sorting out the finer points that take time. “We’ve made good progress, but it’s a complicated process. At some stage soon – very soon – we’re going to make the jump.”

As well as allowing Jonathan Cocker time to develop a better acquaintance with the car, the morning’s practice session also allowed the team to address some set-up concerns. With the session over, the car was taken into the scrutineering bay to take advantage of the facilities there. “We were just doing a final check on the car’s set-up, the floor and making sure the geometry is as we want it to be,” explained Kenny. “We also need to find a solution to a minor exhaust issue. At the moment it is running six decibels over the limit, but I don’t think it’s a real problem. We should be able to have it sorted in time for qualifying.”

Tim Sugden on BGT
Between sessions we had the opportunity to ask Tim Sugden about his return to a regular place in a British series, after his high profile role last year in the FIA GT Championship, co-driving the EMKA Porsche GT3 RS with Martin Short and Emmanuel Collard. “This championship is looking fantastic this season,” he says, with evident enthusiasm. “Everyone is very excited about how things are going. 2002 was an incredible year for the British series, and I think we’re getting back to that kind of level. In fact, in some ways it’s starting to look more like the glory days of ’98 and ’99, when we had all the top cars in British GT. The series had a high profile then, and I can see this year developing along the same lines.”

There’s no denying, however, that Tim misses the international stage. “I’d love to be racing in Europe, and we will be doing several FIA races later this year (with GruppeM), but our priority at the moment is winning this championship.” Sugden is very serious when he says this, and looking at the level of preparation, and the financial input evident in the team’s pitlane presentation, you can’t doubt his belief. “I can’t deny that I love racing in Europe, but N-GT in the FIA GT Championship has so few competitive cars this season. Last year was fantastic, and we were racing against some of the best in the world, but I’m sure it will get back there again. I’m just lucky to be doing so much racing,” he admits, almost apologetically. Tim is also committed to a full season in the ALMS, where he races another Porsche RSR with J3 Racing. The team finished 14th overall, sixth in class, at last month’s Sebring 12 Hour.

Qualifying
As the lower “graded” driver in the Porsche pairing, Jonathan Cocker would be given his opportunity to shine in the first session, while the experienced Tim Sugden would take over qualifying duties for the second race. The car was a little late coming off the jacks, and Cocker was the twentieth driver to head onto the track.

Cocker’s first lap was a gentle 1:19.628, but enough to pop him through into seventh. Times at the top were changing rapidly in those early minutes, but on his third, and probably first true flyer, Jonathan slotted in a 1:13.674 to jump up to second fastest. For the next five minutes it was chop and change, with a broad array of Ferraris, Porsches and the occasional Mosler jostling for top slot. With three minutes to go Cocker improved his time with a 1:11.870 to recover fifth, but moments later the Clio V6 spun into McLeans and called the session to a halt.

JC was one of several to drive straight through the pitlane and join the growing queue for the restart. When the green light came on again he hung back, allowing a gap to build up between him and the car in front, and crossed the line to start his last lap with seconds to spare before the chequered flag fell. It was wise thinking, but the enforced stay in the pitlane had cooled the car’s tyres and he was unable to push, posting a last lap of 1:12.250. Pole went to Mike Jordan with 1:10.128.

So it would be fifth on the grid for Race 1, but there was no time to contemplate what might have been. With just five minutes between sessions, it was a case of back to the garage, out of the car, quick swap with Tim, and watch the car head out down the pitlane towards the lights. Ominously, a light drizzle began to fall.

Illustrating, perhaps, why he’s a category “A” driver, there was no holding back the Yorkshireman as he shouldered the GruppeM Porsche through to the front of the queue. He arrived just as the marshals waved the session into action, and swept out onto the Donington tarmac to lead the field into the second session. “I drove straight through,” admitted Sugden later. “I could see it was going to rain and I wanted to get out there and set a time before it started. I know it was rather rude. Sorry.” Round the south side of the circuit the drizzle was indeed growing heavier, but Sugden pulled away sufficiently to complete his first lap with a time of 1:33.661. Twenty seconds was how much had been lost from the track by the rain, yet Sugden’s third was marginally quicker at a 1:29.717, and remained the fastest for some while.

A flurry of activity in the pits announced the decision by almost three-quarters of the grid to adopt wet-weather rubber. Sugden, however, was content to bide his time. “I called the guys on the radio, and they said it would blow over.” Posting modest improvements, he retained his hold on pole. It was hard to judge the situation, and when a string of cars came through with quicker times the temporary benefits of grooved tyres became obvious. Sugden’s name slumped down the monitor, but ever one to buck convention, he resisted any temptation to follow the pack.

With five minutes to go, however, the wisdom behind his thinking became apparent. Bright sunshine suddenly bathed the track, and with it a dry line rapidly developed round the circuit. It was no great surprise when he leaped back to the top of the frame. 1:13.409 was still no match for the first session best, but it was now enough for provisional pole. “We were quickest for some while,” Sugden half-shrugged afterwards. “It was very slippery, but we were still holding on.” His next lap, at 1:11.727, looked to have made that safe, but with his final lap Peter Kox in the VLR GT3 RS extracted his best from the ever-improving conditions to snatch the honour with a time of 1:09.673. Tim’s last lap was a half second improvement for him, but not enough to reclaim pole. The chequered flag ended the fifteen-minute session, with Sugden forced to be content with the front row.

In the dailysportscar.com Cup there was equally good, if not actually better news for Team Manager Phil Hindley. Sharing the team’s #76 Porsche GT3 Cup entry with Jonathan Rowland, he’d taken a comfortable pole for Race 2. His best of 1:13.097 was good enough for ninth overall, out-qualifying almost half the NGT class.

Kenny Chen, Team Principal at GruppeM, was well satisfied, hinting at only mild disappointment that the team hadn’t quite pulled off the double. “We very nearly had two pole positions,” he said, smiling broadly just the same. “That’s what I’d have loved to see. Never mind, we’ve still got the front row, and let’s see what happens in the race.” That is, after all, what truly counts.

Jonathan Cocker was less ebullient. “That was terrible!” he growled. “The car felt good, but there’s a daft amount of traffic out there. At one point I came down the straight to be faced by three abreast across the track, all travelling at sixty! I didn’t get a single clear run, although I did try with my last lap. I held back at the restart, and made some space, but the car had cooled down too much. It was so frustrating.”

Phil Hindley appeared best pleased, as you might expect, with his class pole, but even his run had been quite eventful. “I was trying to maximise every lap I could,” he explained, “but I got stuck behind one of the (NGT) 360s for some time and simply couldn’t get by. He was too quick down the straight, but holding me up through every corner.” Towards the end of the session he had a near miss when the #71 Ferrari spun off across his nose, as they sped along the back straight. Hindley had only moments before passed the 360 but was aware that the track was tricky on the run down towards Goddard’s. “I started to ease off over the brow (beneath the Dunlop Bridge) but he kept it full on, and as he came alongside the back end just seemed to snap away from him. He cut across right in front of me, going backwards, and hit the wall very hard. It was a big impact.” Too true. It was actually enough to ensure that the Ferrari would be going home, weekend over.

The team had a few concerns to address ahead of the first race. “There’s still an imbalance problem,” acknowledged Sugden, “and when the track was more or less dry (towards the end of the session) I was knackered. We now think we’ve found the problem. We’ve been playing around with a click here, and a click there, but now we’ve found something wrong with the front right damper. I’m not sure if we can get it fixed for today’s race, but it’s significant enough to account for the imbalance. If we have isolated the problem, that’s actually very encouraging.” Despite not getting pole, was he pleased to be on the front row? Another shrug of the shoulders hints at a genuine disappointment. “I know,” he says, “I’m a miserable git!” No, just a perfectionist perhaps.

Full Race Report
This was a race where weather and tactics were critical, and GruppeM got it more than half right, with excellent results. A third step on the podium for Tim Sugden and Jonathan Cocker in the NGT Porsche GT3 RSR came at the end of a thrilling fight-back by Sugden that picked up on a brave first stint on slicks from the youngster. Phil Hindley and Jonathan Rowland, meanwhile, clinched a richly deserved win in the dailysportcar.com Cup Class.

As the preceding Ginetta race drew to a close the clouds were thick and grey, and there seemed little doubt that Round 1 of the 2004 British GT Championship would start wet. Such is the fickleness of the British weather, however, that by the time the GT cars were gearing up to head out onto the grid, the rain had already eased. Decisions, decisions. There was enough confidence in the immediate forecast to ensure that most of the cars were swiftly given intermediates before taking up their positions, although a select few opted for slicks.

In accordance with the regulations, Jonathan Cocker, as the so-called lower “graded” driver in the #38 Porsche, would be starting the first race for GruppeM. He lined up on the third row, comforted perhaps, by the knowledge that there were thirteen more rows behind him. It must be one of the best-supported starts to any BGT season in years.

With the two-minute signalled called, the grid remained in chaos as squads of mechanics swarmed over their charges, checking and exchanging tyres. Cocker, already fitted with slicks, sat and waited, until the pace car suddenly moved off. The departure was so sudden that several teams were caught off guard, and there were hurried final turns to several wheelnuts, but all headed away on time. There would be two slow laps behind the Audi estate – the second green-flag lap to allow those drivers not previously exposed to the damp track to note the wetter corners.

As Mike Jordan controlled the run through Goddard’s, and even before the lights on the gantry turned green, Jonathan Cocker was already acutely aware that slicks weren’t quite the perfect footwear. As the power went down it was all he could do to control the Porsche, but he held his line well into Redgate, filing through neatly without dropping a position. He completed the first lap in 6th places, overtaken only by the fast-charging Ian Khan.

A quick check proved that Cocker was almost the only driver among the leading pack to have started the race on slicks. It was a gamble, but would it pay off? Initially it seemed not. The Mosler of Shaun Balfe was next to take advantage, followed on lap four by two more, including the Cup class leader of the time, the #77 Wood/Scott Porsche, and Bobby Verdon-Roe in the DeWalt Mosler. Much to Jonathan’s relief, that’s just about where things settled down. With a dryer line finally starting to show the youngster was at last able to make better use of his tyres, and ninth was where he remained for the next twenty minutes.

Out at the front Mike Jordan’s romp had been tamed by David Jones in the #44 sister car, and Jonathan Rowland in the GruppeM Cup car was running a confident thirteenth overall, fourth in class. Somewhere between the two Jonathan Cocker was starting to pick up the pace, and any threat from tenth-placed Ricky Cole in the #51 Corvette was at last starting to recede in his rear-view mirrors.

On lap 16 the first of the scheduled driver-change pitstops took place. From then on they came thick and fast, with Rowland handing over to Phil Hindley on the next tour. Cocker held on in there for one further lap, probably much relieved to dive into the Donington pitlane at the end of his eighteenth lap and see Tim Sugden into the hotseat. A little over 35 minutes remained of the hour, and the GruppeM Porsche was lying somewhere round 10th.

It’s always a difficult period, attempting to unravel the race order as cars and drivers swap places. Initially Tim looked to have dropped to twelfth, almost certainly accounted for by the pitstop itself, but there was no doubting Sugden's determination when he came through to complete his next lap. He was already back up to ninth, and in an awesome display he proceeded to scythe through the field like the proverbial hot knife. Cole slipped behind on lap 21. Nathan Kinch in the Scuderia Ecosse 360 was shown a clean heel on lap 22. Adam Wilcox was dismissed on the next lap, as Sugden blasted aside the race’s previous best with a time of 1:11.633. On lap 24 he moved into sixth by passing Steve Hyde in the #60 TVR. The rise seemed inexorable. Gavan Kershaw in the Cup class Elise offered little resistance to the steam-rolling Sugden, as the #38 Porsche eased into fifth.

Then, as everything looked to be going so well, the weather threatened another turn. Rain was certainly falling and Sugden’s clockwork sub one-twelves eased to nearer fourteen. Despite this he was still closing on Peter Kox, recently taken over from Ian Khan, but at such an imperceptible rate, so evenly matched were they, that only the Balfe Motorsport Mosler in third was under any true threat – from both of them.

Lap 29 was the turning point for Sugden. A poor lap for Kox, held up by traffic, halved the gap. On the next lap the margin was down to less than two seconds, and while Phil Hindley was calmly taking the lead in the Cup class, courtesy of a spin by Barrie Whight in the Lotus Elise, Kox and Sugden were bearing down on Balfe. At the end of lap 33 they caught him on the run into Goddard’s, and it was third and fourth for the Porsche duel.

Twelve laps remained, and for the entirety of each of those seventy-three second laps (on average) there was barely the length of a towrope between them. It was thrilling to watch, as they diced through the traffic – sometimes Kox getting an edge, only for Sugden to snatch it back again at the next turn. The margin oscillated between two seconds and two-tenths of a second, and they were the fastest things on the track.

Out at the head of the field Mark Sumpter, who had taken over from Mike Jordan, had suffered a slow driver swap, or more correctly, seen the Jones twins gain an edge by a far quicker one. Sumpter, however, was now catching Godfrey Jones, and his determination knew few bounds. As they started lap 38 there was less than two seconds between them. By the time they were dicing through Coppice even the airgap had gone, with Sumpter catching Jones’s Porsche a glancing blow across the stern. It damaged the rear right-hand wheel, caused a puncture and cost the twins a podium. Kox was second and Sugden third, and so it lasted to the flag. Phil Hindley held on to the Cup class laurels with comfort, crossing the line well clear of Ni Amorim in the DRM Ferrari. It was a good day for GruppeM.

“I’m very happy,” declared Kenny Chen afterwards. “Perhaps we should have sent Jonathan out on wets, but they both did a fantastic job, and Tim’s drive from twelfth through to third . . . well, you couldn’t ask for more. Cup class first, NGT third, yes, I’m very happy.”

Jonathan Cocker’s run from a wet and unpredictable start was more exceptional than many gave credit. The only one of the leaders to start on slick tyres, at a time when full wets or intermediates were probably the order of the day, he held his ground despite treacherous conditions. “Those first five or six laps were very interesting,” he declared, perhaps with understatement. “It was so slippery! I’ve never known a circuit as slippery as that.” Tim Sugden agreed. “Those were as bad conditions as I’ve ever known,” he admitted. “To be fair to JC,” he added, “we should have sent him out on inters, but we gambled on the slicks and he did exceptionally well. We couldn’t have made it any harder for him if we’d tried!”

Tim’s own race was quickly summed-up. “It was a good race. Peter and I were very evenly matched, and it was a great start to the season.” In a race of such tightly contested ground and under difficult conditions, it was surprising how few incidents there were, but Tim admitted that it had been hairy out there at times. “Peter and I were having to take risks, there was no way round it. I did catch one of the Corvettes as we went through the Craner Curves, but it was only a light touch, and someone caught my rear down the back straight. That was my fault. I went in a bit deep and he probably had nowhere to go, and caught the back end.” It later turned out to be Simon Pullan in the Noble, and the two had an amicable chat about the incident. Others, perhaps, were less at ease with their consciences.

All in all, a hugely promising start to the new British GT season. “This is just the beginning. There’s lots more to come yet,” was the assurance from GruppeM principal Kenny Chen. Never was a truer statement made, for the next opportunity comes less than 24 hours later with Race 2. This time the #38 car starts on the front row, with Tim Sugden at the wheel. This two-race format weekend may take a little getting used to, but it offers entertainment in spades. Catch it all here, of course, on dailysportscar!