GruppeM – Donington Park – June 25th

GruppeM Go FIA GT Racing

Kenny Chen is nothing if not ambitious: a bright and breezy Friday at Donington Park saw his team takes its first steps onto the international stage, and in doing so, it completed a number of other firsts.
But the team was racing without him again: a trip to the Far East wasn’t quite complete, and the team owner wouldn’t arrive at the Midlands Circuit until Saturday. The rest of the team did though, and for the first time the driving squad comprised Tim Mullen and Jonathan Cocker. Tim Sugden had a prior commitment in the ALMS, so Tim moved across from his regular team in British GTs – Scuderia Ecosse – and found himself racing against them. He was also about to embark on his first drive ever in a Porsche, while Jonathan was about to become the youngest ever driver to compete in an FIA GT race. Apart from karting events, Jonathan is almost certainly the youngest ever participant in an FIA sanctioned event of any kind.

How old do you feel, Jonathan, when you’re out there competing against all these big Ferraris and Saleens?

That brought a smile to his face, the young man not expecting that one.

“I don’t feel like I’m seventeen. The way my life has developed, I don’t feel as though I’m doing the things other seventeen year olds do!”

First job, once the car had passed through scrutineering, was to bed in two new driveshafts and new brakes. That became Jonathan’s job, so he joined the 28 (27 actually) car throng, and deliberately ‘pottered round’ very cautiously.

“The way these Ferraris and Saleens come past you – have they got some acceleration!” was the way he described having the likes of Uwe Alzen and FIA Champion Matteo Bobbi come flying past.
But another new experience didn’t seem to worry him at all: it was just another stage in his development to ‘tick off’. Job done, now let’s get on with the next thing. He is remarkably balanced about it all, confirming day after day why Tim Sugden has such faith in his ability.

With bedding in duties complete (at about 1:47 pace), Jonathan was down to spend the next half hour in the car, leaving Tim Mullen to have the last 30 minutes of the hour and a half morning session. It didn’t quite work out like that. Jonathan’s seat time went to plan though, his early laps immediately into the1:36s, with a best of a 1:35.328, seventh fastest in class. A nice, steady start, and quicker than two of the FIA N-GT regulars.

Tim Mullen’s ‘half hour’ unfortunately became much less than that: “I had two red flags, and one of the Ferraris had a lunge at me and cut a tyre, so I think I had three flying laps.” The best one was the last one, a 1:37.

“It was a half flying lap, if you know what I mean, but I was only just starting to get going. We’ve got a bit of a roll oversteer feel to the back of the car at the moment, but we’re working on that. That means it’s moving around a lot at the rear, but I’m very impressed with the traction and the engine of the Porsche. Overall, the RSR is totally different to the Ferraris I’ve been driving: you even sit much higher in the car, so it’s really a matter of getting used to it.”

How long do you think that will take? “Oh, only a few laps this afternoon.”

Jonathan was already happily settled into the car, but he was experiencing the longer Grand Prix track for the first time, plus Dunlops that are slightly different from those used in the British GT Championship. “The construction and compound are slightly different – just subtle differences. But what we’re doing here is going to benefit us in the British GT Championship – where we believe the GruppeM Porsche has a lead in the N-GT Class of over 40 points.

“We’ve had seven podium finishes out of eight (including three wins and three seconds), and the other results were a third and a fifth, so it’s been going really, really well.” A Championship leader at 17, and very cool and calm with it.

The afternoon session saw Tim get more of the seat time, and by the end of it, he’d set a best of 1:33.773, sixth fastest in class, and things were going better and better.

“I’m starting to really get a feel for the car. I didn’t do loads of laps, probably about 20 or so. We changed it during the session, to adjust out the roll oversteer, and we’re quickest Dunlop runner, I believe. We just used the one set of tyres this afternoon.

“I’ve had a chance to look at some data now, which I couldn’t do after the morning session, because I did so few laps. I’ve got a few tenths in me, and there are a few tenths in the car too.”

With Jonathan Cocker lapping consistently in the 1:35s, and no more dramas with the bigger cars, that was the conclusion of a very good first day in the FIA GT Championship, for GruppeM Racing.