GruppeM – Silverstone August 14th

Just about every N-GT team arrived here at Silverstone knowing that the cars to beat were going to be the Scuderia Ecosse Ferrari 360s. The red cars have been fast at every track, but Silverstone’s long straights and flat-out high-speed corners were predicted to offer the perfect environment for Maranello’s best. Others earmarked for a strong challenge included the Chevrolet Corvettes, able to stretch their proverbial legs for the first time this season, but GruppeM Racing was always recognised as a likely contender for the front-row, especially if Tim Sugden could string together his undoubted experience with a clear run.

And so it proved, but it was an uphill struggle for the Porsche squad after they lost much of the Friday free-practice to changeable weather and a gearbox gremlin. “We had troubles,” admitted Jonathan Cocker, who’d taken over from Tim Sugden early in the Friday period. “We had bits and bobs with the gearbox,” he added, enigmatically, “and that slowed us down.” With earlier rain easing, Tim Sugden had stepped back into the Porsche towards the end of the session. “We never got a proper run,” explained the Yorkshireman. “No sooner had I got back into the car than we encountered this problem with the gearbox, so stopped straight away.” The lack of running would prove costly later.

Jonathan Cocker, an eighteenth birthday looming, was being candid about his own weaknesses this weekend. “I was struggling a bit,” he suggested. “I went through the data after the practice to see where I could find a bit more pace. It’s the same areas as usual; braking, entry speed, cornering, etcetera, so I’m going to concentrate on addressing those in my first qualifying session, set a good time, and then see how the race goes.” This one will seem far removed from his last; the Spa 24 Hours “Just a little!” he agreed. “It seems a bit strange, to be honest, to be back in the British again.” There had been some comments published by one of the other teams ahead of this weekend concerning the additional stress being placed upon teams, and especially drivers, by having two races in one day. “An hour? Spread over a day? That’s daft!” said an incredulous Cocker. “I don’t think it will be a problem for us at all, so let’s just hope it really is for everyone else! In truth, it’s not going to be a challenge for the drivers at all. The difficulty may come if there are any problems with the car in the first race, or an incident, and then there’s not a lot of time to put it right.”

It was against the background of the imminent LMES 1000 kilometer six-hour that the British GT drivers headed off towards the pitlane for their back-to-back qualifying sessions. The LMES teams have the garages this weekend, with the BGT outfits working out of truck awnings in the paddock. There were some envious glances. “I would have loved to have done the race,” conceded Sugden with a wry grin. “If the right opportunity had came along, I’d have taken it - and there were chances, but I need a rest!”

First Qualifying - Jonathan Cocker

As the ‘lower-category’ driver Jonathan Cocker would take the first session, and was on the pitlane apron and ready to go when the lights turned green at 10:55. He was not among the first to leave, however, and had barely set out along Hangar Straight for the first time before a very smoky Monaro had crawled back into the pitlane at the end of its out-lap. With the Preci-Spark Porsche topping the screens with a first flyer, Cocker completed his out-lap, getting up to speed. Cunningham moved into second in the Embassy Corvette just as the first signs of smoke and flames were being seen along the Hanger Straight. “There’s a red roof, Ferrari shaped,” came the announcement over the public address. Not so. The silver-roofed Morgan was in serious trouble; an oil leak having met the exhaust and ignited. At 10:58, with Cocker yet to post a time, the red flags were flying. The session would be suspended for ten minutes. “I had a really nice gap, there was nobody behind me either, and I was in the perfect position,” groaned the youngster, who sat out the delay in the pitlane queue. Eight minutes remained when the track re-opened, with a spin from Nathan Kinch at Stowe highlighting the restart, cold tyres the culprit.

With the Ultima stopped in the pitlane, and the Mantis travelling slowly down the main straight, Jonathan Cocker set off in pursuit of Chris Niarchos in the #34 Ferrari. Having not yet set a time the GruppeM Porsche was showing as twenty-second overall, Cocker’s only time to date a paltry 4:07.444. He was soon to make amends for that, his first flyer being a 2:00.634 and good enough for sixth. Others, however, were also finding better pace, with Mike Jordan firing straight onto provisional pole with an impressive 1:56.597 and Nathan Kinch, recovering from his earlier embarrassment, moving into fifth. Indeed, Jonathan Cocker had been relegated to ninth before he came through with his next flyer. This was more like it; 1:57.547 being good enough for third, just a tenth or so behind Niarchos.

With time enough for one more lap, Cocker was demoted to fourth by an on-form Neil Cunningham, slotting ahead with a 1:57.490. Then Nathan Kinch posted his best-to-date to lay claim to the front row alongside Jordan. The tension was rising as the chequered flag became imminent, with improvements coming thick and . . . fast. Kinch crossed the line just moments before the flag was shown and would get one more chance, but Cocker’s last effort would be no improvement. Unfortunately the same could not be said for Niarchos, who managed a last-gasp 1:57.388 to snatch fourth, dropping Cocker to fifth. Then, with the very last lap of the session, Nathan Kinch swept through to deny Jordan his pole, his best of 1:55.973 pipping the Porsche by a mere 55 one-hundredths of a second.

Second Qualifying – Tim Sugden

Jonathan Cocker drove the GruppeM Porsche straight into the team’s borrowed garage and climbed out. “After the session was red flagged, that was it. I never found the space again, but I did the best I could.” He and Tim Sugden had a brief chat before the Yorkshireman pulled on his balaclava and helmet and strapped himself into the #38. The car was pushed back out onto the apron by the mechanics, and Sugden headed quickly down towards the pitlane exit. With the first session delayed by the Morgan’s conflagration, there would be the shortest possible break between the two, and Tim was keen to be out there early. No sooner had the car moved away than the team started preparing for an early pitstop. With a new set of tyres planted four-square on the Tarmac, air-guns at the ready, the crew awaited the car’s imminent return. Tim Sugden blatted over the line at the end of his out-lap at 11:27, Andrew Kirkaldy just ahead of him on track.

Sugden looked to be on a real charge. He set the fastest first sector of anyone all day, and was then even quicker through the next. He was on target for the kind of time that would have taken pole in the first session and establish a challenging benchmark for the second, but instead he dived straight back into the pitlane. A relatively leisurely tyre-swap then followed – leisurely by Spa standards, that is – before he was heading on his way, freshly-booted. “We just went out to see what the balance was like,” explained Sugden later. “That, and to make sure we didn’t take too much out of Jonny’s tyres,” he added. The tyres he’d been using for that first blistering half-lap were the same ones Cocker had used earlier, and would be needed for Sunday’s race.

Kirkaldy, meanwhile, had flown through to claim provisional pole with a time of 1:53.084, already the best part of three seconds quicker than Kinch had managed in session one. Six minutes remained and Sugden was still shown in twenty-first overall - out of twenty-three, having yet to set a time. Fortunately, cool to a fault, his first was not long in coming, and 1:55.201 was good enough to split the two Scuderia Ecosse Ferraris and plant a firm foothold onto the front row.

With two minutes to go Kirkaldy headed into the pitlane, his last lap a 1:52.581, job apparently done. Sugden’s next was slower than his last, by some margin, and hinted at his desire to find some extra track-space. His earlier time was coming under increasing pressure from Tim Mullen, who’d just done another good lap, posting an improved 1:55.209 to move to within a few hundredths of Sugden’s claim to the front row. Sure enough, the next lap for the GruppeM Porsche was an improvement, although still more than two seconds shy of Kirkaldy’s evidently secure pole. The GT3 RSR crossed the line just as the officials were unfurling the chequered flag, so time for one more.

Seconds later Tim Mullen crossed the line with his best lap of the week, two-tenths faster than Sugden’s fifty-five two to join Kirkaldy on the front row. Sugden had one last chance to spoil the Ferrari lock-out, and he looked to be on target. His first sector promised an improvement, but it was as good as it would get. Patrick Pearce discovered the limits of the Rollcentre Mosler in spectacular style, spinning directly in front of Sugden, who was forced to brake and move off-line. With his last-lap chance destroyed, Sugden headed back to the pitlane.

So GruppeM would start race one from the third row, and race two from directly behind pole. “We’ve looked at the data,” said Jonathan Cocker later. “If I’d managed to string together all my best sectors, it would have been good enough for the front row, so fifth is bit a disappointing really. But it’s the race that matters.” Tim Sugden reckoned that “today was a bit of an adventure! We knew we were going to be very lucky to nail a good time, especially after missing most of practice yesterday. At Spa the balance of the car was quite good. We fiddled and improved, but now the car has developed far more oversteer, for whatever reason. It’s always hard to run quicker than the Ferraris, and we’re struggling even more now because we couldn’t do more work in practice. The 360 is a phenomenally good car, inherently quick, but that’s got nothing to do with this being a “Ferrari circuit". We struggle to beat it [at any track] even when our car’s spot-on, but the races have tended to pan out differently. Somehow we seem to out-fumble them! I’m sure the race will be fine.”