Trackspeed – Donington Park Weekend Report

The Trackspeed squad was back in force for the second double header of the British GT Championship season.

There was another two car entry at the challenging Donington Park circuit, with Iain Dockerill and Pete James in the #15 car alongside David Ashburn in the lead #14 Porsche 997 GT3. Trackspeed’s Team Principal David Ashburn meanwhile was joined this weekend by none other than Porschemeister Tim Sugden.

With other cars on the grid profiting from substantial performance boosts after the first racing weekend of the season, the Porsches would have to be pushed very, very hard to keep up with the ultimate pace.

With a busy Saturday consisting of a 90 minute practice session, two quick-fire qualifying sessions and a 60 minute race, the team would barely have a moment to take a breath (and a bacon sandwich), before the Porsches were due back on track.

The opening practice session saw Tim Sugden just a few tenths off the ultimate pace and hopes were high of a good qualifying battle. David Ashburn then took to the track in the first qualifying session in #14, posting a time less than a second shy of the polesitting Dodge Viper – 3.6 litre, 6 cylinder Porsche vs 8.3 litre V10 Dodge. It would however put the Porsche on the third row of the grid for the Saturday afternoon race, or would it?

The doubt was caused by the second qualifying session, to set the grid for Sunday’s race. Tim Sugden’s attempt to put the Trackspeed Porsche on the front row of the grid looked to have started very well indeed, the Yorkshireman briefly setting the fastest time of the session on his very first flying lap. Sugden though pitted the very next time around and the car was pushed into the pit garage for the remainder of the session as the timesheets showed the mark set by Tim clicking down to 6th fastest by the end.

But what had gone wrong?

“The gearbox broke on that fast lap,” said Tim immediately after the session, “It’s a very unusual problem for a Porsche but I knew the car was in trouble and opted to finish that lap. It had been flying up to that point so it’s fairly frustrating.”

The race now was to get the faulty gearbox out of the car and to source and fit a replacement.

The crew swung into action and 40 minutes later the #14 car was ready to go: literally moments before the pitlane opened for the car to form up for Saturday’s 60 minute race, David Ashburn powered round to take up his position on the grid.

From the off the pace was fast and furious, but the Trackspeed car was having its attack blunted by a spirited battle for fourth place between the Ascari of the rapid David Jones and the Aston Martin DBRS9 of Paul Drayson, the Aston having been handed a 60kg reduction in ballast prior to this weekend.

The Ascari was adopting a very defensive stance and the three cars ahead were pulling away steadily, but the body language of Ashburn’s Porsche left nobody under any illusions that he was anxious to get by and on lap 5 he squeezed through to grab fifth spot from the Aston. That became fourth as the Mosler pitted with a problem but in a topsy turvy period the Aston, much quicker in a straight line, grabbed the position back once again: third to fifth though were covered by mere tenths of a second.

The Porsche was much the faster of the three through the corners but the power of the Aston and the tractability of the Ascari were still keeping the Trackspeed car back for lap after lap until finally, after a hugely entertaining period where all three contenders were challenging for position, Drayson ran slightly wide at the exit of Goddards on lap ten, after another challenge on Jones.

David Ashburn saw his opportunity immediately and the crowd was treated to the extraordinary sight of three cars side-by-side on the approach to Redgate. Jones held his nerve and place, while Ashburn just squeezed ahead of Drayson as the cars braked. Drayson held on and quickly got the Aston back in front once more.

Lap 15 and once again Ashburn took fourth place and hared away in pursuit of the Jones Ascari. The red mist though was firmly in place and when Ashburn again sensed an opportunity he grabbed it: “I got a better run than the Ascari out of the old Hairpin but he can really get the power down there and by the time we got to the corner he was a bit ahead again. I got alongside under braking, but when he turned in I had nowhere to go.”

It was a frustrated David Ashburn who trudged away from the #14 car, now firmly stuck in the gravel trap on the outside of MacLeans, race over but much promise shown.

“It was one of those things,” he commented on Sunday morning. “I saw what I thought was my chance and went for it. I was quicker than him. It was a shame, because if we’d stayed where we were, we’d have been on the podium.”

Never mind, Sunday was another day and another race. With another gearbox, replacing the borrowed one. Tim Sugden (“He’s about a second a lap quicker than me, which I’m very happy with,” commented David Ashburn) started this one, and with old rivals such as Ian Flux and Tommy Erdos lined up against him, fireworks were in prospect.

Tim grabbed a place from the Brazilian on the opening lap and was running fifth (up from seventh on the grid). Next target was Ian Flux in the Mosler, and the more road car-like Porsche was up the inside of the more race car-like Mosler at Coppice on lap 2.

Tim Sugden got his head down and charged – after the Ferrari and two Aston Martins ahead of him. The Adam Wilcox Ferrari slipped behind the two British cars and became the next target, but with the Mosler right on the 997’s tail: this was excellent racing.

But Tim was in trouble. “I thought I had a puncture. About four laps before I pitted, I’d noticed a vibration – then I heard noises like bits flying off the tyre. I had to let Flux past, because I was struggling – with understeer too.”

Once the pit window opened, the Trackspeed car was heading for the pits, with tread missing from the inside edge of the left/rear tyre. The other Porsches would suffer similarly in due course: Tim got out and shrugged his shoulders in frustration.

With a fresh tyre, David Ashburn charged out of the pits, but instead of chasing a podium, he was now chasing perhaps a point or two. He didn’t get that far: the gearbox linkage played up, and he returned to the pits.

“The lever went floppy – but the car didn’t feel as good as yesterday.”

So a podium became maybe a point or two which became no points: it was a frustrating weekend, but David Ashburn is an eternal optimist, and he was already looking forward to the next chance to show what the Trackspeed Porsches can do. That will come at the FIA European GT3 Championship opener, at Silverstone (May 5-6).

The team’s second entry at Donington was driven by Iain Dockerill and Pete James, who brought it home to two solid points finishes – and also raced in the two hour Belcar event (in a different chassis), in which Dockerill and Nigel Greensall won their class.