Xero On Tour – 2004 – Donington Park – Rounds 1 And 2
Weighty Issues, Frustrating Issues

Xero Competition hoped to begin 2004 the way they left off at Brands Hatch in 2003 - fighting for podium finishes and pushing for wins. The reality of the situation was far removed - the organisers added a 140kg weight penalty to the car for "the wrong wheels". Confused? So was I. The regulations allow for certain rim widths for certain weights of car. Due to a problem with the rims ordered over the winter, Xero were forced to run the old GTO spec. rims, rather than the narrower items permitted by the newly applicable FIA N-GT regulations. As a result, the car had to go on a ‘reverse-diet’ in order to comply with the weight/rim width ratio. So despite all the hard work done to pare the weight of the car down (including all-new carbon-fibre bodywork – the Corvette did look superb) a hulking great 140kg of steel had to be lowered into the car for the weekend. To put that into context, it is two reasonably sized adults crammed in there with the driver - and took four people to lift it into the car.

So with the added burden of the weight, this weekend would be uphill from the start, especially given the quality and quantity of rival teams contesting the British GT Championship this year. All yours Peter Le Bas and Ricky Cole – the same pair as in 2003, of course.

First action (a 90 minutes session) was Saturday morning - it was almost unheard of for Ricky Cole to be seen in the paddock at such an hour, but there he was, strapped in and ready to roll. The effect of the weight was soon apparent - the car was simply not working. Ricky seemed happir with it, even having the opportunity to do a brief second stint later, but Peter Le Bas found the car "loose - it doesn’t feel like I am part of the car charging on, I’m having to think about what the car is doing all the time." A 1:13.579 - tenth in class - was proof enough of their difficulties.

Set-up changes were difficult - Xero simply had not expected to face the extra weight and Dave Beecroft did not want to make drastic changes as there were only five sessions all weekend: practice was over and only two qualifying sessions and two races remained. It was a case of ‘better the devil you know’ and keeping fingers crossed that some new rims could be found soon, rather than risking everything and upsetting the balance of the car even further.

It was no great surprise then that qualifying was also a struggle. Beecroft (above) explained that "because Dunlop weren’t expecting us to be running on last year’s rims they [understandably] haven’t got much choice of tyres here for us. The drivers are taking a long time to get any heat into them." Ricky took the first stint of fifteen minutes, to qualify for a grid position for Saturday’s race, but the tyre temperatures told their story, the driver having to wait until the last lap before setting a 1:14.973. A red flag for a smouldering Elise only three minutes before the end of the session had also hindered them, as the tyres cooled waiting at the end of the pitlane for the re-start. "It is fine on the quick stuff, once its up to speed we’re right up there with the quickest Porsches - like Mike Jordan, even with him driving like a nutter, but in the slower stuff we are not so good," reckoned Ricky.

Five minutes later it was the start of second qualifying - Peter Le Bas in charge of seeing where Xero would start race two. The track was greasy and the rain was starting to fall more heavily as the cars started their fist quick lap. So was the plan to bang a quick one in as soon as possible? Dave Beecroft replied, "of course, the gods have given us rain, so what else can you do?"

The rain was too hard though - a 1:38.829 could be bettered by cars on wets, so it was time to come in, put wets on and try again. This could be a waste of a lot of time in a fifteen minute session, but not as much of a waste as circulating cautiously on slicks for the rest of the session. When Peter came in, the rain had stopped and the strong winds were drying the track quickly. There was a lot of traffic out there, so the decision was made to stay on slicks after all, and out powered Pete again. It was the right choice as the competitor’s times proved, but Xero were unable to take advantage of the driest part of the session at the end. The rear end had ‘let go’ on Peter at the Old Hairpin and deposited him in the gravel.

Was it the extra weight, the cold tyres, the greasy track, Peter pushing too hard? It didn’t matter - he couldn’t regain the track so his 1:20.867 would have to stick. The evidence that the track had continued to dry was there for all to see in the final grid positions - Xero way down in 21st, and P. Le Bas would have his work cut out tomorrow, with no less than eight cup cars in front of him. "Its really difficult, we need a re-think because it’s really drifting in the faster stuff. Tomorrow should be fun though, with all those cars in front to go after." Ever the optimist, he wasn’t wrong! Great attitude, Peter.

So about that re-think: Dave Beecroft mused as the crew jacked up the recovered Corvette and set about emptying it of gravel. "We had such a good test at Pembrey - everything went so well. But that was three days of going round and round and round and Pembrey is an easy track. It’s more difficult here and things aren’t going our way, which is frustrating - the weight is making it very difficult for us."

Just before the first race Aiden’s mother Carol proudly announced that she’d had some luck on the Grand National - would she be backing a winner here? Unlikely, given the grid position and tyre/weight problems, but hopefully it was a sign of better luck than they’d had so far today.

The weather was something it would prove hard to gamble on as well - a dry track was receiving its first spots of rain as the car was started up, and these increased to proper rain - but the dull grey sky was almost impossible to read - how long would the rain last?

Already limited by wheel size to tyre choice, it wasn’t a case of "intermediates or wets", and wets looked like the right call anyway, or certainly the safest one, seeing as there may well have been a bit of cavalier "first day back at school" antics awaiting them on the track.

As it transpired, the rain stopped very quickly and intermediates (had they been available) would have been the right choice. The wets were only an advantage for the first four or five laps, the bumper grid cutting a dry line quicker than many had expected. Ricky had his work cut out from an unusually lowly position, but once the tyres became a hindrance, there was little he could do other than try and keep the car in a reasonable position to hand over to Peter, when the inevitable change to slicks was made.

Up until then he would have to battle with the front-running dailysportscar Cup Class cars - lighter and more nimble in the wet, it wasn’t as easy as he would have hoped. Soon however he was able to fight more relevant opposition, tackling Ferrari, Mosler and 2004 spec. Porsche RSR. A quarter of the way into the race and Ricky was a second a lap faster than the hotly tipped Jonathan Cocker, just 2.5 seconds behind and holding tenth place overall.

As the track continued to dry, it was clear from the lapcharts that intermediate tyres were by now worth about five seconds a lap, and any prayers for rain had remained unanswered - it was time to bring it in for slicks. Ricky brought the car in from eighth, a very good eighth in the circumstances. The tyre change cost them some time, but then most of the field would have to change tyres too. One of the onboard air-jacks seemed rather lazy in extending - a bad omen, because when Peter Le Bas sped out of the pit lane, he was dragging one of the jacks along the track - clearly something had gone wrong with the system, and there was no choice but to bring the car in again and get the broken component out of the way.

Such is the level of competition in this year’s championship that the team knew already there was little chance of any glory, and it was best to just get the car home, but Peter will always push and with two thirds of the race gone he posted the weighty car’s best time of 1:14.855.

It was all in vain though, a finishing position of 19th overall, 12th in class was not what this team has come to expect. "It sounds rubbish to give excuses and I don’t like doing it, but we have not been able to make the car work with all that weight - and that’s the truth," said Le Bas. Even boss Dave Beecroft agreed with Peter (there is a first time for everything!): "it’s pretty hard to be competitive when you’ve got the Forth Road Bridge chopped up and sitting in the passenger footwell." What a great explanation.

The new format of the weekend was taking some getting used to, and it felt very odd to be leaving the track at the end of the first day of the meeting with one sixteenth of the championship already gone. Still, it is a long championship and although Dave Beecroft could all but write off the weekend in terms of results, "it is giving us some good running with the new engine and gearbox which are working superbly." It was hard work for the crew as well - Saturday proved to be a non-stop day without even time for lunch, and Friday had been a late night too.

They would have to stay in good shape to cope with a fired-up Le Bas, ready to start race two on Sunday. Starting so far down the grid and behind so many dailysportscar Cup Classers, it was imperative to push from the start. "It was a tactic that was hard to do given the time it takes the tyres to get up to temperature, especially as the warm up laps were so slow, but I just kept going right for the inside of every corner, so if it started to slide I had space to run out of it."

It worked, Le Bas carving through the field and proving that N-GT cars are quite literally a different class! Soon he was linking up with the last of the gaggle of N-GT contenders (having taken the scalps of the Peninsula TVR and one of the Scuderia Ecosse N-GT Ferraris on the way). A clash between the Jones twins’ Porsche and a Cup car had sidelined one N-GT runner, promoting "Bas" (as the timing screens dubbed him) to a much more respectable ninth overall, a third of the way into the race. Once he caught Paula Cook in the Embassy Corvette we were treated to some great racing: "I knew me and Paula would have some friendly competition, but eventually I think she let me through," but their dicing dropped them back slightly from the leading bunch - though they were still very much in touch.

Paula re-gained the place when her line through McLeans kept her off the stricken Jones’ Porsche fluids, but Peter ploughed through it, running wide and losing time. "I found myself on my own after that and couldn’t gain on anyone. But the car is definitely feeling more normal."

After the hand-over to Ricky, Xero still sat ninth and Ricky faced little threat, but similarly had little incentive to push. Great pitwork meant they were stationary no longer than the minimum forty-five seconds, and rejoined in front of Neil Cunningham in the Embassy car. This was shortlived as the Kiwi was at this point on a real charge, and the fastest man on the circuit. A puncture for Mike Jordan in the highly developed JWR 911 promoted Xero a spot, but as it got greasy towards the end and Mike put in one of his spirited charges, Ricky had little option but to let him go and drop back from seventh to eighth. Within minutes, the skies opened and a classic Donington deluge brought the chequered flag out two minutes earlier than the intended one hour mark. Ricky was glad to see the flag - having caught an incredibly lairy sideways moment going into the Craner Curves - maybe he should try his hand at rallying?

All in all 8th from 21st on the grid was a great performance, especially with the car not being all it could be and with Saturday being something of a disaster. Sunday showed that an early charge, then staying out of trouble and keeping a good pace up without risking throwing it off, can still lead to good results, but we certainly look forward to the next races, where Xero can fight on equal terms all weekend - if not by Mondello Park, then certainly by Snetterton, where the Corvette should fly.
Paul Slinger

www.xero-competition.com