Xero On Tour – 2005– Donington Park – Round 1
Here we go again – third term lucky for Xero?

Much has changed in the world of British GTs over the last two years, even the name of the classes, but one thing has remained a constant – the striking yellow Corvette of Xero Competition. It may be a GT2 car now and not an N-GT or a GTO as it used to be, and it may be driven by Ryan Hooker instead of Peter Le Bas, but it is still owned by Aidan Cole and raced by his son Ricky, under the team managed by the “jovial Lancastrian” Dave Beecroft. The technical crew behind the effort has also remained a constant, so the team certainly had momentum behind it for round one.

Ricky Cole was first to sample the Corvette in the haze of Saturday morning’s free practice session and though the car ran well, it was down on power compared with the front-runners. Whenever the Corvette found itself in a train of top class cars, they would soon drop it behind them, Ricky being powerless to claw anything back on the straights. The restrictors specified for the car for the new GT2 category were considerably smaller than last year and the effect was all too apparent, not least from MST’s speed traps. “The new restrictor sizes were only imposed on us a few weeks ago and they have hurt us more than the Ferraris and Porsches, we don’t really have the budget to explore what is needed with these restrictors in such a short time,” commented Dave Beecroft (Ryan, Dave and Ricky, below).

Two red flags made it even harder for Xero to work their laptimes down, but eighth for Ricky in such strong company was no disgrace. “We got some good data from the session but we screwed up on one of the tyre pressures and ended up ruining the tyre. Ryan is getting on really well with the car and I have to say, I’m not quite as nervous waiting on the pit-wall as I was when Pete was out in it!” Former driver Le Bas’ energy was notable by its absence however – doubtless he will turn up and cause some trouble at some point this season.

Ryan took the car over for the second half of free practice and posted the best time of the session with a quarter of an hour to go, a 1:10.813 holding onto the eighth place overall, ahead of the new Nissan 350Z and the Eclipse Mosler, for this race borrowed from Rollcentre due to accident damage in an earlier test.

Xero boss Dave Beecroft was buoyed by the session, despite knowing how much more competitive they could have been had the engine been breathing more easily. “They have both put in some long stints there and Ricky is doing an excellent job of educating Ryan in the ways of Corvette. Both drivers complement each other very well, and having similar driving styles will really help.”

There were some worries for the team going into the afternoon qualifying session, as the car had been losing water and there was fear of a potential head-gasket failure, but the other associated symptoms were missing. “We’ll just send them out for qualifying, but we’ll have to look after the engine a bit. It shouldn’t go bang, there would be plenty of warning signs before that happened. At the worst, it would just be a long night for the lads.”

Fortunately, Beecroft was proved right and there was no engine bang, though it was a disappointment for all to see the car aiming for only one fast lap in the hands of Ryan Hooker, with a less-than-optimum 1:10.817, then into the pits. “Short and sweet really, just bedding some tyres in and bagging one quick lap, just looking forward to a good race tomorrow now.” Ricky simply went round in the 1:12s and made sure he clocked up his minimum of three qualifiying laps, while also bedding in a further set of tyres. The Mosler improved from this morning’s ranking, knocking Xero back to ninth place on the grid, but at least the Corvette would start ahead of the new Nissan and the Ultima.

Saturday evening was a quiet one by Xero standards, the highlight being a Chinese take-away and an early night – perhaps this was a response to the heightened competition in this year’s championship? We’ll see if this evening form continues when they get to the next round in France, but I won’t be taking any bets.

The heads did come off the 5.7 litre V8 on Saturday night too and the gasket was replaced, everything running sweetly enough on Sunday morning’s warm-up.

Sunday afternoon came at last, and as Ricky guided the long nose of the Corvette onto the correct grid slot it became apparent that the Mosler was missing – it would in fact start late from the pitlane, after a last minute clutch problem precluded them from taking the rolling start. Ricky must have been eyeing up the extra room this may have afforded him, for a look down the outside into Redgate, but as they approached the green flag, McKever in the Nissan behind didn’t give him chance to get into the space, going for it himself before even crossing the start line, but dropping behind the Corvette into the first corner.

Ricky did drop two places on that first tour however – the Ultima finding a way past, as did the impressive #30, GT3 leading, Porsche in the hands of Westwood. Such was the pace of #30 in the opening laps, it appeared that it had been entered into the wrong class, an illusion assisted by the restrictor-choked power deficiency of the chasing Corvette.

“Each time I’d dive down the side of it, but it would just blast past again on the straight. When GT3 cars are passing you on the straights it's obvious you don’t have the power you should have. Those Porsches are so light and helped by their ABS, so they can leave their braking really late too.”

Caine had an early problem with a loose wheel in the Eurotech Porsche, forcing a pitstop and allowing Xero to move up, so once he finally made his move on #30 stick, Ricky was eighth. The Ultima was the next victim and Ricky was really getting into a rhythm, and sitting as best of the rest, ready to pick up the pieces in case the Porsches, Ferraris and TVRs ahead faltered. Brady wasn’t going to let the Chevy get away though, and for two laps they ran almost in unison, 16 Chevrolet cylinders beating in two very different cars. The Ultima found a way through at the end of that second lap, building up a little more pace down the pit straight, enough to carry him into the fastest line through Redgate.

Ricky’s rhythm was then upset by the demise of the Tomlinson-piloted LNT TVR, or more particularly the contents of its engine oil chambers.

“There was suddenly a line of oil or something all around the track, no flags though! It was sliding around everywhere at one point and the Ultima managed to go by as well as the GT3 Porsche again. It took a long time for the oil to clear up.”

The oil seemed to upset the balance of the Corvette more harshly than other cars, and Ricky momentarily dropped out of GT2 contention, having to fight off the leading – and squabbling – GT3 Porsches all over again. The Nissan was now starting to gain on him too. The lack of power meant it was rather desperate at times for Ricky to move through back markers, but once the oil had cleared up somewhat, and the track was clear ahead of the Corvette, Ricky managed to get back on it, catching the GT3 cars and eventually dropping them, and the Nissan once again.

It was a lot of effort for Ricky to work so hard just to get seventh place again, and the tricky running in the TVR oil meant the Ultima was now 20 seconds ahead, though Ricky was gaining slightly on Brady. The Nissan now found itself embroiled in a battle with the leading GT3 cars and McKever pushed a little too hard into the Old Hairpin, throwing it off into the gravel, no more threat to Xero from this car.

Ricky had a breather for the first time in the race and held his ground until making his stop (above). He was one of the last to hand his car over, though this wasn’t necessarily the plan. “The Morgan was in for a stop and their garage was right behind ours, so we wanted them out of the way before we pitted so we had room to do our stuff.” With 55 minutes to go, Ricky brought the car in from an artificially elevated third place, to hand over to new-boy Ryan Hooker.

Ryan picked up where Ricky left off. “I was generally out on my own but it worked out well. It's nice to have someone in sight that you can chase, but I didn’t really have that. When the top five did come past though, they didn’t disappear straight away, I had time to study where we were weak. We’re not miles away, maybe just second a lap, maybe not even that, and we’ll be there.”

Xero lost out to a recovering Eurotech Porsche in the hands of Mike Jordan, but seventh place was restored at the expense of the Ultima, parked up by Calum Lockie in the pit garage only minutes after he got behind the wheel.

Ryan was now doing Xero’s fastest laps, a 1:11.482 later being topped by a 1:11.283, not too far off the pace of the front-runners at this stage of the race with 50 minutes to go. Without the power the car deserves, Xero could only press on and drive an endurance race, picking up places from the casualties of the two-hour sprint race that had been going on for the entire event. The strategy paid off when intermittent electrical problems for the Embassy Porsche promoted the steadily-running Xero Corvette to sixth. This isn’t to say Ryan was cruising – he had to stay ever-alert battling through traffic, the highlight being an outstanding move where he split two GT3 cars as they ripped down the pit straight, threading the eye of a 120 mph needle perfectly.

The chequered flag came out after two hours and 101 laps of racing, Xero being three laps down on the stunningly quick #35 Ferrari. Hughes brought the LNT TVR in second, some 42 seconds down, then the Mullen Ferrari and Jones Porsche third and fourth respectively a lap down. Fifth was Mike Jordan, with Xero coming in sixth on the same lap.

“Ricky handed me over a good car and it stayed the same for the whole session, nicely balanced but needing a little more power. It was a good, solid stint and I think we know what areas we need to gain in. Its good to get a long run under us to build on, so it is onwards and upwards I hope. It is the longest run we’ve done in the car this year.”

Beecroft was in a good mood as he tucked into his post race idea of a “square meal” – a large slab of cheese. “We finished where we deserved to be I think, behind two Ferraris, two Porsches and a very expensive TVR. Ricky made the best of a difficult track with the oil and I just hope Ryan is as delighted as we are about his first race in a GT2 car. We just need to get this restrictor thing sorted out because it is absolutely killing us. Both drivers say we can live with anyone through the corners and traction is fine so it's pure acceleration we lack, and that is all down to power.”

If Xero can add power to the formula of balance and reliability they already have, they should be in a good position to score even more useful championship points at Magny-Cours in a month's time.
Paul Slinger

www.xero-competition.com