Coming off the back of a brilliant sixth place finish at this year’s Le Mans 24 hours, JRM goes into the Six Hours of Silverstone this weekend brimming with confidence.
The result by the small team did not go unnoticed; especially considering it was JRM’s first event at the historic endurance race. They go to the Northamptonshire circuit hopeful of catching the leaders in the privateer’s championship, Rebellion Racing hoping that local knowledge will give them a strong result. The car will be driven by the regular line up of David Brabham, Peter Dumbreck and Karun Chandhok.
“We are really excited about the event this weekend. While it is our home race and it would be amazing to do well here in front of our fans, families and friends, the event is our first race in the championship post Le Mans and the first race we go to fully prepared,” team principle James Rumsey said.
“After winning the FIA GT1 Championship last year, we entered the WEC in the LMP1 category very late on and in just over a month, assembled a team and bought a Honda Performance Developments ARX-03a LMP1 car. Le Mans is where we started to hit our stride and the result showed how much ground we had covered.”
“Now we’ve got that confidence we need to hit peak form at Silverstone. Clawing back the points from Rebellion and going to the overseas races of the championship closer to them has got to be the aim.”
Chandhok made history for being the first Indian driver to start and finish at Le Mans and is similarly optimistic about the team’s chances this weekend.
“We know that Audi and Toyota are in front but the competition around us is hard, so our goal is to be the best of the privateers. It’s not easy but the progress we’ve made since Le Mans gives us a lot of encouragement,” he said.
“The team has definitely moved forward – we’ve analysed all the data, done some rig testing, simulator work and then the two days of testing in Aragon last week. We’ve made some progress on understanding the feel and balance of the car and working with the Michelin tyres and we are getting stronger all the time. Our goal has got to be the first petrol car honours; the competition around us is pretty intense as everyone wants the same, but we could get a podium if the race proves to be unpredictable in front,” David Brabham said.
“The test last week really helped to get us back up to speed after a long time out of the car so we can hit the ground running in practice. The car felt good throughout, we got a positive direction and David, Karun and I picked up where we left off. It’s a good unit we’ve got going across the team and drivers. We know that the competition will be tough as Rebellion had a great Le Mans and are a strong team and Strakka will be looking to make up ground. But we know we’ve got the resources and the confidence that we can see the flag at Le Mans, which is psychologically an advantage,” Dumbreck concluded.
