I guess it’s fair to say that 2009 has been a busy year for Jonny Cocker.

The 23 year old spent his third season with Drayson Racing, partnering the team’s co-owner Paul Drayson in driving duties as the team began the season campaigning the GT2 class Aston Martin Vantage.

It’s a season the driver himself describes as “tough” and “testing”.  “We had a hard time again with the reliability and ultimate pace of the Vantage”, explains the driver as the team struggled against the more established Porsches and Ferraris that dominate the class.

The team started at the 12 Hours of Sebring in March, where the car ran well. However, the reliability problems that Cocker describes, his teammate Rob Bell parking the car with engine problems at two-thirds distance.

The team then moved to Europe, campaigning a second Vantage for the full Le Mans Series. “Splitting our season [between the US and Europe] only helped our racing,” said Cocker when TCF asked him what affect this ‘world tour’ had had on their season.

“The two cars were very well prepared by the Drayson Racing team and the people involved were consistent so it did not distract from our programme. We only ran the one race in the ALMS with the Vantage. It was the same car we raced there all last season so I felt comfortable. For me, the chance to race both in America and Europe actually added to the season. It was exciting and everyone was very focused and tuned-in to the challenge.”

A debut trip to Le Mans for the team served to lessen the frustration of the team, though once more the team were dogged my mechanical problems during the race, but as the season drew to a close came the biggest news for the Drayson team – the purchase of P1 Lola coupe chassis and Judd powerplant.

It was a change both Drayson and Cocker had to come to terms with, with neither having driven a prototype class car. “I think the biggest thing has to getting used to just how fast [the P1 car] is,” says Cocker. “That takes a bit of time, especially when you consider that I had never driven anything with proper downforce!”

However, even as the team were shaking down their new machine on the Stowe circuit at Silverstone they were determined to give their old car, the Vantage, the team had run since they entered ACO rules racing a proper send off at the final Le Mans Series race of the year on the Northamptonshire venue’s Grand Prix track.

The team qualified sixth in a fourteen strong, super competitive class. Jonny, takes up the race view; “I got up into P2 in the first 30 minutes.”

“We had been making really good progress with the Vantage GT2 all year and… I was catching the leader by half a second a lap and I was confident that when I caught-up I would be able to make a pass.”

But once more bad luck was play its role Cocker and Drayson Racing’s season. “I felt a soft rear tyre and had to pit with a puncture,” he continues. “That was just really heartbreaking to think that we could have been leading the race and been real contenders for a podium position!”

But if Silverstone was heartbreak, then Cocker and the team were to fall in love again, as the P1 Lola made its competitive debut at Petit Le Mans at Road Atlanta, where the team showed themselves more than capable with running with their new P1 peers, before first a loose wheel, then the weather intervened. Worse still was to come at the ALMS finale at Laguna Seca when an early race accident all but destroyed the car and the team were faced with a lengthy list of repairs just to make the grid for the team’s final race of 2009 – the inaugural Asian Le Mans Series at the Okayama track in Japan.

Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker celebrate in Japan

“The event was fantastic. It was a really brilliant end to the season,” says Cocker, and if it started well, it soon got better, the young driver taking pole position against opposition from Aston Martin, ORECA, Pescarolo and the Kolles Audis. “That was a moment that I will remember for the rest of my life!” he enthuses when we ask him what he considers to be the best moment of the season.

Unfortunately, the ultimate pace of the opponents saw Drayson Racing take a sixth, followed by a fourth place finish in the two races over the weekend, but Cocker takes the positives from a pair of performances that must surely rank among the team’s best.

“Okayama was the first time that I felt completely comfortable in the car,” he says. “Now I have made that step I think its just going to be a case of chipping away each time I’m in the car!”

“The switch to the LMP1 Lola has changed our fortunes. With the result at Okayama it’s really brightened up the whole year!”

“We had great pace all weekend and really established ourselves as contenders for 2010!”

Photo Credits: Regis Lefebure

The team, headed by former Indycar driver Bobby Rahal, pared down its entry from the two BMW M3 GT2 cars normally fielded in the ALMS to a single car effort, with the driving duties shared between Dirk Muller and Tommy Milner.

The team started the race at the Okayama circuit from fourth in the nine car strong GT2 class, but German Muller made his way up to second in the early stages of the three hour race. He then handed the car over to Milner at approximately half distance, and the 23-year old American took the lead, passing Wolf Henzler in the Felbermayr-Proton Porsche after 73 laps in what was one of the many times the lead swapped between the cars.

With an eye on the close battle the team chose only to fuel the car, with Milner staying behind the wheel and the same set of tyres remaining on the car.

The choice saved crucial time in the sort term, but Milner started to lose time to Marc Leib, who had replaced Henzler in the Porsche as they also opted for fresh tyres.

With the extra grip Lieb had caught the BMW with a paltry eight minutes left in the race and began to harry the back of Milner’s car.

Despite this the Porsche driver came up short with Milner claiming RLR’s second win of the season (after Mid-Ohio) by only 0.2 seconds.

“This was a tough race,” said Milner afterward. “As we didn’t change tyres during the pit stop I knew it would be a close finish. Marc Lieb put me under pressure, and I had to fend off his first attacks in order to keep my chances alive. I managed to do that.”

“This is a fantastic result. In qualifying we didn’t achieve the maximum, so it was important that Dirk gained some ground after the start,” added Rahal himself. “Our fuel economy and the pace of the car were very good. During our second pit stop we didn’t change our Dunlop tyres. Tommy then drove the race of his life. The Porsche managed to close the gap, but just couldn’t get by.”

Rahal Letterman have confirmed they, and BMW, plan a full ALMS season in 2010, starting with the 12 Hours of Sebring on March 20th.

The car, once more in the familiar Gulf colours and in the hands of Harold Primat and Stefan Mucke qualified fourth for the first race. The team quickly made up a place, with Mucke at the wheel, before battling for the lead with the Pescarolo and ORECA entries, eventually emerging victorious in time to hand over the car in the lead to Primat in the lead for the second hour of the race.

The Swiss maintained the lead for much of the middle portion of the race and after handing driving duties back to Mucke (and the winding out of the final round of scheduled pitstops) the team were heading for the chequered flag with only ten minutes remaining.

However, then came the news that the car would have to pit to repair cracked louvers on the front wings, with rules stating that a car has too finish the race with bodywork, a situation eerily similar to that which affected the Speedy Sebah team at the Le Mans Series finale at Silverstone in September.

With the offending bodywork taped up the car was back on the track, but down in third.

Things soon got worse.

The team were further informed that their tape repairs did not satisfy the rules, saying that the repair had to be mechanical. Mucke was called back into the pits, with the entire nose section of the Lola chassis replaced before the car returned to race, having lost another position, dropping to fourth, where is would finish.

But the results weren’t decided yet.

AMR believed that the team who finished third (the Kolles Audi of Oliver Jarvis and Christian Bakkerud) had similar louver damage, but had not been ordered to pit for repairs, or at the very least had not followed that order, as so questioned the validity of the result, claiming that had the Audi pitted Mucke would have remained third despite the extra stop.

The appeal was thrown out, prompting a rather annoyed sounding press release from AMR principal George Howard-Chappell ““It’s a disappointing result as we led for the majority of the first race but the rules state that the car must finish with all bodywork intact so, as advised by the stewards and to comply, we stopped for repairs,” he said. “The fact that this rule was not applied across the board is frustrating. The positives are that the drivers both performed extremely well as did the team but their efforts are not truly reflected in the result. Let’s hope this helps to highlight the issue and the rules are clarified for next year.”

However, any obvious sign of that anger was gone in time for the start of the second, and was probably all but forgotten by the end.

With Mucke again starting from fourth he quickly made up places, taking third almost immediately and fighting his way to the lead after only 15 laps, and pulled away at the head of the field, with a 20 second lead after the first hour when he brought the car in to hand over to Primat.

While Primat rejoined the race in fifth he quickly moved back into the lead as those ahead came in for their own pitstops before continuing the stellar performance by the Aston Martin crew adding another 20 seconds to the lead before the team’s second stop.

Mucke maintained the 40 second lead during the final hour, despite needing a splash-and-dash fuel stop with only eight minutes of the race remaining, with Aston Martin Racing adding another race victory to their 2009 tally.

“I’m so happy!” exclaimed Primat after the race. “This is my first win in sports cars and I am very pleased that it was with Aston Martin Racing. Stefan gave me the car in P1 and I had a consistent stint with no problems at all. I don’t think anyone was expecting us to be the fastest car on the track today, we surprised everyone including ourselves.”

The Anglo-American team, once more running their Lola-Judd P1 car, enjoyed good performance throughout the one weekend championship, which was run with qualifying on Friday and one race on each day over the weekend.

Driver Jonny Cocker ran the fastest qualifying lap (1:19.143) on Friday, before adding the fastest laps in both of the three hour races (Saturday 1:21.735, Sunday 1:20.561). The results the team recorded were promising, but perhaps tinged with a feeling of what could have been.

Cocker took advantage of his pole position in the first race to take the early lead, before a faulty headlight forced the team to call the car into the pits for a new nose section, a procedure that took long enough to see the team three laps behind when the Yorkshireman returned to the track. Paul Drayson eventually finished sixth.

The team was similarly dominant at the beginning of the Sunday race, with the works Aston Martin, driven by Stefan Mucke and Harold Primat, taking 20 minutes before it moved past Cocker into the lead. Owner-driver Paul Drayson was able to maintain a strong position for much of the middle hour of the race before handing the car back to Cocker for the final hour. Taking the car over in fifth he was able to catch the Kolles Audi R10, managing to snatch fourth from Oliver Jarvis in the dying minutes of the race to become the highest finishing privateer entry in a field which also included entrants from ORECA and Pescarolo.

The second race also saw the award of the Green-X Challenge for the most economical and competitive drive, with the team recognising the winning of the award as the accomplishment of one of the main objectives of the team.

“This is a perfect end to Drayson Racing’s first season,” said team co-owner Elspeth Drayson. “Winning the Michelin ® Green X Challenge ® is a major accomplishment that tops off an excellent weekend. Pole, two fastest laps and top-placed privateer team demonstrates the progress the team has made in just three LMP1 races”

Dale White, the team manager echoed those sentiments. “To win the Michelin ® Green X Challenge ® is just huge for us! This has been our goal and one of the reasons we moved to the LMP1 class. I am so happy for Paul, Elspeth and the entire team. We knew this was in us as a team. We know we have a lot more too.”

It is clear that the team, which is scheduled to run the entire American Le Mans Series season in 2010 feels they has a successful year ahead of them, with the team and drivers improving every race.

“I really felt I stepped up a gear during my stint today and got into the zone,” Paul Drayson enthuses. “I now feel more clinical in dealing with the GT traffic and so I was able to maintain a quick pace with zero mistakes.”

The 2010 ALMS season begins on March 20th with the 12 Hours of Sebring.