The quartet of Nissan runners in the FIA GT1 World Championship endured a frustrating Championship Race at Interlagos, the British based Sumo Power squad leading the brand's charge once more.
Peter Dumbreck had started from the outside of the front row for the team in the number in the no.23 car after he a co-driver Michael Krumm had worked their way up from sixth in the first of the weekend's hour long races.
It was a position the Scot was able to maintain in his opening stint, part of a tight lead pack consisting of the leading six cars where Dumbreck described himself as “quite comfortably” able to match leader Tomas Enge's pace.
Both Enge and Dumbreck were among a gaggle of drivers to make their mandatory driver change stops as soon as the pit window opened after 25 minutes of racing. Dumbreck bailed from the GT-R without incident however, a small stutter as Krumm pulled away was enough to see them rejoin at the back of the tight lead pack, down in fifth.
Even after the delay the pair were by far the best placed Nissan representative.
Their Sumo Power teammates – Warren Hughes and Jamie Campbell-Walter – struggled with an ill-handling car after set-up changes overnight made a situation already exacerbated by 20kg of ballast at tyre torturing heat even worse.
Campbell-Walter had started the car but had lost places by the time he handed the no.22 entry to Hughes who would ultimately retire the car with an unidentified vibration.
The Swiss Racing Team struggled for consistent race pace again, though driver Henri Moser posted lap times close to those of the leaders, but only late in the race when out of contention.
Starting in midfield both starting SRT drivers opted out of the physical racing in the opening laps, which led to both losing positions. Despite Moser's efforts the car he shared with Karl Wendlinger could only finish eighteenth, two places behind their teammate Seiji Ara and Max Nilsson even though the Japanese earnt the duo a drive through penalty for pit lane speeding on his way into the pits.
Michael Krumm would finish sixth – being passed on the last lap by Bas Leinders in a Marc VDS Ford GT.
“It's a shame we couldn’t take more points out of the weekend,” said Krumm. “A podium – and the points that go with it – would have been good today but we were a little bit too slow. We will have to work harder for next weekend in Argentina.”
Their result, coupled with the retirement of their teammates dropped Sumo Power down to fourth in the teams' title with just one race remaining – December 5 at San Luis.
