JRM called upon the support of some Olympic medal winners to enjoy a strong run at the Six Hours of Silverstone last weekend.
The team were joined by Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott, who won gold medal in the canoe slalom double C2 at the London Olympics earlier this month. It was an Olympic effort by the JRM team as well, as the team raced well in only its fourth ever race in the World Endurance Championship.
It was a difficult start to the race for JRM as Peter Dumbreck was caught out in the congested start at the first corner and spun out. Thankfully, the HPD did not sustain an major damage in the incident and was soon able to pick his way through the slower LMP2 field, meaning that by the time Dumbreck handed over the driving duties to Karun Chandhok, the car was back in seventh position overall.
The car made steady progress for the rest of the race as they battled hard against rival HPD team Strakka, and the leading privateer team, Rebellion Racing. Ultimately the car would finish seventh, following a spin at Copse corner only an hour and a half from the end of the race.
“It was tough at the start. One of the Rebellions braked early, I was on the inside of him then he suddenly swiped across me and knocked me into a spin. I got back going but obviously I was really far down the pack then. Then it was about putting together some qualifying style laps and going for it. We closed the gap considerably to the rest of the field but obviously we then had some issues that meant we couldn’t finish higher. All the same it’s been a really productive weekend – we’ve made positive steps and look forward to making more progress in Brazil,” Dumbreck explained.
“I think we were hoping for a better result but we learnt a lot this weekend. There were just a couple of things that got in the way, but otherwise it could have been there for a good battle. Obviously we lost some time at the start of the race and it was hard to catch back up as everyone is so quick, but we’ll take stock and I’m sure we’ll be stronger in Brazil,” David Brabham said.
“We’ve definitely moved on from the last WEC event we did in Spa. The speed is better compared to the rest of the privateers – I was able to match the pace of the Strakka and Rebellion for most of my stints. Then at the end unfortunately I was going into Copse and had to go on the marbles to get past a GT car and lost grip and spun. It’s looking a lot more positive for Brazil and with a three week gap between here and Interlagos we can really look at everything and work out how to get everything coming together,” Chandhok concluded.
“It was also really nice to meet Tim and Etienne at the event and have some home cheer!”
