JRM Racing took its first ever podium finish in the Blancpain Endurance Series at Paul Ricard.
The #23 Nissan GT-R Nismo GT3 Pro car of Peter Dumbreck, Lucas Luhr and Steven Kane ended the race in third after a strong start to the race saw Dumbreck move up to fifth after just five laps, while the #230 Pro-Am class trio of Matt Bell, Humaid Al Masaood and Charles Bateman stormed to a potential class podium, despite starting 20th on the grid.
“I felt good straight away,” said Dumbreck. “I was able to pass a few cars and the tyres took their normal drop, but it leveled out and was consistent. I was able to drive the car as I wanted to drive it. The cars in front seemed to drop a bit more on their tyres so I was able to pull them in at the end of the stint. So I’m happy: to come from eighth on the grid to fifth in one stint is good.”
“I had a good start and managed to make my way through the pack well,” added Bell. “The car and the pace was brilliant and even better in the open air – trying to get through the traffic was tricky. But to gain 11 positions in one stint isn’t a bad start and our pace at the end was still good. Starting behind the Safety Car was the best possible idea – with so many cars on the grid it was a sensible idea and definitely the right thing. Maybe we could do this at the rest of the races.”
“An excellent result for the whole team,” concluded Team Principle James Rumsey. “A podium finish was our objective before the start of the weekend and that’s exactly what we’ve achieved, so we can be very proud. The lap times were good throughout the whole race, and even though we had some problems during the change from Lucas to Steven – when the seat adjuster failed and we were not able to put the seat forward – we were able to continue fighting for top positions. I want to congratulate the whole team, everyone deserves this podium finish after all the hard work we’ve put into this weekend. The negative part of the day was this morning’s tragic news. On behalf of the whole team I want to send our commiserations to Andrea Mame’s family and friends.”
