One to Watch: Richard Muscat

2014 was a momentous year in sportscar racing, as Bentley made a triumphant return to motorsport in the Blancpain Endurance Series, Toyota broke Audi’s stranglehold of the World Endurance Championship for the first time, and Tom Kristensen called time on his fabulous career. And for those who looked closely enough, this was also a year in which young Australian Richard Muscat’s talents shone through to mark him out as a future star in the making. 

Joining Betty Klimenko’s Erebus GT squad for an assault on the Australian GT championship in just his third year of circuit racing, Muscat duly won seven times in 13 races to seal the title in style, which led to impressive cameo appearances on the international stage at the Spa 24 Hours and the recent Gulf 12 Hour, where his Black Falcon team took Pro-Am honours and mixed it with the brand new McLaren 650S GT3 to finish fourth overall.  

All told it’s been a thoroughly impressive season, exemplified by the cool manner in which the 22-year old Victorian dealt with the intense pressure of the Highlands Motorsport Park title decider following a costly mechanical-induced DNF at Sydney.

Muscat leads V8 Supercar racer Garth Tander's VIP Petfoods
Aston Martin at Highlands Motorsport Park (Photo: Australian GT)

“Sydney really killed us; we lost forty or fifty points there, so the championship fight was really on from then on,” Muscat recalls. “Sandown wasn’t the best round and we came to New Zealand having never been to the track before, and Erebus had never been there either. There was a lot of pressure on that last round for sure, but we all got together to look at the track, decided what we were going to do with setup and when we hit the track first session and we were quickest, on the front row and won. It was definitely one of those dream weekends!”

If the championship decider was something of a dream, Muscat’s international debut at Spa had a more surreal quality about it. For a first taste of 24-hour endurance racing, the crash-strewn weekend of seemingly endless caution periods was hardly the ideal introduction, as drivers struggled to settle into any kind of rhythm.

“It was just a bit silly; I remember thinking, ‘what are those guys doing out there?’ They needed to recognise that it wasn’t a 6-hour race and to finish you’ve got to treat it like a practise session. If someone is quicker than you just let them go, because you never know what fuel load or what tyre life they’ve got. There’s just so many variables that go into the race. Of course you want to go as quickly as possible, but if somebody’s quicker you don’t have to risk everything for those two or three seconds down the road.”

But despite the scale of the challenge, having only driven 13 laps of the circuit before qualifying, Muscat was by no means out of his depth and managed to keep the car on the island throughout, where many more experienced others failed. Any hopes of a standout result in a Pro-Am class that also comprised Australian megastar Craig Lowndes were dashed by a rear-suspension failure, but as a learning experience, it was invaluable. Unsurprisingly, Muscat has his sights set on a return in 2015.

Muscat, pictured with Abdulaziz Al Faisal, would eventually finish 16th
in class and 34th overall after a rollercoaster weekend (Photo: Erebus GT)

“Spa is just one of those tracks you’ve got to respect - it’s definitely the most dangerous track I’ve ever been on,” he says. “You can’t just go there and expect to be on the pace straight away; if you do that you’re probably 95% certain to put it in the wall straight away. There’s such a huge demand on the driver the whole time, its high speed with the walls coming so close at Eau Rouge and every corner has got different characteristics. Some you’ve got understeer, some you’ve got oversteer, some the car gets light, so you have to be on your game. The history always plays a part of it as well, looking back at some of the Formula One accidents there you respect it a whole lot more.

“It was definitely a good experience, I remember that night when the race finished I couldn’t move at all, everything was sore, it was just crazy! I did eight hours all up, one single stint and four double stints, so it was quite intense but I really enjoyed it and hopefully it will be the first of many Spa trips.”

Still in the early stages of his career – the same age as Bathurst 1000 winner Chaz Mostert and just a few months older than Kiwi sensation Scott McLaughlin – Muscat has plenty of time on his side as he approaches the career-defining choice that many of his countrymen have faced. There is undoubtedly a promising future in international GT racing ahead of him, should he choose to pursue it, but the lure of becoming the next Lowndes or Jamie Whincup in the high-profile V8 Supercar championship is an undeniably tantalising prospect.

“They are very unique beasts,” Muscat said after sampling Will Davison’s Erebus Mercedes-Benz AMG E63. “I was talking to Shane van Gisbergen in New Zealand and he was saying that even for Jeroen Bleekemolen it took a few goes at the Supercar to get on the pace straight away – yet he can jump into a Viper, the SLS or whatever and he’s always super quick. 

"The biggest thing to get used to is the braking and the throttle application; you’ve got to maximise the pressure then bleed off as quickly as possible so it doesn’t pinch the fronts, but you’ve still got to have the pressure on the nose to get the car to turn in because it understeers quite a bit. Then you’ve got to feather the throttle a bit more because the tyre size is half what we’ve got on the GT car with 100 more horsepower and no traction control, and it goes away quickly if you get a little bit of wheelspin - which is easy to do when you’ve got 750-800 horsepower!”

Muscat celebrating his Australian GT title. He moves on to the
one-make Porsche Carrera Cup Australia in 2015 (Photo: Australian GT)

It’s not a decision to be made lightly. As the recent struggles of European exports Alexandre Premat, Maro Engel and Robert Dahlgren have shown, mastering V8s is no easy feat and, as Muscat himself points out, with only 24 slots on the grid, sponsorship will play a typically pivotal role.

For now, Muscat is hedging his bets. After two podium finishes in a one-off Porsche Carrera Cup GB outing at Snetterton, his next step will be taking on Australia’s equivalent championship against strong opposition including 2014 champion and three-time Bathurst winner Steven Richards, which he hopes will help his prospects of landing a co-driver seat come the endurance season at Sandown, Bathurst and the Gold Coast.

“It will probably be a busy year next year!” he laughs. “Carrera Cup Australia is our main priority, it’s kind of like a half-way house between Supercars and GT and if you can drive a Porsche you can basically drive anything. The Porsche championship this year has been just as competitive as V8 Supercars, there’s around eight or nine guys who can win it every weekend and next year should be even stronger again. Hopefully next year will be a good year, but as for the future who knows? Whether it’s V8 Supercars or GT racing, I’ve got experience in both cars now, so let’s see what happens.”

If his dominance of the Australian GT championship is anything to go by, wherever he ends up in future, Richard Muscat is certainly a name to keep an eye on.

Journey to Le Mans – A First Look

Telling the story of Jota Sport’s remarkable victory at the Le Mans 24 Hours, Charlotte Fantelli’s eagerly-anticipated Journey to Le Mans is everything a motorsport documentary should be. It’s a story of human endurance, conquering personal demons and, most importantly, passion, following the team from pre-season testing right through to the chequered flag, encompassing the many highs and lows along the way.

Journey To Le Mans tells the story of Jota Sport's
remarkable 2014 season. (Fantelli Productions)

As one might expect, the drivers are the stars of the show and in the form of rising star Harry Tincknell, relishing the opportunity to emulate his mentor Allan McNish, and entrepreneur Simon Dolan, whose burning passion to succeed in motorsport provides a focus for the picture, Journey to Le Mans has a strong human story to tell. Overcoming an enforced driver change on the eve of the race, sleep deprivation and biblical rainstorms, there can be no questioning how much it meant to all concerned to conquer the biggest and toughest race on the sportscar calendar. Ticknell’s beaming smile when interviewed following his first experience of the Circuit de la Sarthe was a joy to behold, matched only by the unbridled elation of the post-race celebrations with team affiliated drivers Filipe Albuquerque and Marc Gene.

Further interviews with team manager Sam Hignett, performance engineer Pete Webster and chief mechanic Bob Friend lift the lid on the camaraderie within the team, a vitally important, yet oft-overlooked aspect of motor-racing. This is powerfully underlined by footage of Jota mechanics waiting apprehensively for news in the immediate aftermath of Dolan’s violent accident at Silverstone, a haunting reminder that motorsport remains a fundamentally dangerous sport, despite the safety improvements made in recent years.

All the right people are doing all the right things; with the gravitas and authority that Sir Patrick Stewart lends to the narration and expert commentary provided by Radio Le Mans’ own John Hindhaugh, there’s a lot to like and plenty for the average viewer to engage with. And thanks to its slick editing and evocative cinematography that tells a story all of its own, Journey to Le Mans certainly doesn’t look out of place on the big screen. The film deserves credit for capturing the spectacle of Le Mans in all its resplendent glory, from the frenzy of the driver’s parade to the ethereal quality of the night-time interjected by headlights, all overlaid with sonorous engine noise. Petrolheads can’t go wrong.

If you’re a fan of motorsport, or any sport for that matter, don’t miss it. 

Renger van der Zande: Living the American Dream

2014 has been something of a breakout year for Renger van der Zande.  Having been forced to spend time on the sidelines in 2012 after a disappointing campaign in the DTM, the 28-year old made the move Stateside last season to resurrect his career momentum and landed a deal with Peter Baron’s Starworks outfit for the inaugural United Sportscar Championship in the Pro-Am LMPC class. America is famed for being the land of opportunity and Van der Zande relished in it, finishing runner-up in the points to the dominant CORE Autosport pairing of Jon Bennett and Colin Braun with wins at Laguna Seca, Road America and the season-ending 10-hour Petit Le Mans enduro for good measure.

Schultis and van der Zande celebrate victory at Road America (Regis Lefebure)

“It’s been an amazing season; to finish it off with a big win in such a classic event is a really nice feeling,” he said. “At the beginning of the season it’s always a big question mark where we are and it’s a very competitive class; you look at the top guys like Bruno Junquiera, Colin Braun and Jack Hawksworth, they are all very professional drivers who get their living out of racing and know how to win. With Mirco [Schultis] being my team-mate last year and this year, it’s also a question of how he will do, but we ended up with three wins and six podiums which is amazing.”

However, that’s not to say things have been straight-forward. Mechanical gremlins were a persistent nuisance throughout the year, robbing the team of valuable practice mileage needed to find the optimum set-up for single lap and long runs. That considered, the Dutchman has every reason to be delighted with the progress made over the course of the season, from a difficult run in the Daytona 24 Hours to ending the year on a high note at Road Atlanta.

“We had a lot of car issues this year with the steering, the electronics and so on, which meant we didn’t have a lot of time to set up the car, but during the race we would magic out a set-up out of the blue which worked, the car kept running till the end and we could finish races on the podium. It’s been a season where we struggled with the car, but when the moment was there to do it, we went out and did it.”

van der Zande took his first win in the USC at the iconic Laguna Seca. (Regis Lefebure)

The American style of racing evidently suits van der Zande, and it is in the United Sportscar Series where he believes his future lies. Discussions are ongoing for next season with Baron – who van der Zande credits with being the best strategist he has ever worked with – but it would come as no surprise to see him advance to the ranks of the Prototype category.

“I’m very happy to be there and I love the racing, with so many cars on track, so many different categories, it’s all about survival,” he reflects.  “As a driver, I learned a lot, and it’s also a lot of fun. 

“The relaxed way of how the Americans do their racing is something we can learn from in Europe. I still love racing in Europe; I did a GT Masters race at the Nürburgring and I finished third there which was really cool to do a podium straight away, but for sure my main programme for next year will probably be in America again because I’m enjoying it so much there.

“People say the tracks in America are dangerous, but that’s what we do, right? I haven’t seen any penalties for track limits during the whole season because the track limit is the wall, maybe you have a five inch piece of grass and that’s it. If you exceed the track limits, your car is broken! That makes it very challenging, and you can also see the respect between drivers is phenomenal. I think it’s because of those iconic tracks which automatically demands respect; you do a track walk at Mosport in Canada, or Watkins Glen or Road Atlanta and you’re amazed by the elevation changes. It’s really exciting to go out there and it means there’s more respect among the drivers – okay, we do touch sometimes but we have some really nice battles.” 

With the end of the regular season comes new challenges. Next up on van der Zande’s horizon is the ever-growing Macau GT Cup, against a strong international field consisting of Macau specialist Edo Mortara, circuit lap record-holder Maro Engel and newly-crowned DTM champion Marco Wittman to name but a few. 

van der Zande receives advice from Mercedes legend Bernd Schneider
before the 2013 Macau GT Cup. (Erebus Motorsport)

Macau is a circuit van der Zande traditionally goes well on – he took two fifths and a seventh in his four attempts at the Macau GP and ran competitively in the GT race last year before a final lap collision attempting to pass Alexandre Imperatori’s Porsche ended in the barriers. This time around, a win is the only goal.

“I just looked at an on-board lap from last year to refresh my memory and you can’t really describe the feeling of going there with such a big car," he said. "The SLS has so much power, good grip and good downforce which is really important on the streets of Macau. You’re driving from wall to wall and from the moment as you disconnect the pitlane speed limiter to going back to the garage it’s one big thrill. 

"The adrenaline is so high, you have to really concentrate. It’s always a big highlight of the year to come back there and for the brand, BMW, Mercedes, all the ones at Macau as well, it's the perfect challenge. To win there is something big and my expectations are to go for the win, I think it’s possible. 

"Last year at the beginning of the weekend I didn’t have the setup I wanted, but in the end we sorted out the car, I did P1 in the warmup and the race was very fast as well. I’m quite confident about being there with the GT car, I know have a very strong car to win this race with so I will go for it!” 

Comment: Opportunity Missed For Rosberg

Lewis Hamilton’s back to back victories in the Italian and Singapore Grand Prix couldn’t have come at a much better time in the title race. With electrical gremlins consigning title rival and Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg to a non-finish, Hamilton’s maximum 25 point-score puts him three points clear atop the standings for the first time since the Spanish Grand Prix in May, with 150 left on the table from the remaining five races.  Of course, three points is a far from insurmountable gap for Rosberg to overturn, particularly when one considers the Abu Dhabi double points lottery – but Singapore could well prove decisive come the final reckoning.

Rosberg qualified second in Singapore, but reliability problems ruined his race. (Thompson/ Getty)

One cannot legislate for poor reliability, but Rosberg appears to have lost his way since the now infamous collision at Spa that forced Hamilton to retire, saw the German branded a cheat and booed on the podium afterwards. Many had been willing to give Rosberg the benefit of the doubt in Monaco, when his error in Q3 brought out the yellow flags to deny a seething Hamilton the opportunity to set a faster laptime, but this latest misdemeanour – failing to yield to his team-mate when he had evidently lost the corner – pointed to his cracking under the pressure of an intra-team title battle as fraught as any in recent years.

It was a chastened Rosberg that emerged at Monza, where Hamilton again took pole position. With Hamilton’s sluggish getaway dropping him to fourth behind Kevin Magnussen and Felipe Massa, the race looked to be there for the taking, but two unforced errors at the first chicane gifted Hamilton a morale-sapping victory. Rosberg looked well and truly rattled.

That made bouncing back in Singapore all the more important to stem the tide. Qualifying just 0.007 seconds from pole clearly hurt – “damn it!” came his frustrated response to being told of the deficit to Hamilton – but with none of his steering wheel functions working on the dummy grid, Rosberg was robbed of the chance to respond. He was on a hiding to nothing starting from pitlane, unable to pass Marcus Ericsson’s Caterham with gear selection issues, no hybrid power and no DRS assistance and promptly retired the car for the second time this season. An opportunity missed, advantage Hamilton.

The German is without a win since Hockenheim back in July: that needs to change (Thompson/ Getty)

What remains to be seen is whether Rosberg can steel himself to fight back as we enter the business end of the season. Whereas his team-mate knows precisely how to win the title and is high on confidence after two successive wins, Rosberg has not visited the top step of the podium since Hockenheim back in July, a statistic he could do with changing next time out in Suzuka. Win there and it’s game on again, but another Hamilton win would undoubtedly prove a heavy blow to his title credentials. It's up to you now, Nico.

Richard Göransson in Profile – All-Rounder

If you haven’t heard of Richard Göransson before, then it’s about time you had. A four-time STCC champion, the 36 year old is one of Sweden’s top professional racers and alongside his regular commitments in Scandinavia’s premier touring car series, can be found in machinery as diverse as GT’s and rallycross – one of that increasingly rare breed of all-rounders with the insatiable desire to compete in anything and everything. 

Like his countryman Mattias Ekström, a double DTM champion who mixed it with the good ole’ boys of NASCAR before setting up his own rallycross team, Göransson has long held an interest in trying new avenues of the sport, stemming from his father’s hobbying in rallycross, a sport which runs in the blood in Scandinavia. But while a year of broadening his horizons is something Göransson has long desired, it largely comes about as the result of circumstance.

One of Göransson's many different ventures this year came in the Swedish GT
championship, driving a Ferrari Challenge with Martin Nelson (Martin Palm)

“Before when I raced I was so connected to BMW, so I had a lot of offers from different people to do different things, but I always said no,” says the Swede. “I’ve been with West Coast Racing and BMW for many years, but they had a tough winter financially and couldn’t offer me a good drive in time for this season – so having changed to another team which is not working so closely with a manufacturer, it opened up the opportunity for me as a driver to do different things, which fitted quite well with what I wanted to do this year anyway. 

"I said to myself that I would like to have one season where I evaluate different categories to try and find my way for the next three years, whether we’re going to do STCC again, or rallycross or GTs, planning for the future.”

It makes for a busy schedule and a lot of readjusting, as one might expect considering the evident disparities between a Saab TTA silhouette, 4WD Ford Fiesta RX Lite and his VLN Mercedes SLS AMG GT3, but that’s all part of the plan as Göransson evaluates his next steps. In the ever-changing landscape that is motorsport, even those with proven track records can’t afford to stand still. 

With rallycross on a seemingly indefinite rise, attracting FIA World Championship status for the first time and a cast list including 2003 WRC champion Petter Solberg and 1997 Formula 1 champion Jacques Villeneuve, there is no better time than the present to test the waters, especially in a transitional year where he is not expected to fight for the STCC title.

Göransson attacks the famous Höljes jump on his way to third
place in front of the passionate Swedish fans (Martin Palm)

“There’s a lot going on in motorsport at the moment, some championships are growing but a lot of them are decreasing as well,” Göransson points out. “On one hand you have rallycross, which is a sport with a lot of enthusiastic teams and drivers at the moment and on the other the STCC, which has been chaotic with different owners coming and going; it’s not been a stable championship. As a professional driver, you can’t just be in one place if you’re going to continue some more years because it’s tough to quickly change to something else.”

But that’s not to say the STCC no longer holds any appeal. Göransson is the first to admit that the championship has lost some of the lustre it enjoyed during the Super 2000 era before the disastrous split in 2012 – when the likes of Colin Turkington, James Thompson and Rickard Rydell elevated the series to one of the best touring car championships in the world – but the prospect of winning a fifth title, his first in the new TTA machinery, is one too good to pass up.

“Of course I would like to win with these new regulations, they’re good fun to drive with no electronic systems to help you, so it’s down to the driver and the engineer to get the best setup,” he says. “It’s a silhouette car, so they all have the same chassis, but they’re very well-balanced and they have a lot of power for Swedish circuits; they’re smaller than Knockhill, Croft and Oulton Park and quite twisty, so the only downside might be that they have a little bit too good brakes. 

“It’s a lot of work to prepare the car for different philosophies, to make it go quick in slow speed corners or braking or high speed and so on. It’s not like you spend a lot of money to develop a new suspension or a new engine, you spend the money on time to prepare the car and optimise it.”

Göransson took a season's best finish of second at
Gothenburg with his new team. (STCC Official)

Making that fifth title a reality would mean building Team Tidö, a young team in only its third year of competition into regular winners, but the foundations are already in place and the results will surely follow. After the Solvalla double-header, where he was joined at the team by the returning Janne ‘Flash’ Nilsson, Göransson sits fifth in points with a best finish of second at Gothenburg.

“I did the Safari Rally with Team Tidö and they asked me if I would be interested in joining their STCC team,” Göransson reveals. “It’s nice to have a challenge to help a small team and there’s some good people connected with the team who I worked with before when we won the STCC title in 2008 with Flash Engineering.

“Now when I race I want to have fun, so it’s really important to find a group of people to work with that you really like. Everyone there is committed to winning and when you have all these elements together then, if we have some time to build this up, I’m confident that we can have some success together.”

Beyond Scandinavia, the accolade Göransson really wants on his CV is the Nürburgring 24 Hours. The Nordschleife is a window into a bygone era of the sport and takes no prisoners. Up there with the classics of endurance racing, Spa, Daytona, Le Mans, success at the Nürburgring does not come about by luck. It must be earned the hard way, and Göransson has certainly paid his dues to the circuit over the last decade, a close second in the 2013 classic his best finish in eight attempts. 

The Nürburgring 24 Hours remains the one that Göransson really wants to win (Martin Palm)

Bad luck hit again this year as his ROWE Racing Mercedes was eliminated after being caught up in a few incidents, but the longer his wait goes on, the more determined he becomes.

“It’s quite interesting to see how there are drivers that do Le Mans and drivers that do the Nürburgring, there’s not that many that do both because they are two completely different races, even if they are both 24 hours,” he said. 

“I’ve raced there for many years and it’s one of those races I’d really like to win, but it’s so difficult to predict how it’s going to go even if you know on paper you have the package to win. Things can change so quickly in a 24 hour race with just one technical issue or one small accident. The check-box is not filled yet.”

British GT: Keen Puncture Gifts Team-Mates Brands Victory

Nick Tandy and David Ashburn capped a dream return to the British GT championship with victory for Trackspeed at Brands Hatch, although a puncture for erstwhile leaders Phil Keen and Jon Minshaw in the closing laps that robbed the team of a 1-2 finish made for muted celebrations. The Porsche works driver had charged up to second after taking over from team boss Ashburn and was holding position behind Keen in the sister car, only for misfortune to strike that also spells the end of the Demon Tweaks duo's slim championship hopes.  

Nick Tandy and David Ashburn took the spoils, but only after
Keen was forced to pit with five minutes remaining. (SRO Media)

“It’s always nice to get on the top step of the podium, I won’t deny that, but it’s a bit of a downer for all the guys because although we won the race, it could have been so much better,” reflected Tandy. “We’d discussed before the race what would happen if we were in front of them and it was quite clear that Trackspeed want the championship more than a race win. Their car was still in the championship hunt, so there was never any question of challenging them – it’s a real shame. We just wanted to finish side by side for a nice picture.”

Keen’s rotten luck dropped him to the tail of the lead lap in tenth, promoting the two Motorbase Aston Martins to the podium with Michael Caine surviving heavy late pressure from Rory Butcher. Omani Ahmad al-Harthy starred in the opening half of the race, making a perfect start from third on the grid to lead the opening lap, whereby he steadily set about building a cushion over Minshaw, Jeff Smith and Colin White, who would fall out of contention when he made contact with a slower GT4 car.

While Caine didn’t have the pace to match the Porsches after the stops, their second place ensures the championship will go down to the wire, although a fourth-place finish for Marco Attard means the Ecurie Ecosse driver needs only a 7^th place at Donington to clinch the title.

Sims and Attard combined to salvage an unlikely fourth place
that puts the latter firmly within reach of the title. (Own photo)

It was a result that decidedly looked unlikely after qualifying down in eighth and with a 20-second success penalty looming over them from Spa, a safety car caused by Andrew Howard pushing Derek Johnston into the gravel Clearways only making their task more difficult. But the telling pace of Alexander Sims – setting fastest sector times on his outlap and the race’s fastest lap on his first complete tour – meant the BMW was able to claw its way back into contention and into an eventual fourth place after a fantastic battle with Matt Griffin’s Ferrari.

“Quite honestly in my eyes that’s a win for us today,” a delighted Sims said afterwards. “That’s literally as good as we could have done I think. The first half of the race went well initially; I don’t know what was up with Howard and Adam but that obviously played into our hands and Marco did a solid job. But with the safety cars, it seemed like everything had just gone against us, but after the stop somehow we were in tenth position straight away – it was just a fight from then on. The dice with Griffin was fantastic, he really made me work for that, I’m very pleased that I could get him in the end for those extra few points and a bit of pride I guess.”

Crucially, fourth for Attard also put an end to Beechdean’s hopes of defending their title after a nightmare race that had looked so promising after qualifying four tenths clear of the rest. Howard dropped back immediately on the opening lap with a brake problem that first reared its head during the warmup and had lost two laps by half distance after a spin and the contact with Johnston. Jonny Adam would eventually bring the car home out of the points in 16^th.

“The pace wasn’t bad, but we just lost power steering through left handers, which was tricky,” explained Adam. “The championship is out of reach now, it’s just one of those things. We’ll try to finish on a high at Donington and get second if we can, we still have every chance. Motorbase aren’t far in front and they’ll have a pitstop penalty as well.”

Tom Onslow-Cole and Paul White were on course for fourth place
before problems held them back in the latter stages. (SRO Media)

Griffin was content with fifth given his 75 kilo weight penalty which destroyed the tyres, ahead of Alex Macdowall and Phil Dryburgh's PGF-Kinfaun Aston Martin and the misfiring Strata 21 Aston of Tom Onslow-Cole and Paul White, which had earlier ran ahead of Sims.

“We just had something trip on the car unfortunately,” said the former BTCC racer. “Our car was involved in quite a big accident at VLN last week and it’s been fully rebuilt since then, but I think something has just earthed out and it was an intermittent issue for the rest of the race after that. I was on the back of Matt [Griffin] and just biding my time. It’s frustrating, but at least we finished.”

That’s sadly more than can be said for Triple 8’s Warren Hughes and Jody Firth, who had ran as high as fourth on their first outing in the BMW following their switch from Trackspeed before a wheel detached on the perennially unlucky Hughes’ outlap.

“Jody had a fabulous opening stint to get up to fourth from tenth on the grid; we talked about the possible placements of the car for the first lap and what the likely scenarios would be and he absolutely maximised it,” said the Geordie afterwards. 

"We were going to be in very good shape once everything settled; we were first ones in, which would have given me a couple of laps on fresh tyres compared to the other guys, but the first lap out of the pits we lost drive coming out of Druids, then the wheel parted company by the time we got to Hawthorns. I’m gutted for Jody and gutted for the team - we’re just looking to Donington now to finish the season on a high.”

Adam Carroll and Gary Eastwood finished just short of catching Onslow-Cole in eighth, ahead of a recovering Keen who passed GT3 debutant Ryan Ratcliffe on the final lap. Northern Irishman Carroll hopes that BOP changes will be forthcoming at Donington, with Ferraris having struggled across the board this weekend.

“We worked hard for that, I gave it everything it’s got,” said Carroll, who also served a success penalty after finishing third at Spa. “We weren’t the quickest car out there by any means but we were very consistent right to the end. That’s the best we could really do today – it’s a truer representation of where we actually are than Snetterton was. The Aston is still too quick, it’s too good in the high-speed and too quick in the straight line, so a little more speed please and then we’ll be much closer.”

Wylie and Giddings all but wrapped up GT4 with victory at Brands Hatch. (SRO Media)

In GT4, Beechdean Motorsport’s Ross Wylie and Jake Giddings took a dominant victory to extend their championship lead over chief rivals TF Sport, with a little bit of help from the safety car. With a 20-second success penalty to serve after victory at Spa, Andrew Jarman only had to stay within range of Wylie in the first stint to inherit the lead, but all that changed when the safety car picked him up instead of the Beechdean driver to effectively gift Wylie a lap’s advantage over the rest. 

With the pressure off in the final stint, it was then left to Giddings to bring the car home in one piece ahead of a disgruntled Jarman and Devon Modell. Fox Motorsport’s Jamie Stanley and Paul McNeilly completed the podium finishers.

“The safety car helped massively because we could just bring it home in one piece,” admitted Giddings. “We’ve just got a bigger points lead now, so it’s more of a safety blanket for Donny. Hopefully if all goes to plan we should be in good form.”

Sims is also understandably looking forward to the finale; while he can’t win the title himself, having skipped Snetterton to race in the Nürburgring 24 Hours, delivering the championship for Attard would be the perfect way to finish his first season as a BMW factory driver – although he won’t count his chickens just yet.

“It would be lovely to end with a top result and [Motorbase] have obviously got a penalty for the next one, so right at the moment it’s looking good. But you’ve just got to look what happened to Howard and Adam this time, it’s not a given at all; we’ll have to approach it exactly the same way and do as well as we can.”

This article also appeared on Racing.GT.

British GT Qualifying Notes

Beechdean Motorsport took pole positions in both classes for the penultimate round of the British GT championship at Brands Hatch as Jonny Adam and Andrew Howard attempt to apply the pressure on chief title rivals Ecurie Ecosse. The defending champions’ combined lap of 2:52.477 was enough to see them four tenths clear of Phil Keen and Jon Minshaw’s Trackspeed Porsche, with the Oman Racing Aston Martin of Michael Caine and Ahmad Al Harthy just seven thousandths slower in third. Porsche works driver Nick Tandy set the quickest time in the Pro session, but would have to settle for fifth on the grid with David Ashburn when their times were combined. 

None of the top seven cars – monopolised by Aston Martin and Porsche – will have to serve success penalties, meaning championship leader Marco Attard and Alexander Sims will have their work cut out starting from eighth and with a 20-second penalty looming over them following their victory at Spa.

Sims and Attard are on a damage limitation mission this weekend (SRO Media)

“It’s going to be a very difficult race,” Sims admitted after qualifying. “It’s top-ten to score points and if we can do that then that would be good. I’d love to say that we can come through and fight for a podium but the Astons and the Porsche’s look very strong and with a car that’s maybe not the easiest to race with in terms of overtaking on the straights, it’s going to be tough.

“Hopefully Marco can have a decent first few laps and get into a good rhythm early on, or even consolidate our position and bring the car in around 7^th or 8^th position. I imagine there will be some making up to do because we’ll be sitting in the pits for 20 seconds, so I’m going to have to race hard and then see what we can do. This has turned out to be one of the weaker rounds for us when we thought might be quite a strong one, but hopefully we can bounce back at Donington. We’ll just have to do our best, that’s all you can ask for.”

The Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit is a rollercoaster thrill ride, with lots of fast corners and limited run off – a real “old-school” circuit, as Sims put it – where the speed difference between the GT3 and aerodynamically limited GT4 cars becomes truly apparent.  Traffic – already a problem in qualifying – could again play a decisive role in the outcome of the race and at this stage in the season, the championship too.

“There could be a fair bit of carnage,” warns Triple 8 BMW driver Joe Osborne, who will start 11th with new team-mate Derek Johnstone after a team reshuffle. “Now the championship is coming to a conclusion that’s always going to be on people’s minds. You’re going to see bigger moves on people, more risks with the GT4 cars, who are going for their own championship too, so they won’t want to let people past as easily. There’s a few factors conspiring that could produce a mad race.

“Derek can’t win the championship and neither can I, so my job is to do the best possible job for Derek, so he can prove to himself that he can get decent results if the package comes together. The car is a really good race car and Derek’s got good pace, so I think we can get a good result. We just have to stay out of trouble.”

Osborne hopes to stay out of trouble as no. 888 comes from 11th on the grid. (SRO Media)

Safety cars would suit some better than others. Championship returnee Matt Griffin was left to rue a 75 kilo weight penalty that limited the AF Corse 458 he shares with silver-ranked Pasin Lathouras to 13^th on the grid, but believes a clean race will be the team's best chance of making up for lost time.

“We don’t really want safety cars because it will negate the advantage that Pasin has over the other amateur drivers,” said the Irishman. “A top six is definitely realistic, if we’re lucky maybe a bit better than that. The race should hopefully even itself out. It’s just frustrating; it’s like you’re carrying a whole extra person around. I genuinely believe that if you take the ballast out then we’d be right there.”

For Beechdean’s junior team, Ross Wylie and Jake Giddings, the main concern is survival as they look to consolidate their GT4 championship lead over TF Sport’s Andrew Jarman and Devon Modell. Starting from class pole ahead of Rick Parfitt Jr. and Tom Oliphant – fresh from his ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in the paddock – will give them the best possible chance, but like Sims, as much as the championship weighs heavy on their minds, they can’t afford to drive too cautiously.

Oliphant was rewarded with a post-qualifying shower (Own photo)

“It helps that we’ve now got the gap, because if there are any risks, then we can just take it a bit easy and not risk too much – the hard work we’ve done to get the gap, we don’t want get knocked off and loose it,” Giddings said. “Around the back it’s so narrow, it’s going to be a real struggle to let [the GT3 cars] past. On the Indy bit it’s quite easy because you can let them by on the brakes, but round the back where we’re not slowing down, that’s the difficult part. It’s really about finishing, but we’re starting on pole so it would obviously be nice to win it.”

“You’ve almost got to put yourself in their shoes and think ‘where can I lose the least amount of time?’ There’s no point in waiting until they catch you and then thinking ‘what do I do’, you’ve got to think about whether you might be better off lifting somewhere,” adds Wylie. “That’s what separates the good drivers, you’ve got to think.”

Elsewhere, Dan Cammish’s qualifying lap in the GT4 Team Parker Racing Porsche was the essence of commitment as the Yorkshireman set the third fastest lap among the pros - “I’m pretty confident that I got everything out of my lap, I was on the verge of an accident most corners!” – while despite not racing this weekend, Jade Edwards was also in attendance supporting Strata 21 Aston Martin’s Tom Onslow-Cole. The 23-year-old from Maidenhead is aiming to return to the championship next year on a full-time basis, but in the meantime will be joined by sister Chloe in the Aston Martin GT4 Challenge at Donington next month. 

This article also appeared on Racing.GT

Catching up with Jann Mardenborough

It’s certainly been a rollercoaster year in the life of GT Academy graduate Jann Mardenborough. The Welshman suffered the abject disappointment of losing out on what had appeared to be a certain victory at Le Mans when a spark plug problem struck two hours from home, before taking the biggest win of his career in GP3 at Hockenheim, his first in single-seaters.

“This year has been one to show the development of what we’ve done since last year,” said Mardenborough. “Last year was really tough in F3 jumping into a single-seater for the first time, it was a massive learning curve, so it’s been nice get some results and see the improvement on last year.

Mardenborough celebrates victory at Hockenheim. (Credit: GP3 Media)

“Obviously Le Mans was unfortunate, but I know and a lot of people know that if we didn’t have that issue, then we would have won.  That’s a nice feeling to have, and GP3 is going well, in the last few rounds we’ve picked up a lot of points. Hopefully we’ll continue this form, keep on improving and see what we do next year.”

With Mardenborough’s backers Nissan announcing their entry to the World Endurance Championship next year in a fully-fledged LMP1 programme, it’s an exciting time for the 22-year-old, who was also added to the Red Bull roster in a development role over the winter.

“I get to use their simulator on a Tuesday, so before every race weekend I’m on the sim for three hours and then after that I’ll do physical training with them,” he said. “It’s great because I can go there with my engineer from Arden, prepare for race weekends, work on weaknesses and then if we’ve done our run plan we can help develop the sim as well, which is why they were interested in me in the first place. 

"It’s a win win for everyone really - the sim is a good tool to make your mistakes and try different things. The Pirelli tyres are very fickle, they have a very narrow operating window, especially in the race to get your head around that and to know what needs to be done at certain times is crucial. Silverstone was the icing on the cake for us, what we learned on the sim translated into real life which was really rewarding.

Mardenborough has found his time in Red Bull's simulator
enormously beneficial. (Credit: RedBull.com)

“It’s a personal goal of mine to reach the top of sportscars, so I’d love to be a part of a full factory LMP1 squad,” he added. “I’m not too sure what’s going to happen, whether I need another year of racing, but they’ve got my best interests at heart. Hopefully it will happen and I’ll certainly be pushing for that, but if not then there’s always the future.”

As for the present, Mardenborough finds himself back where it all began this weekend in the British GT championship at Brands Hatch, supporting team-mate Sir Chris Hoy. He’s hoping to avoid a repeat of the dramatic finish in 2012 that saw Jonny Adam’s Beechdean Aston Martin cross the line just 0.022 seconds behind in the series’ closest ever finish.

“It’s really nice to be back at the track where we got our first win in the championship with Alex Buncombe in 2012; there’s lots of familiar faces around the paddock, it’s great,” he said. “If we are in a similar sort of position again then I’d like for there to be a bigger gap – it wasn’t really enjoyable going across the line because I didn’t know if I’d won or not! We’re aiming for a podium and to try to get as many points for Chris as we can.”

Women in Motorsport: In Focus

Following Susie Wolff’s Friday practice outings for Williams this summer at the British and German Grand Prix, the spotlight has once again been cast on the prospects of females in motorsport, one of few competitive sporting disciplines in which men and women compete on an equal footing. With many questioning whether Wolff’s role as team development driver is merited based on her past results, even going as far as branding Wolff merely a marketing ploy, it is clear that there is still some way to go for women to reach full acceptance, despite having consistently proven capable of matching – and beating – their male counterparts on track. 

Indeed, during the Group B era of rallying, France’s Michele Mouton was one of the stars of the show in the fearsome Audi Quattro and won three times, including on the Acropolis Rally, en-route to second in the 1982 World Championship behind team-mate Walter Röhrl, while Danica Patrick made headlines around the world when she won an IndyCar race at Motegi in 2008. No signs of any lack of aptitude there.

Although much work is still to be done, Susie Wolff's appearances in free practice
for Williams have been an inspiration to many. (Credit: Christopher Lee/ Getty Images)

The inescapable fact remains that motor racing is a very difficult sport to break into and even harder to make a career from, irrespective of gender. But momentum is certainly growing and Wolff’s competent testing performances are a timely reminder that women can cut it at the top level, even if the likelihood of Wolff starting a race would appear some way off.

For 18 year-old Emelie Liljeström, one of four females racing on the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship support bill in the Clio Cup, Wolff’s achievements are a significant encouragement and can only be a positive step forwards.

“It’s cool, so cool!” she says. “A lot of the other drivers in formula cars are only there because they have money, but I think she deserves it. It’s really inspiring and I hope it can be an encouragement to all other girls who are involved in motorsport that if she can get up there, then we can as well.”

The lack of female role models in motorsport is an enduring and well-recognised problem.  As good a job as Audi Sport’s Le Mans-winning engineer Leena Gade and Sauber team principal Monisha Kaltenborn are doing behind the scenes, the sport craves a female driver for young girls to cheer and emulate; otherwise, the talent pool will remain small and very few will make it to the top in a self-perpetuating cycle. A large percentage of those girls that start in motorsport are only introduced through family connections, without which they would never have found their way through the door.

Liljeström (centre), pictured with Johanna Jovér, Emelie Moe, Kimilainen and Linda Johansson
 form a strong female contingent on the Swedish domestic scene. (Credit: Joakim Tärnström)

“I haven’t had any role models at all, I’ve always told myself that maybe I can one day be a role-model to someone else,” says STCC racer Emma Kimilainen. “If as many girls started racing as guys then there would be just as many talented girls as guys, but for now it’s hard to find a good talent because there aren’t so many starting – it’s not so easy!”

Kimilainen's sentiments are echoed by Mikaela Åhlin-Kottulinsky, who harbours ambitions of becoming the first woman to win the DTM and took a popular maiden victory at the Norisring earlier this season in the Scirocco R-Cup support class.

“You are absolutely right there, I would never have started out in motorsports without my family,” she says. “I was way more into girly stuff when I was little, such as ballet and gymnastics. Motorsport is still seen as a male sport, and therefore not many girls even think it's possible for them to drive a race car. The more talented girls we get, the more media we get, the more we show other girls that it is possible, and then hopefully we'll get more girls into motorsport.”

So just what does it take for a woman to succeed in motorsport? Beyond the obvious – natural talent is undeniably important, but can only go so far without a work ethic to match – it requires real determination and mental strength. Rightly or wrongly, it takes more for a woman to earn respect.

Åhlin-Kottulinsky celebrates victory in the DTM-supporting VW
Scirocco-R Cup at the Norisring. (Credit: VW Motorsport)

“To be a girl in racing you’ve got to be build out of certain materials, you’re got to have thick skin,” says Danish rising star Christina Nielsen. “Since I moved up in the classes and started racing against people who are a bit older, most of them are becoming more respecting and okay with the fact that I’m a girl, but it definitely takes a bit more to earn respect and it was a bit more difficult when I was younger. None of them like being beaten by a girl, that’s just the way it is.

“There’s going to be times when you’re beaten up mentally and sometimes physically on the track as well, so no matter what the culture you’ve got to have the willpower. You have to really want it because in racing there are probably more tough moments than good moments, but the good moments are that good that they make it all worth it. As much as they hate being beaten by a girl, I love beating them too!”

But for all the bravado, once the helmets are on and the lights turn green, any preconceptions about gender become inconsequential. Whether the opposition are male or female, every driver wants to win, not to prove a point, but simply because they love to race. Kimilainen is living proof of this; even after a four-year hiatus in which she earned a degree and started a family, the Finn couldn’t rid herself of the racing bug and while she admits that the realities of motherhood have changed her priorities, they certainly have not quenched her desire.

Christina Nielsen made her debut in the European Le Mans Series at the Red Bull Ring, 
having impressed in the Porsche GT3 Cup USA. (Credit: Imsa Performance Matmut)

“I was pretty lost in the four years I didn’t race,” she says. “I’m a really ambitious person and I wanted to improve myself, so I did a degree in one and a half years where it takes three and a half years usually. I thought I would be the best and the fastest! At the same time I got married, built a house, and then got a daughter, but even then I felt it was not enough, I needed to find something more to do, find something that I can apply myself fully. 

"Now that I’ve got the racing back it means everything to me, I’m so happy. For sure it’s tough to be a professional athlete and also take care of family life and so on, but there are people who have succeeded in it before so I can do it as well, of course with the help of my husband and extended family.”

With such a fervent passion for the sport driving her on, it should come as no surprise to see Kimilainen and others like her earning the plaudits in coming seasons and whether consciously or not, inspiring the younger generations to follow in their wheel-tracks. And with media attention at an all-time high amid Wolff’s F1 testing exploits, the signs are encouraging for a bright future. For anyone considering having a go themselves, “you’ve just got to jump in and try!”