Thursday 15 May 2014

Catching Up With Adam Carroll

Its 2005, race two of the first ever weekend of the GP2 Series at Imola. Young Northern Irishman Adam Carroll is stalking Alexandre Premat for the lead and gets a terrific run out of the Rivazza, sticking a nose inside into the Variante Bassa chicane and forcing Premat to concede. As the Frenchman bounces over the kerbs into his path, Carroll gives it the full beans and his Super Nova machine performs an exquisite four-wheel drift to avoid a collision and take the lead at the same time. This was a special talent indeed, as further wins at Monaco and Spa demonstrated.

Unfortunately, budget constraints meant that Carroll, now 31, was never able to follow his competitors that day – Nico Rosberg, Heikki Kovalainen, Scott Speed and Nelson Piquet Jr. among them – into the realm of Formula One, despite conducting extensive testing for Honda. But following short spells in the DTM and IndyCar, and a successful stint in A1GP which brought Ireland the title, Carroll has now found his feet in sportscars, sharing the Gulf Racing UK Porsche 997 RSR with Porsche Supercup regular Ben Barker and Michael Wainwright in the European Le Mans Series. 
Carroll drifts past Premat on GP2's first weekend. (Credit: GP2 Media)
Joining his 2005 rivals Nicolas Lappierre and Gianmaria Bruni among the ranks of the manufacturers remains the long-term goal, but for now, Carroll is simply enjoying the cut and thrust of endurance racing.

“Of course [a manufacturer seat] would be great, but it’s never easy out there in terms of how many good drivers there are and people in good positions generally hold onto them for a long time,” says Carroll, who remains involved in single-seaters coaching young GP3 racer Ryan Cullen. “The sportscar world is very strong and as you can hear in the background that’s what real racing cars should sound like. I hope the fan-base will grow a little bit, especially with Porsche coming back and all the big manufacturers fighting at the front for Le Mans and in the GT class it’s the same, it’s so competitive.

“At first when you jump into GTs from single-seaters, you say look at it and say ‘it’s a big heavy road car, it’s a waste of time,’ but I tell you what, when you drive one they’re really impressive. You don’t have any downforce compared to a single-seater, so when you have over 500 bhp you’re really going fast! And it’s flat out all the time, so I really enjoy it. I’ll keep working hard over the next few years and then we’ll see where it leads to.”
Carroll celebrates Team Ireland's first win in A1 GP in Mexico
2008. He would go on to win the title the following year. (Credit: A1 GP)
Last season with Gulf in a GT3 McLaren was his first full season of racing since his A1 days, but you could hardly have noticed it. A daring pass on Edward Sandstrom at the final corner of the Monza season opener to steal third place by a mere 0.028 seconds was Carroll at his best, despite it being only his third ever GT race and his third in as many different cars, having previously raced a Vita4One BMW in abysmal conditions at Silverstone and subbed for Stephane Ortelli in the WRT Audi at Donington.

There has been a lot for Carroll to learn, not least how be lapped, a rare sight during his single-seater career but an elementary feature of multi-class racing and, as Carroll points out, a skill which is arguably just as important as the act of overtaking itself.

“That’s where you have to be really smart, if you’re a good listener and you’re very aware of what’s going on around you then it can only be a plus,” says Carroll. “You have to be fully aware because as much as you’re looking forwards, you have to be aware of what’s happening behind you as well. We’re just as fast as the LMP2 cars in a straight line, but obviously through the corners they’re just a bit quicker, so you have to judge how close one is and how much room you’re going to give them without losing too much time. You can’t stop and wave them past!"
Carroll attacks the Maggots-Becketts complex at Silverstone
last season in the GT3 McLaren. (Credit: Gulf Racing UK)
The going will undoubtedly be tough for Gulf this year in a Ferrari-heavy GTE class, with information sharing between the Porsche and their second car - an Aston Martin Vantage - somewhat problematic, but as far as Carroll is concerned, the pressure is off. And as some sterling cameos in Formula Renault 3.5, Auto GP and FIA GT1 over the years have shown, that's when he's at his best.

“The Porsche does everything you need it to do and I’ve really enjoyed driving it so far. We turned up at Ricard and the car did well over 1000km, which was pretty impressive. It just went round and round and round, everything was fine straight out of the box. 

"It’s a proven car in the 2012 spec, so all I can aim for is to get the most out of what we’ve got and at least I know at that point that there’s no more I can do." 

Whatever happens this season, write Adam Carroll off at your peril.

Sunday 11 May 2014

Pagenaud Plays His Cards Right To Win Inaugural Indy GP

A combination of canny strategy and expert fuel saving allowed Simon Pagenaud to start the Month of May in the best possible fashion by wining the inaugural Grand Prix of Indianapolis. The Frenchman was the first of those to have pitted under the final caution and inherited the lead when Oriol Servia was forced stop with three laps to go. Thereafter, Pagenaud kept his head and coaxed his Schmidt/ Peterson Honda to the finish, just ahead of Ryan Hunter-Reay and a charging Helio Castroneves.
Simon Pagenaud saved enough fuel to hold onto victory in the
closing stages from Ryan Hunter-Reay. (Credit: Michael Conroy)
The IndyCar Series’ first visit to the Indianapolis road course was full of incident from start to finish. Hunter-Reay’s crash at the end of a soaking wet qualifying - when he had already done enough for pole - cost him his two best lap times and promoted Sebastien Saavedra to a shock first career pole position, but the Columbian’s dreams weren't to last for long. The KV Racing Chevrolet failed to get off the line at the standing start and was hit hard by both Carlos Munoz and Mikhail Aleshin, the Russian submarining under Saavedra’s car, which fortunately didn’t clear the pitwall. Thankfully, all three were able to walk away from the wreckage, and after a lengthy stoppage, rookie Jack Hawksworth set about building a small gap over Pagenaud and Hunter-Reay, with Scott Dixon and Will Power rounding out the top five.

The order was unchanged after the first pitstops, with Hawksworth staying on the softer, red compound tyres and pulling away from Pagenaud on the harder, black tyres, before the race turned on lap 43. Having just lost fourth to Power, Dixon was perhaps over-eager to try and regain the place, diving up the inside into turn four and making side-to-side contact – not the first time the two have come to blows in the last 12 months – spinning the reigning champion in the gravel and out of contention. Power was able to continue, but running over an air-hose at his next pitstop earned him a penalty that would consign him to a disappointing eighth place finish.

Castroneves was the chief beneficiary of the caution, as he had just pitted prior and was able to stay out. While Pagenaud took Hawksworth in the pits, Hunter-Reay gambled on staying out, but it wasn’t long before the next caution. Making his first IndyCar start since Baltimore 2011, Martin Plowman lost the rear-end under breaking for turn seven and was launched into a wild airborne spin over the top of Franck Montagny’s Andretti Autosport entry, before coming to rest in the grass. Miraculously, the Brit was able to rejoin and finished eighteenth, although Montagny’s day was done, leaving the team with a lot of work to ready the car for Kurt Bush ahead of his planned assault on the 500 later this month.

Another caution with 28 laps to go to recover Graham Rahal’s car – having been bundled into the wall by an unsighted Juan Pablo Montoya in a carbon copy of the restart crash at St. Pete – was the cue for Pagenaud to come in again and top off with fuel in the hope of making it to the end. It was to prove the decisive, race-winning call, as race-long rival Hawksworth was left out on track behind Castroneves and Charlie Kimball on the blacks, unable to build a gap over the cars going to the end and had fallen too far behind to utilise the reds in his final stint. The BHA driver would eventually finish an unrepresentative seventh.

When it became clear that no further cautions were forthcoming, Castroneves admitted defeat in his attempts to pull off a miraculous one-stop strategy and pulled in for fresh tyres and fuel, setting off in pursuit of the fuel saving trio ahead. Fourth became third once Servia’s quest for a first win since Montreal 2005 fell three laps short, but there simply weren’t enough laps for Castroneves to catch Pagenaud and Hunter-Reay for his fourth win at Indianapolis. Sebastien Bourdais mirrored Team Penske’s strategy and finished fourth, ahead of Ganassi team-mates Kimball and Ryan Briscoe.


Elsewhere, James Hinchcliffe was taken to hospital with a concussion after being struck on the helmet by debris from Justin Wilson’s front-wing on the final restart. The Canadian immediately pulled off the circuit and was seen holding his head in his hands as he was carried away on a stretcher. He will be re-assessed by medical staff before he is allowed to drive again, with Indy 500 testing set to begin tomorrow.

Saturday 10 May 2014

Retrospective: Plowman Looks at the Bigger Picture

When I met Martin Plowman on a misty Saturday morning at Silverstone last year for the first round of the World Endurance Championship, he could have no idea where the year would take him. A sterling season with Oak Racing yielded victory after a titanic intra-team battle at Le Mans and the LMP2 class title at season's end and having now conquered that frontier, Plowman this weekend returns to the States for the Grand Prix of Indianapolis driving four-time winner AJ Foyt's no. 41 entry. 

Ahead of his participation in the biggest race on the US open wheel calendar, the Indianapolis 500 later this month, I felt it prudent to revisit our conversation.  On that day, we talked about his involvement with military charity Snowball Express, whom he continues to fundraise for today, the different mentality required for racing in the US and his motorsport bucket list. Enjoy!
Plowman en-route to second at Sao Paolo. (Credit: Oak Racing)
Martin Plowman is not your typical racing driver. Through his involvement with the Snowball Express, a charity dedicated to helping the grieving families of military servicemen, the 25 year old Briton has proven that there is more to life than just racing.

“A few years ago I did the Indy 500 Centennial tour to Iraq and the Middle East and that really opened my eyes up to what goes on over there. I saw the sacrifices they make and working with this charity which deals with the grieving families is something I wanted to be a part of. It’s not just another PR coup; it’s something we really wanted to do because it’s the right thing,” he says.

“The way I see it, in racing if you become the next world champion then so what? There’s going to be another world champion the year after and the year after. There’s always going to be someone faster and better than you who’s going to win more races than you. What’s the point? When you’re 62, no-one is going to remember who you were when you were winning races and championships, so if you can make an impression on a small kid because you helped make his day, then that’s more important than winning a load of trophies that will only collect dust..”

Those aren’t words that you’ll hear from too many racing drivers, but then ‘Plowey’ is not most racing drivers. Against the norm for a young British racing driver, Plowman spent most of his early racing career abroad and made his first steps in single-seater racing in Formula Renault on the continent with Prema, before graduating to the F3 Euroseries with RC Motorsport as an official VW junior driver in 2008. Astonishingly, he had never raced at Silverstone, the home of British motorsport, before the WEC season-opener in April.

“Sometimes feel like I missed out on the junior formulae over here and some the iconic tracks that we have; I’ve never been to Snetterton or Knockhill,” Plowman admits. “But on the flipside, I’ve been to some pretty cool places and had some great experiences.”

A move stateside to the Indy Lights series with Panther Racing followed for 2009, and it was there that Plowman started to flourish under the wing of Dan Wheldon, then a Panther driver in the main game. Taking on the challenge of oval racing, a new experience coming from the European circuits, was all part of the learning curve.

“I really loved it. In the beginning, I was lucky that Dan Wheldon really went out of his way to make sure I was ok with the team, he would call people and invite us out for dinner and get people together so I could make friends over there, so it was thanks to him that I started to find my way,” he says.

“It’s obviously geared slightly more towards fan entertainment, they like to use the safety car a lot more than we do over here; so long as no-one’s hurt then we’ll just keep racing. In the US when you have a nice healthy lead, it can be cut short at any moment by a caution, then off you go again. It definitely keeps the racing extremely competitive and tight, you’re always on your toes waiting for a crash to happen and the yellow flag to come out.

“There are situations where some European drivers don’t appreciate the skill level involved; they think it’s flat out and easy going in circles. I think any driver that goes over there with that mentality, that it’s easy, soon gets their ass handed to them, because they’re in the middle of a twelve car pack three-wide and ten-deep. You’ve got to realise that yes, you may be flat, but the car is on ice and you’re catching a slide every two corners at 180 mph.”
(Credit: Martin Plowman) 
Plowman’s second season in Lights with Andretti Autosport proved highly successful, overcoming Charlie Kimball in the inter-team battle for third overall with a breakthrough win at Mid-Ohio and a promising fifth in the Freedom 100 at the fabled Indianapolis Motor Speedway. This level-headed approach led to a three-race stint at Sam Schmidt Motorsports in the main game for 2011, with 11th in his final appearance on the bumpy Baltimore street circuit his best result.

However a restricted number of engines available for the new spec DW12, developed by the late Wheldon, meant that openings were limited in IndyCar, so it was the American Le Mans Series that represented Plowman’s best prospects of continuing racing for 2012. Signing up with Eric Bachelart’s small Conquest Racing outfit in the P2 category alongside silver driver David Heinemeier-Hansson, expectations were few and far between, but class wins at Mosport and Road America showed that the potential was there to beat eventual champions, Level5 pairing Scott Tucker and Christophe Bouchut.

“That came together extremely late because we were trying to piece things together for IndyCar and we were really close before things fell throw as you do, it’s the same old story,” Plowman says. “We were in talks with Eric over the off-season and it was definitely an option and then we went down to Sebring to watch the open test and I really liked what I saw in the ALMS paddock. I realised that there is a world outside of IndyCar and there is top-line racing elsewhere in the world, when you see the manufacturers there with Audi, Ferrari and Porsche, it’s a very serious championship. So we just thought we’d make a go of it, we had a good engineer, the car was proven, and Conquest was a very good team in that situation. I feel that it was a learning curve, but we did the best we could do.

“Every race we were there or there abouts and there were many times when we should’ve won and ended up beating ourselves, we threw it away. We didn’t lose it; we just gifted the race to the other teams. But that came down to the learning curve, there were mistakes from the drivers, from the team. Going into the season we had no expectations but we soon realised that we could have done a lot better. I think having that time again we would have doubled or tripled the win count.”

Plowman’s ability to quickly grasp the ins and outs of driving a prototype certainly facilitated a stellar opening season in sportscars and earned him a call-up from FIA World Endurance Championship outfit OAK Racing, yet Plowman retains his diligent attitude, conscious that there is still much to learn before he can reach the level of a McNish or a Lotterer.

“The driving style is actually very similar, it honestly didn’t take very long to get up to speed, less than 10 laps and it felt like an open-wheel car. For me the hard challenge was learning traffic management, dealing with slower cars and the Audis that come from nowhere and dive-bomb you and scare the crap out of you. It’s just learning how to manage a race because you can’t always be super aggressive, sometimes going into a corner behind a GT car you have to sacrifice some speed on entry but then blitz the exit and get them down the next straight, rather than charge in and loose three seconds on the next straight.
Plowman blasts down the Mulsanne Straight. (Credit: Oak Racing)
“It does take a while to adjust to night racing because your points of references on the track in the day aren’t there in the dark, and the headlights aren’t as great as they seem to be. You’re very low in the car, P1’s flashing you, blinding you, and you don’t know whether they’re right behind you or 200 feet behind you, you’re constantly on edge waiting for an Audi to come by. You can’t really teach it, every situation is different and it really does come down to experience. That’s why you’ll see some of the really old guys in sportscars that may not be the fastest on an all-out qualifying lap be fastest over a stint because they’ve got that experience.”

That same humility is reserved for Le Mans too. Plowman is set to tackle the twice around the clock classic with OAK Racing in the no. 35 LMP2 entry alongside his fellow ex-IndyCar racer Bertrand Baguette and silver driver Ricardo Gonzalez in what will be his first appearance at Le Sarthe and after a fourth and a third in the opening rounds, the British driver is eager to build on that promise with a good finish in the year’s most prestigious race, but knows it will be just as important to learn as much as possible from the experience.

“For me it’s huge, there a couple of races on my bucket list with the Indy 500 being of course one, and the Le Mans 24 Hours being the other one,” he says. “I’m not sure what to expect, I’m going to watch as many videos as I can and take on as much information as possible because it’s such a big race and you don’t want to go there being overconfident because then you can end up doing something really stupid, you’ve got to respect the track and build up slowly. The scary thing is we do the 12 hours of Sebring or the 10 at Petit Le Mans and you realise that’s not even half way yet. The teams are exhausted, you’re aching, got bruises everywhere and there’s still 15 hours to go.

“I do feel that the team is in a position where they have what it takes to win. The car is one of the strongest, the competition is very strong but I feel if we do our job and don’t make mistakes and don’t beat ourselves then I’d like to think that we at least have a chance to fight for the win.”

Plowey’s attitude to racing is a refreshing and inspiring one at that. On the platform of the World Endurance Championship and with a quick car worthy of his talents underneath him, we could well be hearing a lot more from him soon.


Click here to find out more about Snowball Express.

Sunday 4 May 2014

Huge Accidents Mar Enthralling Thruxton Meeting

Several large accidents marred the British Touring Car Championship's visit to Thruxton, as Andrew Jordan, Gordon Shedden and Colin Turkington took the spoils in Round Three. 

The Hampshire speed bowl is the fastest circuit on the BTCC schedule and famously tough on tyres, but it was the lack of run-off on the exit of the 140 mph right-hander at Church and the somewhat inadequate provision of tyre bundles - more effective as launch-pads than for stopping errant cars - that was the focus of much scrutiny.

Race Two was stopped one lap short after Nick Foster was tagged into a spin by Rob Austin, sending the BMW sliding across the grass and vaulting backwards over the tyre bundle. A shaken Foster emerged unscathed, but there was more to come.  Ollie Jackson crunched his Proton into the wall at the same corner in Race Three, before Simon Belcher's Toyota vaulted the barriers and cartwheeled into the trees. Another lucky escape, but more questions will surely be asked in the coming weeks. 
Foster (background) disappears over the wall at Church,
while Austin (foreground) made a lucky escape.
Despite the tyres being in less than peak condition, the race was restarted and Church neutralised by waved yellow flags, although that didn't stop Shedden appearing to pass Jack Goff under yellows.

Controversy aside, the racing was fast and frenetic, the BTCC at its brilliant best. Fabrizio Giovanardi was the chief beneficiary of the reverse grid to start the final race on pole alongside Goff, but it was Turkington who utilised the BMW's rear-wheel drive to make his customary lightning start from the third row of the grid to run second by the Complex. Behind them, Rob Collard knocked Adam Morgan sideways into Jason Plato, broken rear suspension ending the MG man's frustrating off-day early

Eager to make up for missing out on victory at Donington at the final corner, Turkington wasted no time getting past Giovanardi - having his most competitive showing since his return to the championship - and set about building a small lead, although the intervention of the safety car allowed the chasing pack to close up once again. 

After the second safety car for Belcher, the BMW set off into an untroubled lead as Mat Jackson in the second Motorbase Ford set about hassling his team-mate Giovanardi. The Italian eventually relented to the pressure with three laps to go, but was able to hold on for a podium finish ahead of race one winner Jordan, Shedden and a disgruntled Goff, with Aaron Smith recovering from an accident in free practice to finish seventh. Morgan recovered from his early clash with Plato to beat Sam Tordoff to eighth, with Collard a frustrated tenth after contact with both Dynamics Hondas, the second of which eliminating Matt Neal from the proceedings. 

The non-scores for Plato and Neal thus meant Jordan left Thruxton with a slim seven point advantage over Shedden and Turkington a further 11 points back in third. The five week gap to Round Four at Oulton Park might just be long enough for the dust to settle...

Friday 2 May 2014

Hartley Settling Into Stuttgart

Brendon Hartley still can’t quite believe where he is. Having made the switch to sportscars after his single-seater career stalled in 2012, just two years later the 24 year old finds himself in a factory seat at Porsche alongside 2010 Le Mans 24 Hours winner Timo Bernhard and a 9-times Grand Prix winner in the shape of Mark Webber.  

The Kiwi is very modest about his achievements, but it doesn’t take much digging to see why Porsche hired him to fly the flag at their Le Mans homecoming for the first time since 1998.

Hartley made an instant impact at Murphy Prototypes, with a podium finish on debut at Spa and again at Donington before combining an ELMS schedule with appearances in Grand-Am for Peter Baron’s Starworks team in 2013, where he was cruelly denied a win at COTA before putting those demons to bed with a stylish victory at Road America. 
Hartley was ended his Murphy career on a high note
with a win at Paul Ricard. (Credit: Murphy Prototypes)
Back in Europe, bad luck was never far away; leading comfortably before being caught out in the monsoon conditions at Silverstone and producing the ten fastest laps of the race at the Red Bull Ring after starter motor problems had ruled them out of contention, before eventually taking the team’s first win at the Paul Ricard season finale – that despite losing his front-right brakes...

“Obviously I’m very proud of what I’ve done over the last few years and I guess part of that is why I’m sitting here. But I’ve been so fortunate with how it played out, meeting the right people and having the right support, people like Murphy Prototypes who believed in me and gave me the opportunities – and also in America with Starworks – so it’s been great," says Hartley.

“In a lot of ways I’m still very surprised that [Porsche] picked me, there’s obviously a massive pool of drivers who had their hands up to take the seat, and a lot of fantastic drivers as well. So obviously it’s a huge deal for me and I’m very proud that I managed to get here. When I got the phone call it was just a wave of relief and excitement at the same time.”

The switch from the almost family-like atmosphere of the Murphy team to the massive organisation from Stuttgart is not one to be taken lightly, particularly as Hartley joined the project slightly later on in the developmental phase. Ever the professional, Hartley refuses to get carried away, but even he can’t conceal his excitement at getting the chance to compete for the FIA World Endurance Championship, which got off to a promising start with a podium at Silverstone and of course, outright honours at Le Mans.  
A lot of eyes will be on the no. 20 this year. (Credit: WEC Media)
“It’s a big change, I’m still sometimes pinching myself at seeing my face up there as a Porsche driver,” he admits. “It feels very special to be a part of Porsche, there’s so much history here in endurance racing and sportscar racing at Le Mans but it’s starting to become a reality.

“Everyone has worked so hard over the past year and a half to get the car to where it is now and we still have work to do, which is the exciting thing. We can see there’s a lot of potential and there’s much more to come; every day we drive it we’re constantly improving. When we have a debrief, even if it’s just a small part, the next time you come back its something different, so there’s a real development in progress. That’s just the dream as a racing driver to develop the race car and new technologies that be on future road cars as well.

“We definitely have a great top speed, which I think all the drivers down the pit-lane are going to tell you, so that clearly looks very promising for Le Mans, the guys working on the drivetrain have done an amazing job. The interesting thing is there’s a certain amount of fuel, a certain amount of energy we’re allowed, and all the teams have a different strategy as to how we get the best lap-times and in the end we were all four tenths apart between the six cars in qualifying.

The throngs of passionate fans waiting patiently outside the hospitality zone attest to the enormous popularity of the paddocks newest face. ‘The Webber effect’ brought massive crowds to Silverstone, and has introduced a new audience of Formula One fans to endurance racing. If he wasn’t already under the spotlight, Hartley certainly is now.
Hartley, along with Bernhard (left) and Webber (centre) made
the podium on the 919's debut at Silverstone. (Credit: WEC Media)
“It’s amazing to see all the people waiting for autographs; I can’t help thinking that most of them are for Mark but I’ll still be asked to do the odd one,” he grins. “It’s great to see so much support already, and Mark brings a lot of fans over and a lot of experience from Formula One as well, so there’s a lot I can learn from him and hopefully I can teach him a trick or two along the way. We’re all doing a good job, we’re all learning off each other I like to think, but I’m very lucky to have such experienced and talented team-mates.”

It’s easy to forget that Hartley is only in his third year of sportscar racing and still has a lot of years ahead of him. But to his credit, his feet are firmly planted and his humble attitude shows no sign of changing.

“Honestly I don’t tend to think too far ahead. I’m just focused on trying to do a good job this year, keep driving the car as fast as I can, like I always do and then hopefully everything works out.”

And with it all to play for at La Sarthe, you wouldn’t bet against him either.