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!”

Lotterer Brings F1 Feel-Good Factor

If one were to create a fantasy F1 grid consisting of the very best drivers who had excelled in other series, then sportscar star Andre Lotterer would surely be one of the first picks. And in an era where Formula One drivers are almost exclusively fresh-faced graduates of the junior single-seater ladder – the recent announcement that 16 year old Max Verstappen will replace Jean-Eric Vergne at Toro Rosso next season after just one season in Formula 3 being one convenient example – the surprise news that the German will make his Grand Prix debut for Caterham at this weekend’s Belgian Grand Prix, coming at the expense of Kamui Kobayashi, provides a welcome uplifting storyline to a paddock that has grown accustomed to a narrative of doom and gloom this season.

Andre Lotterer's selection by Caterham is one of the season's
 feel-good stories. (Credit: Ker Robertson/Getty Images)

Lotterer’s is a feel-good story of hard work paying dividends. After a testing contract at Jaguar failed to materialise into a race seat when Niki Lauda took over the team, Lotterer reinvented himself in Japan before establishing himself as the headline act in Audi’s sportscar juggernaut that has yielded three Le Mans 24 Hours victories in four seasons, in addition to the inaugural FIA World Endurance Championship. Drivers of his calibre don’t just grow on trees.

Of course, it would be unfair to expect Lotterer to replicate his heroics from La Sarthe this weekend. There is no getting away from the fact that the Caterham has struggled all season from a fundamental lack of downforce, while the quirks of the Pirelli tyres and a new team environment will inevitably take some getting used to. His first priority will be to beat his younger team-mate Marcus Ericsson, who has a whole year’s experience in the car under his belt.

Lotterer’s good friend and Super Formula rival James Rossiter is intrigued to see how he gets on, having himself tested a Formula One car for Force India last season.

Caterham have been uncompetitive this season in the hands of Kobayashi (pictured) &
Ericsson, but it would be a tough ask for Lotterer to get into the points. (Credit: Charles Coates/LAT)

“I had spent a lot of time in the simulator at Force India so that helped a lot; the only real change when I drove the car was that you had to look after the tyres,” Rossiter remembers. “When I was a test driver at Honda there was a lot more grip and tyre life than there is now, so I think that will need a little bit of time to get used to as it will be different from anything he has experienced before. But he should be on top of it quickly.”

At 32, Lotterer is not completely unprepared for the task ahead of him. The German is well versed in the technological complexities of the sport from his experience in Audi’s hybrid R18 e-tron Quattro and crucially has kept his hand in single-seaters, enjoying regular success in Japan’s Super Formula (nee Nippon) series, against competitive opposition including former Williams driver Kazuki Nakajima and HRT refugees Vitantonio Liuzzi and Narian Karthikeyan.

“I think it makes me a better driver because it’s very challenging, you drive almost as fast as a tail-end F1 car,” Lotterer told this writer in 2012. “It keeps me really sharp and it’s very demanding to drive on the very high-speed tracks like Suzuka, so when I come to drive the Audi prototype there’s virtually zero adaption time.”

Rossiter (second) believes Lotter's Super Formula experience will
be a useful advantage at Spa. (Credit: Japan Race Promotion)

“Actually I believe the Super Formula is faster in corners,” adds Rossiter. “We have a lot of downforce and massive grip from the tyres. We just lack a bit in the straight compared to F1. I'm looking forward to hearing what Andre says after FP1 about the difference between the two.”

And of all the circuits to make his debut, Lotterer couldn’t have hoped for a better one than Spa, not far from where he grew up and where unpredictable weather conditions come as standard. Certainly a little rain wouldn't go amiss in Caterham's drive to leapfrog Marussia in the constructors championship; Lotterer will be looking to emulate Giedo van der Garde's perfectly-judged switch to dry tyres, which saw the Dutchman take a surprise third in Q1 last season. 

It may well prove a one-off, and there’s no telling where he will end up come Sunday, but at long last, Andre Lotterer can truly call himself a Formula One driver. And that can only be a good thing. 


This article can also be viewed on Richland F1.

Job Not Over For Jota

If you were to ask anyone to come up with a word they would associate with sportscars, then chances are that ‘Le Mans’ would be the first thing to cross their lips. The prestigious twice-around-the-clock classic, which celebrated its 90^th anniversary last year, is almost as famous as it is difficult to win; a lot can happen in 24 hours after all.

Teams can invest hundreds of thousands of pounds assembling the best possible package and undergo an entire week’s worth of build-up – testing, qualifying, the ever-popular driver’s parade through the streets – only for their meticulous preparations to be undone in a split second, whether through a lapse in concentration, mechanical dramas, being caught behind the wrong safety car or some other such misfortune. To be in with a chance at the finish, every little component must run like clockwork. And following an early delay that cut them adrift of the leaders, that is exactly what Jota Sport did, with mishaps befalling other contenders to set up a memorable win in the LMP2 division.

But far from being hung up on their achievements, the British outfit have turned their attentions to closing the four-point gap to defending champions Signatech Alpine and sealing the European Le Mans Series crown. As Harry Tincknell points out, the hard work is far from over.

Tincknell looking composed before the start. (Credit: John Dagys)

“If you had the choice of the ELMS title or the Le Mans win at the start of the season you’d pick Le Mans every time; we’ve done a mega job and achieved our main aim, but now it’s all about refocusing on the rest of the championship,” he said as the series convened for round three at the Red Bull Ring in Austria. “It would be even sweeter if we could win this title as well.”

A wise head on young shoulders, Tincknell isn’t being drawn into the naïve conjectures that conquering the race they all want to win will guarantee an easy ride to the ELMS title. For one, Jota’s closest challengers after 24 hours were regular ELMS rivals TDS Racing, fielding their brand-new Ligier and Signatech, who inspired by a stellar drive from Paul-Loup Chatin, defeated Jota in a straight fight in the most recent ELMS round in Austria. As Jota know all too well, endurance racing has a habit of throwing up surprises when you least expect them – witness Simon Dolan’s dramatic crash in the Silverstone season-opener that robbed the team of an almost certain win.

“From our point of view nothing has changed in terms of the championship because no points were won or lost at Le Mans,” Tincknell said. “Maybe we might be a bit more respected – everyone’s looking at us and trying to beat us so we’ve got some really determined competitors now for the rest of the season – but our approach for each weekend stay the same.

“All the podium finishers at Le Mans were ELMS runners, so that shows you just how strong this championship is. Even though there are only eight cars, there are four or five which have a good shot at winning – it’s really going to come down to consistency and who makes the least mistakes.  Obviously we had that incident at Silverstone, but in terms of the meticulous preparations they’re just unbelievable and it says a lot that we’re still in with a shot at the championship even though we lost one round out of five.”

Victory at Le Mans was made even sweeter by beating their ELMS rivals,
although it counts for nothing in the title race. (Credit: Eric Gilbert)

His are sentiments echoed by Dolan, who admits that all thoughts of Le Mans had passed when he first stepped back into the car for practice in Austria.

“I didn’t even think about it until you mentioned it to be honest,” he admitted. “You get in and out of the car so many times, you go into your own little world and all your focus is on the buttons, not crashing at the end of the pit-lane, waiting for the board to come up and all those sorts of things.”

Nevertheless, he confidence boost Le Mans glory has provided is unmistakable. Everyone at Jota is walking a few inches taller and most crucially, the belief is there that on any given day, Jota are a match for anyone. It’s of huge significance especially for Dolan, the team’s ‘Am’ driver, who has come on leaps and bounds over the past few seasons having only started racing at club level in 2008.

“It does give you a kind of confidence boost because you’ve won the hardest one,” Dolan confirms. “I didn’t start racing until six or seven years ago, so from never having even been to a racetrack, watched a race, sat in a car, done anything to winning Le Mans, it’s really a very short period of time. Harry’s only 22 but he’s been racing for 15 years or something like that! Personally I think it does change you – maybe he’s too young!

“Of course you know you did it, but the further away you get from the experience the more unreal it becomes,” he added. “Obviously they are very fond memories. It’s just one of those lovely things that you can’t buy, you can’t get it any other way than by earning it and that’s the nicest thing for me. That trophy and that win means so much.”

Jota lift the winners trophy after a memorable fightback. (Credit: Eric Gilbert)

Considering the manner of victory, that fact is hardly surprising. If single-seater convert Tincknell needed any further convincing of Le Mans’ extensive reach, the team’s enthusiastic reception by the masses at Goodwood’s Festival of Speed – to which Jota were granted a last minute invitation – was something to cherish.

“I was really surprised by the reaction we got from the crowds; there was a lot more attention on our car than the P1 cars on either side of us,” Tincknell recalls. “It was great to be there actually on merit and to be a part of the event, being with all these superstars and these amazing cars. A lot of people like Felipe Massa, Webber, Derek Bell, who I’ve looked up to for many years were coming over and saying ‘well done’. I was just amazed that they know who I am! It was a surreal experience.”

As with any triumph amid adversity, this story begins with an unexpected twist. Jota’s preparations took a hit when they were forced into a driver change on the eve of the race, on-loan Audi reserve Marc Gene called up to replace Loic Duval following the Frenchman’s terrifying practice shunt. Fortunately, they had a more than capable deputy available in Oliver Turvey, who took four from five pole positions for the team in the ELMS last season, but familiarising the Englishman with a car he hadn’t driven since the previous September put the crew on the back foot.  

Turvey (right) was a last minute addition to the team in Gene's absence,
but acquitted himself well under the circumstances. (Credit: Eric Gilbert)

“It was a bit of a curveball,” Dolan admitted. “You always knew that Marc could go to Audi if anything happened, but it’s very rare that a reserve driver ever gets in the car, so we didn’t have very much of a backup plan. Of course as soon as we saw Loic’s accident we knew Marc was going to be called up by Audi and then you start to wonder ‘what are we going to do?’ Oliver was just the most obvious choice for us, we didn’t really need to change anything. We had to make him a seat and maybe we lost a few laps because he was getting up to speed in the practice sessions, if he had been there the whole time then maybe Harry would have got more laps in qualifying and got the pole. But that’s irrelevant really with hindsight – although probably not to Harry!”

Starting second, Le Mans debutante Tincknell got off to a perfect start to lead the opening lap before a delay to fix a loose bodywork panel dropped them temporarily onto the dreaded second page of the timing screens. But thereafter the Zytek ran faultlessly and as others hit problems, Jota steadily climbed the leaderboard and found themselves in the lead inside the final hour. Turvey had to pit for a splash of fuel with around 15 minutes remaining, but it made no difference to the outcome as Jota came home LMP2 winners and a remarkable fifth overall.

“I remember sitting there at 5 am feeling fairly despondent, looking at the cars above thinking that if they were going to break down then they would have done by now. Then all of a sudden the Brundle car had that problem and we just came back into it. Christ it was stressful but it was a really lovely way to do it! I think if we had gone out and maybe got a lap ahead under the safety car and maintained it for the rest of the race it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as the same as it was to fight back through the field and have all that adrenaline at the end.”

Despite a DNF at Silverstone, Jota are still in contention for the ELMS title. Here
Filipe Albuquerque pushes on at the Red Bull Ring. (Credit: ELMS Media)

Momentum is all-important in motorsports and with Jota riding the crest of the wave, the elusive ELMS title would be the icing on the cake.

“It would from where we started!” Dolan chuckles. “It seemed a long way off when I was lying on a stretcher in the medical centre, that didn’t feel so good at all.  As clichéd as it is, we’ve got to take it one race at a time, and we know from Le Mans that it just takes a second for someone to have a problem or equally for us to have a problem.

“As much as you prepare, you never quite know what’s going to happen. At the end of it, it’ll be what it is. We can only do the best job that we can, we can’t do anything about TDS or anybody else, we just have to go out there and get as many points on the board as we can.”

Emma Kimilainen: Earning Respect

As the only female racing in the Scandinavian Touring Car Championship, Emma Kimilainen is used to attention. But after a second-place finish at Falkenberg in July, the 25-year-old Finn is hopeful that will be for her on-track performances – and not her gender – that she is recognised.

After only three weekends back in a racing car following four years out of the sport, in which she earned a degree from the University of Applied Sciences in Business, Marketing and Logistics and also started a family, Kimilainen impressed many by holding off defending champion Thed Bjork while sustaining pressure on leader Philip Forsman in the closing laps of the reversed grid race.

Kimilainen celebrates her first STCC podium. (Credit: Martin Oberg)

Without a small mistake on cold tyres, following a safety car that had eroded her comfortable early lead, Kimilainen could even have scored a breakthrough win – not a bad result considering her unfamiliarity with PWR Racing’s new chassis, the old one having been written off after sustaining heavy damage at the Gothenburg City Race.

“It was a good weekend, apart from in the second race when I had a flat tyre so I didn’t finish. [The podium] definitely helps with confidence,” she said. “I also had a completely new car which I had to learn in time for qualifying as well; it wasn’t that easy to find a good setup for it because it didn’t work the same as the old one. We just worked some magic with the setup overnight and then after two laps I was looking in the mirrors and I couldn’t see anybody! Everything was okay, it was really exciting to lead.”

After her most competitive showing to date in a season plagued by bad luck, Kimilainen is optimistic that her fellow competitors are now starting to view her as a credible rival. Round four at Knutstorp seemingly can’t come soon enough, with more leaps forward anticipated.

The Finn hopes she has earned the respect of her rivals after
running up front at Falkenberg. (Credit: Martin Oberg)

“It’s pretty tough in the beginning to come to a new championship and be accepted,” she admits. “It usually takes about half a season or so and then the respect from the other drivers starts to come, especially since Thed Bjork tried everything he could but couldn’t overtake me [at Falkenberg]. Hopefully I now have some more respect than I had before and maybe they’ll not just think that it’s okay to push me off the track!

“I feel at home in Sweden and the STCC. It’s the most professional series I’ve ever driven, it’s a really tough championship and the cars are great to drive. It’s great to be in the main championship and not in one of the support classes like I’ve been in before.”