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.”