Silverstone Round - FIA European GT4

[RobinSherwood]

Hi,

I have copied below our race report for those that are interested in our progress over the weekend.

Robin

Team GCR arrived to set up at Silverstone last Thursday after three 15 hour days to convert the car from G50 Cup specification into a GT4 spec car. The team’s regular driver Tom Dunstan had done much of the preparation and conversion work himself under the supervision of Team Principal Mark Stokes.

On Friday morning when the car rolled out onto the Silverstone track for the first time it was the first time the car had turned a wheel as a GT4 car and the first time on Pirelli tyres so it was a new experience for both drivers. Tom quickly showed promise by occupying P3 on the timing screens as he found a decent setup for the car before handing over to Matt Hamilton who was equally impressive in his first run in a tin top, setting a time good enough for 6th fastest and the pair ended the session 5th overall. The second session showed further improvement with the pair ending in P4.

As the team were still gathering data on the Pirelli tyres the two drivers were given different instruction on how to approach qualifying. Tom was asked to go out and push hard straight away in the same way he would approach a G50 Cup qualifying session and Matt was asked to bring the tyres slowly up to temperature before going for a fast lap. The latter proved to be the correct method for the Pirellis and Matt did an amazing job for his first sportscar qualifying, placing the car 3rd on the grid for Race 2 while Tom, having had his qualifying compromised by the teams need to attain data, ended up a still creditable 5th on the grid for Race 1. His compromise was not in vain though as the data from the car after qualifying showed that most of the cars fastest sectors were set by Tom on his out lap, information the team can use to improve qualifying for both drivers next time out.

Team GCR were now quite optimistic for the races despite their lack of testing but their hopes were to be dashed in the first race, when as the cars made their way round the circuit on their green flag lap Tom suddenly came on the pit to car radio announcing the car had lost all drive! When the car was eventually recovered to the pits it turned out the car had suffered a drive shaft failure which after discussion with Ginetta proved to be the first ever drive shaft failure on a G50. Frustrating but outside the teams control.

For the second race Matt took up third place on the grid and waited to take his first ever rolling start. As the car thundered down the pit straight chaos erupted as Jody Firth slightly tapped the back of Matt in the Team GCR car and Firth then spun, collected a BMW and smashing into the pit wall prompting the Safety car to go out and dropping Matt to 5th in the mayhem. When the safety car came in after 4 laps the race resumed and Matt got his first real chance to race the G50 in anger. He struggled a little as the Pirelli’s had cooled down too much behind the safety car and when he brought the car in on lap 9 he was in 7th place as Tom jumped in. The team timed the pit stop to perfection and Tom calmly drove out of the pit lane to resume the chase. Tom’s greater experience in the G50 quickly paid off as he reeled in the cars in front and was quickly up to 5th place and gaining rapidly on the battle ahead between three cars for 2nd, 3rd and 4th places and on lap 13 he caught the Nissan 350z in 4th, coming into Club Corner, Tom saw his chance and dived up the inside of the Nissan and as they came round the corner the nose of the G50 was clearly ahead, however the Nissan driver hadn’t seen the hard charging G50 and turned into Tom forcing him onto the grass and into a spin. Tom kept his head and got the car back on track without losing a place and set off back in pursuit of the cars ahead and by the chequered flag Tom was right on the bumper of the BMW now lying 4th but it was too late in the race too make a move so the Team GCR G50 crossed the line 5th in its first ever FIA European GT4 Cup race an amazing result really considering the car was only finished on Thursday night!

Team GCR are delighted with the hard charging drive from their regular driver 18 year old Tom Dunstan and equally impressed with how 19 year old Matt Hamilton adapted to the car in his first ever sports car race having made the switch from single seaters. The team are confident once both drivers have had the chance to get used to the GT4 car they will make a formidable driver pairing.

The team is now looking forward to the next round at Adria in Italy in 2 weeks time.

[RobinSherwood]

And now for some pictures

The car in GT4 Spec with it's new headlights ablaze

[RobinSherwood]

Tom and Matt

[RobinSherwood]

Forlorn end to Race 1

[RobinSherwood]

In the holding area before Race 2

[RobinSherwood]

On the grid

[RobinSherwood]

The Pit Stop

[RobinSherwood]

Race Shots

[RobinSherwood]

Arty pic of Matt in the car, none of Tom as the photographer was hired by Matt's dad.

In anycase Tom had to wear a white helmet for the race as his painted GP5 failed scrutineering because it didn't have a sticker on it that is fitted to post 2007 helmets, this despite the fact Tom's helmet is 2006 and totally complies with all current safety regs, has curent SNELL numbers etc.,.. The FIA scrutineer was a complete jobs worth

[Chris B]

Great result Robin,well done to you all.

[Gee Wr1]

Well done the whole team especially the 2 young lads driving thats a good result for 1st time out in a new race series

Robin what are the main differences between the old G50 cup spec & the new GT4 spec?


ps Great report of the weekend keep them coming over the season please i love reading these write ups like yours & Dynamix's time attack reports

[RobinSherwood]

Well done the whole team especially the 2 young lads driving thats a good result for 1st time out in a new race series

Robin what are the main differences between the old G50 cup spec & the new GT4 spec?


ps Great report of the weekend keep them coming over the season please i love reading these write ups like yours & Dynamix's time attack reports

Thanks Gee,

It is a bit complicated because there are major differences between the 2008 and 2009 Cup specifications. We originally upgraded to 2009 Cup spec as, for Tom, that was the best way forward and in pre season testing we were the pace setters, even running old tyres from last year against better funded drivers on new tyres. In fact several members of the Ginetta management tipped Tom as favourite for the 2009 Championship but we can't afford it so there is no sense worrying about it.

When we realised we couldn't do G50 Cup and made Ginetta aware they very generously offered us support to do Euro GT4 as Richard Dean (Managing Director) wanted some fast G50's in Euro GT4.

So the limited testing we did pre season was with a big rear wing on giving downforce over the rear settling the twitchy rear end. That has to come off again for GT4.

The car has to be brought up to the homoglated weight of 1000Kg

We have to also run 50kg of 'equalisation' ballast (this may change round to round)

And all this weight makes a massive difference to such a light car.

We have to run higher ride heights (also part of the equalisation process).

We have to fit an endurance spec dry break fuelling system (a fair bit more weight)

We have to run headlights (another suprisingly big extra weight)

FIA Spec rear rain light.

In GT4 spec we run wider wear rims and tyres.

Other extra weight is gained by the necessity to run pit to car radio etc.,..

One of the biggest differences as I intimated in my write up above is running on Pirelli tyres where as in G50 cup they run on Michelin and they are markedly different both in terms of handling characteristics and perfomance drop off. For Tom this has been the biggest learning curve as he knows the car intimately but it now does not react as he instinctively expects it to. Though as the result shows he adapted pretty damn quickly!

What I didn't say in the right up is on the 2nd race we were 0.15 off fastest lap, and therefore third fastest car and 2nd fastest G50. Again not bad considering neither lad had driven the car in this spec. Tom set the time but no disrespect to Matt who was stellar considering he had not driven the car.

I hope that answers your query?

[Gee Wr1]

It certianly does Robin thanks for taking the time to reply

[POESY]

Certainly enjoyed the day out myself. The FIA GT series is worth getting along to folks.

Personally the GT3 series did it for me, loads of supercars on the grid and the new R8 GT3 is a thing of beauty. Couldnt beat the Morgan though!!

Caught Tom and Matt's race and it was a cracker too. Matt did well at the start sorting out all the mess and dealing with the safety car period, then Tom really did charge, tbh at the speed he was lapping we though you guys would be well on the podium, unfortunate overtake opportunity for 4th spoilt it for you. But we still cheered him on

Well done and good luck for the next round - is it on TV at any time soon Robin?

[The Swede]

Sorry I didn't make it on Saturday anymore.

Seems it has been a good race.

How does the follow up for the rest of the season look like? Will we see you guys race also after the 2nd race ?

[RobinSherwood]

Caught Tom and Matt's race and it was a cracker too. Matt did well at the start sorting out all the mess and dealing with the safety car period, then Tom really did charge, tbh at the speed he was lapping we though you guys would be well on the podium, unfortunate overtake opportunity for 4th spoilt it for you. But we still cheered him on

Well done and good luck for the next round - is it on TV at any time soon Robin?

From what we could see on the TV screen it was Tom's corner and he was a nose ahead when the Nissan turned in, still these things happen and if you dont try and pass you are not much use as a racing driver!

TV Schedule is here

http://www.gt4cup.com/television.php

[RobinSherwood]

Sorry I didn't make it on Saturday anymore.

Seems it has been a good race.

How does the follow up for the rest of the season look like? Will we see you guys race also after the 2nd race ?

We certainly hope so. It is now up to Matt's backer whether or not to put him in the car for the rest of the season, if he does we will be out in 2 weeks at Adria and our chances of doing the rest of the season would then be very good indeed.

Robin

[danr55]

Fingers crossed for you and the team Robin. Shame we couldnt make it to watch especially as we were driving past, but had to see family up North.

[WR1 Bro]

Sky+ set to record next Saturday. Hope to see your team in action.

[danr55]

Sky+ set to record next Saturday. Hope to see your team in action.

I often wonder how we lived before Sky+...

[The Swede]

Sky+ set to record next Saturday. Hope to see your team in action.

I often wonder how we lived before Sky+...

We had sex 4 times at nght instead of twice.

[RobinSherwood]

Well we leave for Adria today, 1000 mile plus road trip.

At the moment Matt hasn't got the funds to race this weekend so we are faced with running Tom solo

Fingers crossed for a decent weekend!

[danr55]

Best of luck Robin!

[WR1 Bro]

Do we get an update on your latest trip?

Struggling to find the program on Motors TV. Will keep looking.

[The Swede]

Do we get an update on your latest trip?

Struggling to find the program on Motors TV. Will keep looking.

I'm sure poor pasty will tell you all about it

[WR1 Bro]

Do we get an update on your latest trip?

Struggling to find the program on Motors TV. Will keep looking.

I'm sure poor pasty will tell you all about it

Why POOR pasty? Did he get lost again?

[The Swede]

Do we get an update on your latest trip?

Struggling to find the program on Motors TV. Will keep looking.

I'm sure poor pasty will tell you all about it

Why POOR pasty? Did he get lost again?

I hope they paid him a really fat fee for that trip because he really drove around half the planet for them.

On Saturday the other driver decided he had enough of the nonsense and flew back to UK. So pasty did the trip by himself and even did a detour via Venice to pick up Fraser

[POESY]

Do we get an update on your latest trip?

Struggling to find the program on Motors TV. Will keep looking.

A short phone call to fraser yesterday, they were still in france i think, and it sounds like the weekend wasnt as successful as silverstone. I believe a fairly badly damaged G50 is on its was back to the UK

I'm sure fraz or robin will give us the full facts, hopefully its repairable and they'll be back out racing near us again soon.

[RobinSherwood]

Just got back after the 1000+ mile drive myself. It is a long story for when I have had some sleep.

The shennanigans with the truck were outside Team GCR's control and I think that aside Pasty enjoyed himself but I will of course be making sure everything is sorted in that regard.

Most important thing from the race weekend is Tom was ok, the car is badly damaged but repairable (and is insured).

More when I have slept and I will write up a race report.

Robin

[WR1 Bro]

Sorry to hear it didn't all go to plan. Very much looking forward to the next update.