JRM Racing enjoys positive day of running at Silverstone

JRM Racing’s preparations for its home race, the 6 Hours of Silverstone, got underway today with two 90 minute practice sessions. The #22 crew of David Brabham, Karun Chandhok and Peter Dumbreck completed more than 400km over the day, with a program designed to consolidate the solid two day test with the HPD ARX-03a held at Aragon, Spain, last week.

#22 JRM HPD ARX-03a Honda: David Brabham, Karun Chandhok, Peter Dumbreck

Photo by: Lucien Harmegnies

The day started extremely positively with Karun setting the fourth quickest time of the 90 minutes, making JRM the fastest non-works team. After a refuel and tyre change, he handed over to Peter as a light rain began to fall, before David brought the session to a close.

Karun again opened the second practice with Peter taking over for two runs and David again bringing the session to a close. The afternoon focused more on race preparation with longer runs on used tyres. David set the team’s quickest time, 1:47.715, placing JRM 7th overall.

First free practice session: 38 laps completed Fastest lap: 1:46.491 (Karun Chandhok) +0.714secs

Second free practice session: 30 laps completed Fastest lap: 1:47.715 (David Brabham) +2.070secs

David Brabham: It was a good day all round. We did some different things on set up and then some longer runs with the tyres in the afternoon to see how they would last in the latter part of the race. We’ve still got some work to do on set up, but we are certainly there or thereabouts. We are definitely closer and more prepared than we have been in previous races, which is very encouraging. All the hard work the guys have done in the factory and at the test has helped and I think we’re in good shape for the weekend.

Karun Chandhok: We started the day very encouragingly, picking up where we left off at Aragon. The set up and the improvements we made seemed to translate straight away. The conditions were very different in the second session, with different weather and track conditions and the wind blowing in another direction. This morning we were clearly ahead but now it looks as though it will be a tough battle between ourselves, Rebellion and Strakka, but that is what it’s all about. I don’t think we are a million miles away from having a very good weekend.

Peter Dumbreck: In the first session we were very fast and hooked up. In the second session we tried to test the longevity of the tyres and seeing what the pace would be like towards the end of the race when the tyres are very used. It meant the pace didn’t seem as hot as in the morning but it was a good test to get our heads around what the car will be like towards the end of the stints. I hope tomorrow we will try some newer tyres to see the car in a different light and different situation.

Nigel Stepney, team manager and chief engineer: Today was about getting the drivers acclimatized to the circuit and running an LMP1 car round here. Karun has driven the new circuit layout several times, but never in a Le Mans car, whereas Peter and David needed to familiarize themselves with it. Karun set the pace this morning and we looked to be genuinely competitive. We ran through some settings for the race in the afternoon, trying to find a good balance on used tyres and understand their behaviour. The forecast is predicted to be changeable so we ran mainly ‘damp’ settings to prepare for the rain, but it’s hard to predict with any certainty – we have to keep our options open. It’s been an encouraging day though and we’ll keep working on it tomorrow.

Source: JRM Racing