Olympic Gold Medalists cheer JRM Racing to seventh at Silverstone

Cheered on by JRM Racing guests, Team GB Olympic Gold Medalists in canoe slalom double C2, Tim Baillie and Etienne Stott, the JRM Racing crew of David Brabham, Karun Chandhok and Peter Dumbreck finished the 6 Hours of Silverstone in seventh position, fourth in the privateer class.

Tim and Etienne joined the team at its home race, cheering on the #22 HPD ARX-03a as it performed reliably in only the team’s fourth race of the FIA World Endurance Championship.

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

Photo by: Daniel James Smith

Just months after entering the championship in the ultra-tight LMP1 class, JRM showed solid improvement, racing competitively with the privateers.

The race was however not without incident as Peter Dumbreck – who started the race – was pitched into a spin at only the first corner.

The Scot rejoined the race but had a fight on his hands to regain track position amongst the LMP2 cars from 20th position. When he handed the car over to Karun 1.5 hours into the race, Peter was already back up to seventh.

Karun then started the first of his four stints in the car. Over the three hours he piloted the #22 he moved steadily up the order, first picking off the Strakka Racing of Nick Leventis by a rate of 5secs a lap. He then set out taking the #13 Rebellion and got past for fifth by the midpoint of the race. A spin through Copse Corner 1.5 hours from the end of the race dropped the team back to seventh, but undeterred, David took over the challenge to finish the race two laps behind the #12 Rebellion.

David Brabham: I think we were hoping for a better result but we learnt a lot this weekend. There were just a couple of things that got in the way, but otherwise it could have been there for a good battle. Obviously we lost some time at the start of the race and it was hard to catch back up as everyone is so quick, but we’ll take stock and I’m sure we’ll be stronger in Brazil.

Karun Chandhok: We’ve definitely moved on from the last WEC event we did in Spa. The speed is better compared to the rest of the privateers – I was able to match the pace of the Strakka and Rebellion for most of my stints. Then at the end unfortunately I was going into Copse and had to go on the marbles to get past a GT car and lost grip and spun.

It’s looking a lot more positive for Brazil and with a three week gap between here and Interlagos we can really look at everything and work out how to get everything coming together. It was also really nice to meet Tim and Etienne at the event and have some home cheer!

Peter Dumbreck: It was tough at the start. One of the Rebellions braked early, I was on the inside of him then he suddenly swiped across me and knocked me into a spin. I got back going but obviously I was really far down the pack then. Then it was about putting together some qualifying style laps and going for it.

We closed the gap considerably to the rest of the field but obviously we then had some issues that meant we couldn’t finish higher. All the same it’s been a really productive weekend - we’ve made positive steps and look forward to making more progress in Brazil.

Nigel Stepney, team manager and chief engineer: The car ran reliably throughout the six hours and for a great deal of the race we were on the same lap as the other privateers – despite the spin at the start. It shows the speed is there and we are getting closer and closer to putting together a good overall result.

It gives us a lot of confidence for the rest of the championship – we’re edging there. If we can get all the components together in the right order at the right time we’ll be very competitive in Brazil. Thanks also to Tim and Etienne for their home support – we really appreciated them being here and cheering us on.

Source: JRM Racing