Success in Germany as F4H head for France.

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Published on Tuesday, 11 June 2013 22:55

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I had the pleasure of hanging out with F4H Motorsport for the 2 hours of Nordschleife this year and it was a fascinating weekend. They had a new recruit in the mists from Florida who went by the name Dion Drake so a lot of media attention and chatter in the pit lane was about this new talent. Jaguar had just jumped onboard for the weekend supplying the team with a RSR XKR GT while Ford continued to show their support to the team with their latest version of the Ford GT. The last time the Ford was in the hands of the team they finished 3rd in the N8 back in December. The surprise however was the introduction of Viper and Porsche. Veteran driver Gashi was chosen to test the new GTS-R. Viper are really trying to supply a machine to compete in this class but many critics doubt it is up to the pace or requirements needed in this collage of GT cars already established as the best machines and especially around the Nordschleife. There was no surprises in the names presented before this weekend with many big guns from the team coming forward as 'The Green Hell' is a place loved them. Not a feeling felt by quite a lot of people.

(Gashi in the Viper GTS-R during Friday practise)

Of course many eyes this weekend were on Le Mans which happens on the 28th & 29th of June. Many drivers in the team are reaching for their peak performance to guarantee themselves a seat in the teams cars which got announced earlier this week. Jaguar are continuing their affiliation with F4H as are Acura who supplied the ARX-01a last year have now supplied them with the 'little brother' in the form of the ARX-01b. This week however was about Nordschleife. It's a grooling track that shows little mercy when a lapse of concentration occurs. The field this particular year was very strong with no less than 19 teams making the trip to Germany. The start of the week was hampered with weather and by the time Thursday came around the sun started to come out and warm up the track. This gave the team a chance to get out and test the cars. The Jaguar which had the English driver and chief tuner Bret Whippy in the mix supplied an early surprise in the field with the car impressing early on. A time of 7:22:022 was recorded in a practise session and that would soon work it's way down into the 19's by the time Saturday arrived. The Ford on the other hand brought it's own pressures and expectations. Talisman and fore runner Dario Bullet from California slipped the Ford into the 18's in Practise 2 while his telemetry showed a 17 or even a whopping 16 was on the cards. Both teams had great depth. American drivers Dan Palmer and Tyler Diablo jumped in the hot seat for the Jaguar. Both drivers showed exceptional pace in the days leading up to the qualifying session which showed us that F4H had seen something special in the Jaguar with one eye on Le Mans next month. Rumour had it that these drivers had already been guaranteed a seat in the Jaguar for Le Mans with the exception of Tyler Diablo who was under contract/endorsement with Acura from his time in LMS.

(Image courtesy of Ford Motors: The Ford GT at a media shoot earlier this year to promote the race)

The Ford however seen an old partnership with 3 veteran drivers teaming up. Englishman Andrew Ascari was seated as driver 2 while Irishman Chris McGrath was driver 3. It wasn't the only Ford team with Jason Insanity driving a prototype build in the privateers with the Viper. The prototype Ford proved to have the legs on it's predecessor with Jason putting in laptimes all week that worked it's way down into the low 20's. I am sure this outting would be beneficial to both parties. The other Ford team had Nathan Rosso from England, the much anticipated Dion Drake and New Zealander Michael Warudo making up the other team. The last on the field was left to Porsche. With an emphasis on fire safety in Germany the team had decided to paint the car as a fire truck. Porsche was onboard with the campaign and a limited edition GT3-RSR was supplied with Englishman Ashley Ash, American Chris Gart and finally Darryl Hamilton who led the team to success at Le Mans last year.

After a busy qualifying session on the Saturday the team had much to be happy about but encountered it's fair share of competition and atrition. German native TPR Box would claim pole for Ferrari, Sergio Raoo1 of Spain in 2nd for BMW and Dario Bullet in the Ford was 3rd. The rest of the team blotted and dotted the top tiers. Here are the results from Saturdays qualifying:

The team was met with it's own share of bad luck come race day. Dario Bullet had suffered a gear box failure as the green flag dropped while Tyler Diablo had a nasty run in with the crest mid way through the race. With only two drivers in each team left for the contructors the news trickled into the remaining drivers but there was more to come. Bret Whippy had an outstanding race with Dion Drake but it was the American who pipped his team mate as the Jaguar was stuck in 5th for the remaining 15 minutes of the race. Gearbox failure again almost costing the team. Team firetruck lost a driver in Darryl Hamilton who's car burst into uncontrollable flames in the pits and the race was almost abondoned. They suffered a second loss when Chris Gart flipped his car on the 200 kilometre mark and he was lucky to walk away and gave the crowd a little wave when he walked back towards the pits.

(F4H Media shoot on Mad Tuesday. The teams contingent of old and new cars were on show for fans to sit in and take pictures)

F4H go into Le Mans with a strong showing at Nordschleife. With 2 teams claiming second and third in the constructors, Andrew Ascari finishing 7th in the Ford after an early scare which was backed up with Chris McGrath's 12th. Dion Drake became the second highest placed F4H member in 10th which was just in front of Bret Whippy in 11th. Dan Palmer ensured his team took a podium position and he was pushed all the way by Jason Insanity in the Ford. Both drivers finishing 22nd and 23rd respectively. Michael Warudo who had a massive crash in qualifying had a day of migling with the back of the pack and managed to work his way into 46th in a strong 118 man field while the Viper's new steering system is still something Gashi is trying to get to grips with as his Viper finished in 50th place. All finishing drivers found themselves in the top half and it's onto Le Mans for the biggest race of the year. After last years success there will be many eyes on the outfit as they look to lead the line again with success in LMP1 and bounce back from the mechanical failures which hampered them in GT. Ford proving that time around that it isn't invincible.

Here are the classified results from the 2 hours of Nordschleife 2013:

Constructors:

Continental:

Privateers:

(Bret Whippy leads Dion Drake followed by Chris McGrath)