LMES Rd 4 ~ Nurburgring

Free Practice (1st session 12.55, 2nd session 16.55)

After arriving in a warm, dry Germany the day before, Friday morning was very wet and cold. By the time of first practice the track remained heavily damp but conditions improved throughout the day. A good day's set up, with JMW Motorsport fastest and second fastest repsectively in the two free practice sessions.

Saturday 22 August 2009

Free Practice (3rd session 08.45)

Early morning and the weather was much improved. JMW topped the times again.

Qualifying (13.40)

Rob was behind the wheel for the qualifying session, which took place in fair, dry conditions. It was a real battle and JMW Motorsport took 4th on the grid. The top four were covered by les than 0.5secs!

Sunday 23 August 2009

Warm Up (08.30)

More fine weather! The car warm's up well and everyone is pleased with the handling and speed. Despite starting 4th on the grid, the team are confident of a strong race.

Race (12.30pm)

Gimmi starts the race and thankfully it is a good, clean start throughout the grid with no drama. It soons become obvious the JMW Motorsport is ready to charge and Gimmi is quickly into 3rd position. It seems like a blink of the eye and Gimmi is in the lead! A super stint sees him hand over to Rob with a healthy lead. Rob takes that lead and adds to it with second place some 40 secs behind!

Whilst there are a few incidents around the track, there are no full course yellows and the JMW Ferrari is flying when disaster strikes. Rob nurses the car back to the pit and it is wheeled into the garage.

The cause of the drama is a broken driveshaft. The team, beyond textbook, change the driveshaft in an amazing 13 minutes leaving the commentators and on-lookers speechless! Gimmi heads back onto the track but the team have lost 4 laps to 6th place and the first available points.

Gimmi and Rob put in what is described a heroic drive - there's no time for backwards looking and with four hours to go anything can happen. Indeed the team move from 12th to 9th by the chequered flag, posting stunning lap times for the whole time. Setting a fastest LMGT2 lap of 1.58.080, the pace of the car has been faultless all race.

It seems a deeply bitter blow to come away from such a professional and determined race with no points to show but the team can trully be proud of their performance.

Still in the running for the Championship win, JMW will next be in action at their home race, and final round of the 2009 Le Mans Series, at Silverstone on 13 September.

LMGT2 Round 4 Result, Nurburgring, Germany