August 2009 News Archive
23rd August 2009
Gallant Fight Back Not Enough At Nurburgring
JMW Motorsport take 9th Place But The Title Fight Lives On
JMW Motorsport had a tough weekend at the fourth round of the Le Mans Series, held at Nurburgring. Fresh from their maiden victory at Portimao in the third round, JMW Motorsport qualified fourth on the grid which saw just 0.5 seconds cover the top 4.
Gimmi started the race and thankfully it was a good, clean start throughout the grid with no drama. It soon became obvious the JMW Motorsport was ready to charge and Gimmi was up into 3rd position. In what seemed no time at all he took the lead. A super stint saw him hand over to Rob with a healthy lead. Rob increased that lead with second place some 50 secs behind at one point!
There were a few incidents around the track, but thankfully no full course yellows. Our Dunlop shod Ferrari was in dominant form. We were flying when disaster struck and Rob nursed the car back to the pit.
The cause of the drama was a broken driveshaft. The team, beyond textbook, changed the driveshaft in an amazing 13 minutes leaving the commentators and on-lookers speechless! Gimmi headed back onto the track in 12th position. The team had lost 4 laps to 6th place and the first available points.
Gimmi and Rob put in what can only be described as a heroic drive. 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 had been faultless all race.
Whilst it was a deeply bitter blow to come away from such a professional and determined race with no points, the team can truly be proud of their performance.
Still in the running for the Championship win, JMW's attention turns to their home race, and the final round of the 2009 Le Mans Series, at Silverstone on 13 September. We hope to see many of you at Silverstone and we'll be sending out a preview newsletter before the event, jam packed with behind the scenes news and useful information.
19th August 2009
Next Stop: Nurburgring
JMW Motorsport Look To Build On Their Championship Lead
The awesome German circuit of Nurburgring is the next port of call for JMW Motorsport for the penultimate round of the Le Mans Series. The team come to the circuit at the head of the LMGT2 Championship table, following their superb maiden win at Portimao last time out.
Set in the Eifel Mountains, there is good reason this punishing track was once called ‘The Green Hell’ by Jackie Stewart. The 5137km Nurburgring may be considerably shorter than 22.8km “Nordschleife” circuit but, the passion of the 1000km Nurburgring lives on. Often the competition is between man and weather as the unpredictable weather of the region regularly plays a part in races held here. Expect the unexpected and the dramatic!
City West Commercials
For Nurburgring, JMW Motorsport are excited to welcome new partners City West Commercials. They are literally driving JMW Motorsport forward this week with one of their Mercedes-Benz being used to transport the JMW Ferrari and kit to Germany!
“We are delighted to be supporting JMW Motorsport in their 2009 Le Mans Series campaign,” affirms City West Commercials Managing Director Mike Wickins.
“Their first-ever team victory at Portimao, Portugal, recently was a fitting tribute to the hard work and dedication of all concerned,” he continues. “The fact that JMW Motorsport now lead the LMGT2 Team and Drivers’ Championship in only their first year of endurance racing is all the more remarkable.
“Mercedes-Benz and City West Commercials are proud to be playing our part in what we are confident will be the continued success of the team.”
2nd August 2009
JMW MOTORSPORT: VICTORIOUS IN PORTIMAO
Rob Bell and Gimmi Bruni Take JMW Motorsport to their First LMS Win and the LMGT2 Championship Lead
JMW Motorsport fought with all their might after an early set back in the third round of the 2009 Le Mans Series at Portimao, Portugal to take their first ever team victory and the LMGT2 Championship lead.
The team qualified in 2nd on the grid for the 6 hour race which started at 7.15pm and ran into the early hours of the morning at the new circuit located on the Algarve.
Rob Bell made a strong start in the JMW Motorsport Ferrari F430 to take the LMGT2 lead from polesitter Richard Lietz in the Team Felbermayr Porsche. However, a melee of LMP1 and LMP2 cars at the first corner caused somewhat of a nightmare for the following GT entrants. The #92 JMW Ferrari was hit by the Team Farnbacher car spinning Rob back
to 8th in class.
Soon into momentum, Rob raised the car to 6th and a super smooth pitstop to hand over to team-mate Gimmi Bruni kept the positive flow. Gimmi’s stint saw the team settle in 2nd place by the 2 hour mark as it became clear the racing across the classes was going to be fast and furious yet, remarkably, the entire race would run without a single yellow!
As Rob got back behind the wheel, darkness fell and, with little ambient light, vigilance needed to be kept high with the flying prototypes appearing over the undulations of the circuits in the pitch black. Both drivers reported back it was one of the most challenging races in which they had ever competed.
Past the three hour mark, and whilst Rob came back in for a pitstop there was to be no driver change with Rob double stinting. A stunning performance by the JMW Motorsport crew helped propel the car into 1st in what was becoming a very close battle for the lead along with the IMSA Performance Matmut Porsche and Team Modena Ferrari in the fray.
Gimmi entered the car to do a double stint to see the race through to the end. Team Modena took the lead but with Gimmi keeping the #92 flat out, as it had been all night, JMW grabbed the top spot once more. With time for a quick splash and dash before the chequered flag, JMW Motorsport took a superb win just 5 seconds ahead of the late charging IMSA Porsche with Team Modena in 3rd. With Championship rivals Team Felbermayr picking up just 2 points from this event, JMW Motorsport’s 10 points sees them leap frog to the top of the Championship table with 25 points.
Team owner Jim McWhirter was delighted with the result, which marks a milestone in JMW Motorsport’s first year.
“This is a wonderful result” said Jim, “and richly deserved by the team lead by Steve ‘Doc’ Bunkhall, Team Manager Tim Sugden and our drivers Rob Bell and Gimmi Bruni. The whole team have given their all in our first year and to take our first win as a team is incredibly important. It is also an honour to be part of such a successful weekend for our partners Dunlop, who have taken three out of the four class wins today. Dunlop have been instrumental in our success this year and to bring them this win, and take the Championship lead, is testament to everyone’s hard work”.
The next round of the Le Mans Series takes place at Nurburgring on 21-23 August.