Solid Start at Silverstone for JWA

Silverstone, England (September 12, 2008)

James Watt Automotive (JWA) gave the #93 Aston Martin Vantage GT2 its first taste of Le Mans Series action on Friday as the stunning looking car joined the 46-strong, four class sports car field for a pair of practice sessions at Silverstone ahead of Sunday’s ‘Autosport 1000km of Silverstone’ – the fifth and final round of the 2008 Le Mans Series.

A dry morning session saw the Staffordshire-based outfit tackle some of the issues faced with debuting a brand new race car – Friday’s sessions only the second time the team had run the car following an initial shakedown test at Pembrey in Wales earlier in the week. Despite the issues, first reports from JWA’s driver trio of Tim Sugden (UK), Alan van der Merwe (SA) and Michael Outzen (DK( were encouraging.

The day proved to be a tale of two sessions though with the morning’s dry run followed by a rain-soaked session in the afternoon. Despite the challenging conditions, Sugden and Outzen ensured the #93 entry, partnered this weekend by One York and TW Steel, ran with the GT2 leaders. Holding fourth for the majority of the hour-long run, the team declined the opportunity to go for glory and risk the chassis to top the timesheets. With a best lap of 2m18.447s in the wet, JWA ended the afternoon seventh fastest in GT2 and 22nd overall.

“We were a little bit disappointed with our pace after the morning’s session,” said JWA Team Principal, James Watt. “We’re still learning the car obviously and this was our first outing on a circuit that really tested it to the maximum. We made some changes between the sessions but unfortunately we weren’t really able to measure them due to the afternoon being wet. That said, while we were out there we ran fourth for most of the session which I believe to be a truer reflection of our pace.”

Alan van der Merwe (28) reflected on the day; “It was a bit frustrating to start off where we did but having said that, from where we started we made gains as the day progressed. It would have been nice to have had a second dry session to verify that we’d solved the problems that hampered our morning run. Overall we’ve learned a lot from today so Saturday’s running will enjoy a much more competitive starting point. Our main focus is to ensure the car is competitive and consistent in the race so we’ll keep working towards those goals.”

“The car felt good in the wet,” Michael Outzen (26) commented. “If it rains on Sunday then I’m confident we can run up at the front based on today’s performance. The car felt very secure in those conditions and was really comfortable to drive. If we improve our dry performance as well then I think we’ll be in good shape!”

Tim Sugden (44) is equally keen to get some further dry running but is aware of the intricacies of the Silverstone conditions; “There’s no doubt we looked promising in the rain and I was very pleased with the balance of the car. We’ve obviously still got some work to do in the dry because it’s still a brand new car. Hopefully we can get through everything we need to in order to maximise the potential of the car in the dry. Certainly with the British weather being what it is, I think we could have a good result come Sunday afternoon, helped by some rain!”

GT2 qualifying is set for 1:15pm GMT on Saturday 13th September before Sunday’s six-hour endurance race, the ‘Autosport 1000km of Silverstone’, kicks off at 11:20am GMT – www.lemans-series.com Sunday’s race will be broadcast live on TV across Europe by Motors TV – www.motorstv.com