2008 News Archive Article \\
Great season finale for Drayson-Barwell at Brands
18th November 2008
A month ago the Drayson-Barwell GT team finished the American Le Mans Series in style by claiming its best result of the year at the beautiful sun-drenched Laguna Seca track in California. The Brands Hatch Britcar Night Race event last weekend was held in conditions just a ‘little bit’ cooler (!), but the now traditional racing season-closer produced some more absolutely ‘red hot’ on-track action! The Aston Martin DBRS9 GT3 of Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker was once again right at the heart of an incredibly nail-biting battle for victory, and eventually finished second, right on the tail of the winner after 90 minutes of flat out racing.
With this year’s Britcar series accepting entries up to GT3 level, Paul and Jonny returned to driving Paul’s GT3 DBRS9, which had last been seen in action in the first round of the ALMS at Sebring back in March. This car has a good pedigree in the Britcar winter night races, having scored the runner-up spot in 2006 before Paul and Jonny claimed victory at Brands last year.
This year Britcar organisers the EERC had done a great job of assembling a quality grid of GT and touring cars, with the top GT class featuring 2008-spec GT3 Moslers, Ferrari 430s, Dodge Vipers and Porsches. With our DBRS9 still effectively running in ’07 GT3 engine spec, without this year’s upgrades, we knew that we had a big fight on our hands to try and emulate the success of previous years. Jonny posted a strong lap in qualifying to claim third on the grid, and it was clear that the race for victory would be with the two Moslers ahead.
A nice mild November evening signalled the start of the 90-minute race, but the short 1.2 mile Brands Indy track doesn’t give the big GT cars much chance to work any heat into their tyres. Paul thus sensibly treaded carefully during the opening few laps, and then settled into a very good pace which saw him comfortably stay with the leading pack in fifth place ahead of the factory-prepared Kessel Ferrari 430 of the experienced Almo Coppelli. Shortly after the half-hour mark there was a safety car period, and the experienced Drayson-Barwell crew quickly made the decision to bring Paul in for the mandatory race pit stop, as the stop ‘window’ had just opened. This stop under ‘yellow’ caution conditions was a tactical masterstroke, and meant that Jonny rejoined the race third on the road but crucially only one of the leading Moslers had stopped under the safety car.
As the race entered its second half, Jonny was coping better with the lapped traffic than the second-placed Sean McInerney-driven Mosler and he was able to slash the gap down from over 14 seconds to under nine. With 30 minutes to go the leading Mosler of Henry Taylor had to pit under full race conditions, and then all eyes were on the timing screen to see where he would come out. Both the McInerney Mosler and Jonny swept past before he rejoined, however, and our battle was now for the race win.
As they encountered the lapped traffic, the gap between McInerney’s Mosler and Jonny ebbed and flowed by a few 10ths of a second, but Jonny kept on chipping away to keep the gap at around nine seconds. With just 10 minutes remaining, however, McInerney’s lap times started to drop off and he was struggling for grip. Jonny’s tyres were also now nearly an hour old but he was able to keep an incredibly consistent pace, and he was gradually reeling the Mosler in. This was an incredible performance from the youngster, who was dragging every last ounce of performance out of the Aston Martin as he sensed that victory was now a real possibility. The crowd and the race commentators were now getting very excited, as the Drayson-Barwell DBRS9 relentlessly closed the gap on the leader.
With McInerney hanging on to big slides in the Mosler, Jonny closed to under three seconds with just two laps remaining. He could see the Mosler just a few hundred yards ahead, and was ready to pounce on the slightest mistake. A lapped car just held him up as they started the final lap, however, and this gave McInerney the breathing space he needed. Cocker still closed down the gap to only two seconds by the flag, and it had been a great race to end the season on.
