|
Sebring Comes To
Derbyshire It’s not often that your scribe gets to sit down and watch a sportscar race on the telly, and even then he’s normally posting times or making notes of some kind; but, following an invitation from Paul Dunk, General Manager of Stratstone Aston Martin in Derby, he found himself watching the Sebring 12 Hours both in extremely comfortable surroundings and amongst some very knowledgeable sportscar fans. This all started following a Tweet from James Foster enquiring where one could watch the Le Mans 24 Hours in the UK (outside of the home). Almost immediately Paul offered the Stratstone showroom as a venue. The 24 hours seemed a bit of a non-starter, due to the likelihood of the vast majority of the sportscar racing cognoscenti being in temporary exile at the time, so he decided to use the Sebring 12 Hours as a trial run. Soon afterwards, an ad was posted offering the opportunity to watch the race for £15, with food and drink thrown in; with an invitation being generously extended to this website as well. The day started for DSC (after a few navigational snafus around Derby) with a lovely cup of coffee prepared by Julie, aka Mrs Dunk, and was followed shortly afterwards by a test drive of a rather wonderful Flame Orange 2012-spec Vantage V8.
My escort for the occasion was Simon Dickinson, Aston Martin’s lead Performance Driving Instructor, who was making one of his regular visits to Stratstone for the purpose of taking existing and prospective customers on test drives of Aston’s range of cars; and who was busy throughout the day – I being the only hack he had to suffer. It turned out that he had been to Sebring for four days in 2006, as part of Aston Martin’s US launch of the V8 Vantage; and that one of the very first people that he was given the task of instructing around the circuit was a gentleman by the name of Derek Bell, MBE! Despite his having finished on the podium six times during his racing career and thus having a reasonable handle on getting round the track, Bell insisted that Simon treat him as a regular customer; “But you will tell me if I get anything wrong, won’t you?” asked Simon. Those of you expecting a John Hindhaugh-style test review can probably skip forwards a couple of paragraphs (but please don’t); this was my first experience ever of an Aston Martin (I did once brush the paintwork of the Beechdean car while in the British GT paddock) and so I was a tad nervous as Simon gave me the tour prior to setting off. Dry-sump; 6 speed manual gearbox; 51:49 weight distribution, due to the optimised engine position; 420 bhp 4.7 ltr V8; bonded aluminium body; etc. Access was very easy, via a door that remained stationary at whatever position you opened it, and which closed with a very solid clunk; insert the ‘key’ (no metal pointy bits in evidence here) into the slot on the dash; and listen to the V8 growl instantly into life. Now simply take your foot slowly off the clutch – no need to go near the accelerator – and the immense torque moves the car away. This was hugely impressive already, and we’d only gone 20 feet.
A minute or so later we were out of the industrial estate and joining the A61 towards Chesterfield, at which point Simon was telling me to drop down a gear and let the engine sing – a manoeuvre that would have instantly caused my ageing Focus to throw a sickie. It did sing, and very melodiously too; and I had to remind myself to keep to the speed limit while doing it. “You can easily exceed the limit in any gear with this car,” said Simon. I believed him. When we came off the dual-carriageway and rounded the roundabout to begin the return journey, it was noticeable that there was no body roll at all. As we headed off through the back-roads of Derbyshire, I suddenly realised that I was very comfortable indeed in the car. The nerves had gone, to be replaced by a quiet confidence that this wasn’t a beast that was going to rear up unexpectedly at any moment. The seat was comfortable, visibility was good, and the car did what I wanted it to do; it was also apparent that you could have an awful lot of fun with it should the fancy take you.
I got a taste of this when we rejoined the A61. Simon instructed me to stay in second gear on the ramp and accelerate to 6000 rpm. The engine once more howled – clearly in joy, rather than protest – and we were on the carriageway in an remarkably short amount of time. On the way back, Simon – who has a racing background – and I talked about the current state of affairs in sportscar racing and I tried to answer his questions (not very convincingly, I fear) about the differences between the various GT classes. All too soon, we were back at the showroom and I was applying the handbrake to end my test drive. My automotive purchasing decisions to date have revolved entirely around economy, but I now have a much clearer understanding of why people who are in the fortunate position of choosing their cars on other grounds are still buying Astons in such healthy numbers.
After a dash to the local supermarket in order to buy some Mothers’ Day flowers, there was time to have a look at the various cars on display in the showroom before the race was due to begin; with one car in particular being very familiar indeed.
This was the V12 Zagato that finished fifth in the SP8 class of the 2011 Nürburgring 24 Hours in the hands of Chris Porritt, Richard Meaden, Peter Cate and Oliver Mathai; although it was carrying the livery of later VLN rounds.
This was also the car raced by both Dr Ulrich Bez (Aston Martin CEO) and Akio Toyoda (President, Toyota Motor Corporation) during Round 9 of the 2011 VLN. By now, the Sebring crowd was staring to arrive, and as each one entered the showroom your scribe felt a little bit older. By gum, this was a young bunch; the average age must have been in the low 20s! But it soon transpired that some had travelled a long way to get here – Wiltshire, Harrogate, Hull, being just three starting points that day – and that they knew their stuff! Paul had managed to borrow a Bang & Olufsen TV – purloined from the Derby County Directors’ Suite for the weekend – that apparently retails at an eye-watering £13,000, but it was the perfect machine for the surroundings.
The showroom’s existing flatscreen TV was hooked up to a laptop (with help from Stratstone’s 14 year old tech advisor, James Dunk) in order to display live timing.
At 14:15, the unmistakable tones of John Hindhaugh boomed out and the countdown to the race began. The leather sofas and chairs were soon filled and the Stratstone Posse - as it probably won’t be called - settled in for the start. As you will probably know, the opening few minutes of the race were remarkably incident packed and this helped to break the ice as various ‘Ooh!’s, ‘What the?’s and ‘Blimey!’s were exclaimed. Had we thought to hold a ‘Guess The First Retirement’ comp, it’s highly unlikely anyone would have guessed that it would have been the #58 Luxury Racing Ferrari; nor that it wouldn’t even make it to the start line. The first caution period of the day was the ideal opportunity for James Foster to go round and get everyone’s guesses for the number of laps to be completed by the winner overall and also the lead GT car after 12 hours. I glanced at the TV to see how many laps had been completed so far, then – channelling the spirit of Paul Truswell – quickly tried to estimate the impact of further caution periods; of which there must surely have been several. My guesses were 327 and 306 laps respectively, although I had to revise my first figure to 326 on account of that having already been guessed. There were two prizes on offer: for the overall result, there was a 2011 Le Mans DVD and Radio Le Mans cap, both signed by John Hindhaugh – and a stark warning from Eve Hewitt that if either item subsequently appeared on eBay, the individual involved would be hunted down and dealt with mercilessly – and for the GT result, a very attractive Young Driver AMR polo shirt was on offer; very kindly donated by James Thackeray of www.AMR-teams.co.uk. Just prior to the start of the race, a sweepstake had taken place, this time in support of Paul and Julie’s chosen charity, the Christie Hospital in Manchester (please also see the postscript at the bottom of this page). For £2 a go, or £5 for three, you could pull a car out of a bag, with prizes for the top four classes; a bottle of bubbly, two tickets to the Snetterton 6 Hours and an AMR hat for each winner. I won’t reveal my ‘picks’, but I wasn’t too hopeful of popping a cork the next day! After about two and a half hours, Motors TV switched to bike racing from Daytona; we knew it was going to happen, but not this early. The plan was always to switch to an online feed via the laptop, but this proved a lot harder to achieve than expected. After about ten minutes, the live feed from the official WEC website started to come through, but...oh dear...it was like watching on a dial-up connection; constant stuttering, rebuffering and picture pixilation. WEC – must try harder next time out! Accompanying the dysfunctional images was the very faint sound of Radio Le Mans – two desk-top speakers not up to the job in such a large space – but despite the best efforts of Trussers and Nick Damon, the decision was made to show the England-Ireland rugby on the B&O until Motors TV came back. Happily, England won – although somewhat flattered by the result in my inexpert opinion – and it was a suitable filler until the real business of the Sebring race came back onto the screen. Julie had spent the previous evening preparing mountains of food for the guests and this was served at around seven o’clock. The chilli and rice went down very easily, but sadly the spicy lamb dish was gone by the time your scribe went up for seconds (Dunk Jr loudly accusing his dad of “nicking all the meat!”) I really had forgotten how great it is to just sit and watch a race, and especially when the people around you understand what’s happening . That’s not a minor point, incidentally; I generally hate it when people ask me what sport I follow as the conversation generally goes something like this: “I follow motorsport.” “Oh, Formula One?” “No, sportscar racing.” “Is that like single seaters or touring cars?” “No, it’s prototypes – you know, Le Mans cars – and GTs; Ferraris and Porsches.” “Oh!........[awkward pause].......So, do you think Hamilton will win this weekend?” I had spent much of the race so far seated next to DSC subscriber David Tomkins – a fine fellow who gets to the racetrack on a regular basis, but who surprisingly has yet to break his Le Mans duck – but also got to meet several other of the crowd; Harry Jewitt , who runs a WEC fans forum on Facebook and is a) distressingly young, b) distressingly enthusiastic, and c) distressingly knowledgeable; Roger, whose idea of an idle Saturday is to drive from Harrogate to Cardiff in the morning, watch a rugby match, then drive to Derby to watch a race (via Stratstone in Stourbridge, amusingly) and then back to Harrogate afterwards; the afore-mentioned James Foster, who writes for Motors TV when his job allows; and several others whose names I unfortunately didn’t catch. As the race wore on, the caution periods became ever-more frequent seemingly. This was both frustrating and exciting for me; frustrating, as it broke up the flow of the race, but exciting as it became more and more evident that my earlier guesses on laps completed wouldn’t be out of the ball park. There was an almighty groan when the Aston Martin lost its wheel after such an excellent performance up to that point in the race, but the many class battles kept everyone’s attention on proceedings.
It wasn’t only the caution periods that were met with groans from the onlookers, as the ad-breaks seemed to be appearing with increasing frequency too. As the midnight hour neared, a game of ‘Advert Roulette’ spontaneously broke out, as various people would shout out the name of the expected first ad – “Flora!”, “Jackpot Joy Bingo!”, “Hair gel!”, “Compare the Meer cat!” – which came from a very small pool. However, as the clock ticked over into Sunday, Motors sneakily introduced new ads (including a scantily clad young lady who was keen to talk to me, apparently) which brought an end to the entertainment. The final couple of hours of the race fair just shot by as the competition intensified, with the last couple of laps producing much animated shouting, jeering (Bruni) and cheering (Hand) as the 12 hours ended in typically dramatic fashion. But despite being 4,000-odd miles distant from the action, the winning Audi received a fulsome round of applause from the tired but happy onlookers in Derby. All that was left now was for Paul to hand out the prizes. The sweepstake winners were Steve Bates, David Tomkins (the champagne no doubt used to wash away the bitter memories of Wolves’ five-nil hammering by Man U later that day), James Foster and Morwenna; but I wanted that AMR shirt!
The overall laps completed turned out to be 325 (ooh, one out!), but the prize went to the nearest guess not over the total, and that turned out to be Will Penlington’s, who went with 320.
As for the GT total? 306! Yes, the black beauty was mine! The perfect end to an excellent day! With that we bade our farewells and headed out on our various roads back home. Many thanks go to Paul and Julie - and Stratstone - for being the perfect hosts; to the various donors of the prizes for their generosity; and to all who attended for making it such a memorable event. MH Postscript On Sunday April 15th, Paul and Julie will be making a charity skydive in aid of Manchester's Christie Hospital, in memory of Paul's grandfather who died ten years ago from leukaemia. Travel Destinations have generously donated two tickets to this year's Le Mans 24 Hours, and a donation of £10 or more to the skydive enters you into a raffle win them. Simply go to www.justgiving.com/paul-dunk to make a donation, and mention 'LM' in the notes. Thanks in advance for your support. |
