2007 Results

LMS Round 1 Monza, Italy

LMS Round 3 Nurburgring, Germany

24 Hours Spa Francorchamps, Belgium

LMS Round 4 Spa Francorchamps, Belgium

LMS Round 5 Silverstone, Great Britain

LMS Round 6 Interlagos, Brazil

LMS Round 1 Monza, Italy

Having received such a late call to enter the race it was with some relief that the truck and team met each other early on Thursday morning to begin the 2007 LMS campaign. The team was soon into action setting up and givng the car its last preparations before scrutineering. Scrutineering was completed and the serious business of the weekend began. First in the car was GT Champion Joel Camathias, the swiss driver settling well into very competitive Porsche times. A small scare when he returned to the pits to say the car was losing power. The power loss was soon diagnosed as a throttle pedal stop vibrating free. Pedal sorted and Paul Daniels completed the first session in a satisfying 15th in class.

Joel started session 2 to confirm any changes in set up that had been made, were improvements and then Dave Cox began his first racing laps of Monza. Session 2 ended with the JWA Porsche still in 15th. The third session continued in the same vein with all three drivers getting a run and Joel scrubbing some slightly softer qualifying rubber . The softer rubber just allowing an improvement to 14th in class.

Qualifying is always great fun with the 20 minute do or die session and fastest man of the JWA team, Joel Camathias, got to perform. And did he do just that - a full 2 seconds quicker than he managed in free practice and the whole of the JWA team was grinning as 2 Spykers and a Panoz fell to the Porsche pedalled by Joel - just over 1 second away from the works car of Pompidou and Lieb. We were also sure that we could maintain this pace in the race.

A 1 o'clock start came and went with Joel losing a place in the early laps to the GPC Ferrari number 83 driven by the very quick Luca Drudi. Joel however was able to hang onto the train and his tenth place soon became ninth as the Thierry Perrier Porsche 997 reversed back through the field and was overtaken by Joel. The car was looking great handling superbly, really in the sweet spot matching times of the leading runners. Then the Pace car was dispatched after an Aston Martin lost a wheel and with the JWA strategy all about doing one less stop than the rest of the teams, we elected to stay out. Then as all the leading runners stopped JWA was leading the class. Three laps later and the race was back on with the JWA porsche now holding a 20 second lead over the pursuers. This was whittled down as those competitors on fresher tyres closed in.

For eight heady laps JWA led the class and then a rude manoeuvre put Joel through the gravel at the entrance to the Parabolica and we were down to third. Next lap round and the fuel light came on as Joel came through the Parabolica. Decision time pit now or get another lap on the reserve tank. Another lap and as the car rolled down the pit lane it began to cough - out of fuel but no time lost. A very swift fuel and tyre stop saw Paul quickly back on track and setting his fastest laps of the weekend. Then just ten laps into his stint the gearlever on the sequential box stopped returning to its central position and just four corners later changing down to third the gearbox seized solid. Spitting the car backwards into the gravel at Ascari. Race over - a great disappointment for the whole team.

The removal of the gearbox showed just how much devastation had been caused - driveshaft split, clutch melted and only one gear was selectable. Hats off to Porsche who have been a great help in putting things right.

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LMS Round 3 Nurburgring, Germany

JWA made the trip to the track many race people consider to be hallowed ground - Nurburgring high in the Eifel mountains in the most westerly part of Germany. With the legendary 14 mile circuit now only used for some spectacular touring car races, road car testing and for members of the public to drive round, JWA were to be racing on the 3.14 mile Grand prix circuit for 1000 kilometres, some 195 laps.

The works Peugeots were totally dominant and were at times 4 seconds a lap quicker than the best of the rest. In the JWA GT2 class things were much tighter. The Ferrari against Porsche battles of the 60’s and 70’s were to be replayed. JWA lined up ninth in the class of nineteen cars after a somewhat fraught qualifying. Caused initially by an errant prototype colliding with the back of the JWA Porsche sending Joel Camathias deep into the gravel and then difficulties with a freshly rebuilt gearbox having a bent layshaft.

The race started well with Joel Camathias gaining a couple of positions in the first hour and then losing one when he was hit by the Speedy Spyker #85. As the first round of pit stops began the JWA Porsche had climbed to fifth before having to make its stop where Joel handed over to Dave Cox. The pit stop was swift but not swift enough to hold back the very tight knit pursuing pack, which left Dave playing catch up in thirteenth place. Dave consolidated this position and late on caught and passed two troubled cars. Dave handed over to Paul Daniels who put in a solid performance maintaining the eleventh position. However he had to call an earlier pit stop as in the pit stop Paul had been put in the wrong seat position which compromised his driving style causing severe pain in his back. He was also hit in the rear bumper by a prototype causing a trip across the gravel trap at some 160 mph. Joel then climbed back in – no easy job as he is 6’ 4” tall and began a stunning series of laps all within a few tenths of each other – a great job. Joel handed over to Dave with just over an hour left to run and in Ninth place. All at JWA had their fingers crossed that one of the cars ahead would hit trouble allowing us into the points but it was not to be and in the last laps the JWA Porsche was overhauled by a couple of recovering cars to leave us eleventh in class. In conclusion a race that held a lot of promise but failed to deliver. We will need to be quicker and more consistent if we want to earn championship points this year with so many cars in the class we cannot rely on other entrants having problems.

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24 Hours Spa Francorchamps, Belgium

Joel Camathias qualified the JWA Porsche car in 28th position in a field of 46. Joel in the JWA Porsche started the race and at the end of the first lap was in 24th position and moved up a further place the following lap – a good start!

Joel’s first 8 flying laps were all within half a second of each other, again a super-consistent drive from the Swiss, but then a radio message was received from him complaining of severe lack of grip from the Pirelli’s. He continued his stint at a slightly reduced pace and also managed to haul the car up to 18th overall in his 30 lap stint before bringing the car in to hand over to Oliver Morley (or as the Belgians insisted on calling him – ‘Moorey’!)

Upon inspecting the tyres the right rear was found to be severely worn – down to the canvas for its entire circumference on the inside edge and the thought that we had very fortunately escaped without the tyre deflating which could have caused massive damage to the car at such an early stage of the race. With both Pirelli and the team very concerned about such tyre wear a new compound was selected.

Back to the car and the race pace of Oliver was a welcome, if not surprising, sight. A very consistent performance in a car he was still learning about and producing good lap times. An uneventful 35 laps saw him return the car to the pit area for Paul Daniels to take over in pristine condition in 19th position. The tyres after this session were inspected and found to be worn but still in reasonable condition – a relief for the team.

Paul’s time in the car was one of the best he has ever produced for the JWA team – again consistency being the key. This however was not the only key-word used to describe this particular stint because Paul reduced his fastest lap time for the circuit time and time again. A brief safety-car period 5 laps into his stint allowed Paul to complete 36 laps and hand the car safely over to Dave Cox still in 18th place and having completed 101 laps.

Dave set about his drive with again some very consistent, fast lap times managing a fastest lap only just a fraction of a second slower than that of M. Moorey. He radioed in at the 30 lap mark and informed the team that there was likely to be a Safety Car scrambled due to an accident on track and his prophecy turned out to be true. So at almost exactly 6 hours into the race, each driver having completed one stint each and having suffered no problems whatsoever with 132 laps on the board Joel retook the wheel behind the safety car as dusk fell. 5 laps later the green flag was shown and Joel was off hunting down the cars in front. After 33 laps he pitted for fuel and tyres in 16th position and returned to the track for a double stint.

The tyres must have been working at their best during the cooler track conditions during the night because Joel’s lap times were his quickest of the race – In the dark and with a full tank of fuel! He equalled his best sector one times on 7 occasions during this stint. During this spell Joel was overtaken by a GT1 car recovering from an earlier hold-up and so handed the car back to Oliver in 17th position overall.

Oliver’s first night-session proved to be eventful for him. During the previous 9 hours of driving, the inner front wheel-arches of the Porsche had been severely battered by the tyre ‘pick-up’ and therefore offered no protection to the rear of the headlamp causing it to fail on the right-hand side. The extra lamps fitted for the race continued to work properly but the lack of light on the right hand side may have contributed to a spin on Oliver’s 7th lap loosing a couple of minutes but no positions. He then set his personal best lap-time of the race on lap 213 – again in the dark! Still in 18th position Oliver returned to the pit to hand over to Paul.

After 14 laps Paul was on the radio informing the team of a possible oil pressure problem, he returned to the pit and after a quick check he was returned to the track only to be called back in on the next lap as the problem had been diagnosed as an electrical fault caused by the damage to the headlights. A re-mapping of the electrical system was called for before Dave Cox could return to the race in 21st position for another reliable, consistent 33 lap stint, retaking 20th position half way through. During his time in the car Dave reported that he was sometimes having a problem with the gear shift not returning to its rightful place after selecting third gear. He continued his steady progress adapting superbly to the problem.

At the end of lap 278 he returned the car to Joel who immediately set his second fastest lap of the race thus proving that he can handle the problematic gear-shift and lack of traction control superbly – the traction control had had to be by-passed during the stop to cure the electrical problem prior to Dave Cox’s session.

16 laps into another superbly consistent run – no wonder the Swiss make such good watches – the message that everyone dreads was received; ‘Stuck in 3rd gear’.

The Porsche limped around the second half of the lap and was immediately pushed back into the pit garage to change the gearbox. A magnificent team effort by the crew had the gearbox changed in a very very impressive 51 minutes and Joel was out and on his way now in 28th position and 10th in class. As soon as the flat six was started up the cards dealt another blow to the team – the safety car was deployed for 5 laps – how unfortunate that it did not happen during the stop rather than straight after it!

The confidence that Joel has in the team and its mechanical abilities was ably demonstrated as soon as the course went green – he again lapped consistently at exactly the same pace as at the beginning of the race.

Joel had to be brought into the pit for a driver change after 21 laps because he would have gone over the maximum time allowed for one driver in one stint. If the team had changed the gearbox a little slower then this would not have happened as he would have been out of the car for more than one hour! Fortunately for the team this also coincided with the first light fall of rain so intermediates were fitted and Paul Daniels took over the driving in 27th position, the car having completed 316 laps in total.

After 19 laps the weather took a turn for the worse and Paul was called in to fit full wets. In this double stint Paul completed 39 laps and brought the car back in to hand over to Oliver Morely during a safety car period in 24th position. Oliver returned to the track without loosing a position and spent the next 13 laps in the crocodile behind the pace car. Unfortunately Oliver’s ‘cloak of invisibility’ did not apply to the car and at the resumption of racing on lap 367 he had to serve a 2 minute stop/go penalty because the officials had spotted the car going through the red light at the end of the pit lane during the safety car period.

Once back up to racing speed Oliver completed a further 15 laps and handed the car over to Dave Cox having overhauled 3 cars during the atrocious weather conditions. It was during this period that the teams’ new illuminated pit board was very nearly wiped out by an errant car aquaplaning off the track along the pit straight and hitting the pit wall right beneath the JWA team’s feet.

Another excellent session for Coxy saw him complete 29 laps before another excellent call by the experienced driver predicted a further spell for the safety car and enabled a driver change, refuel and tyre change to be completed under slow moving traffic conditions.

Another 9 laps of driving behind the safety car – boy, did the safety car drivers earn their corn during the race! – and Joel was in the car to drive to the finish. With 45 minutes left to the finish of the race the team on the pit wall were delighted to announce to the rest of the team that the number 95 car had regained its position on the 1st page of the timing screens and was in the top 20 again. 19th place was a real possibility at this point as the Mosler (although in G2 class) was only a lap in front but Joel was over 10 seconds per lap quicker than it. A fuel calculation at lap 439 was made. 24 litres remaining in the car, 26 litres required to reach the finish! The team readied itself for another pit-stop, the 17th of the race, but this time the wheel-nut men could relax as they would not be required, when another soul destroying message was received. With 16 minutes of the 24 hours remaining - ‘A bang from the back of the car and probable drive shaft failure!’ This occurred as Joel was driving past the pits towards Eau Rouge so an agonising few minutes went by as Joel nursed the car back to the pit and James Watt formulated a plan to enable the car to cross the finish line.

The fuel men were able to stand down and the wheel-nut men took over as the car slowly trundled down the pit lane and came to a halt. Up on its jacks and left rear wheel removed proved that Joel’s diagnosis was spot on, the C.V. joint had broken.

There was not enough time for even the speedy JWA crew to replace the drive-shaft and so James’ plan was put into place. The TV monitors were watched and as soon as the lead car passed the pit on its final lap the JWA Porsche was fired up for the final time and Joel asked to try and coax the stricken car across the finish line. With Joel ignoring the marshal trying to wave him into Parc Ferme and all the celebrations taking place at the finish line a member of the crew was dispatched to the line to ensure that Joel was able to cross it in the pit lane and thus complete the race.

The highs, lows and highs of endurance GT racing were felt by ALL of the JWA team and an elated team popped the champagne corks and celebrated reaching the end of a very tough 24 hours – not quite in one piece, but a finish, in 21st position overall and 8th in class.

A world championship point for the team and drivers in their first attempt at a gruelling Spa 24 Hour race. We will be back with all the lessons learned from the event to build on our experiences from the race and perform even better next year.

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LMS Round 4 Spa Francorchamps, Belgium

The JWA crew now know their way around the Spa facilities very well indeed. Having spent 10 of the last 40 days running the car at the Ardennes venue. Now its time for the LMS 1000 Km race.

The weekend got off to a very hot start with Joel pitting after an instillation lap with the rear of the car on fire. Quick work from the resident firefighter and mechanics soon had the raging inferno under control and after a good clean up and replacement of a few singed parts the car was fired up and JWA Porsche No 95 was back on track for the second session.

The problem was traced to a fuel pressure relief valve and we thought ourselves fortunate that the car was only doing the one lap otherwise things could have been quite different for the weekends activities.

Qualifying saw the high point of the JWA season so far – a magnificent 4th place in GT2 Class. The order read – Lieb (works Porsche), Simonsen (ex JWA driver in class leading Ferrari), Lietz (’07 Le Mans winner), Camathias (JWA Porsche No 95), the rest…….

Hopes were High for the race with the weather looking reasonable but the forecast looking worse. Into the first corner of the first lap and the GT2 cars are having to deal with the mess left behind by the clashing LMP1 cars. Lietz is slightly slower out of the corner and Joel is able to get a run at him down the hill. Into Eau Rouge Lietz aggressively protects his third place from Joel and the Swiss driver is forced to back off. Off line and with the tightly packed bunch behind him Joel is hung out to dry on the run up over radillon and up to Les Combes. The JWA Porsche completes lap 1 in 9th place. Joel quickly settled down picking off the opposition, lap 2 - 8th, lap 4 and he was 7th, lap 6 sixth and after just 12 laps was pressing Johhny Mowlem in his Ferrari 430 hard for 5th place. After 5 close laps Joel attempted a pass at Rivage where the door was unceremoniously shut in his face. Rather than make contact with the Ferrari Joel elected to take evasive action and ended up skittering across the gravel and kissing the tyre wall. This contact broke rear wing and bent the wing upright. A quick trip to the pits and the crew sorted out what was necessary to repair the rear and Joel was back out amongst the fray. After a further few laps he was called back in and the rear wing was replaced and Paul Daniels took over the driving duties – unfortunately we were to play ‘catch up’ for the rest of the race.

An eventful run ensued for Paul as he spun on a couple of occasions – the mishandling a result of the enforced aero changes. In a safety car period Paul Daniels handed over to Dave Cox and some further changes to the aero were made and Dave carried on the effort. A full fuel stint later and Dave handed back the driving duties to Joel and the JWA Porsche No 95 was soon out and setting its fastest race laps – what might have been, without the delays in the pits, surely a good run to finish among the points.

All in all a disappointing result – even though it was the same finish as at Nurburgring – 11th. The expectations for the team have risen and we will not feel that a non points scoring finish is anything other than a disappointment. Our qualifying and race pace should see us easily fighting among the Ferrari’s and other non-works Porsches at Silverstone next month – and we hope to see you there!

LMS Round 5 Silverstone, Great Britain

It is difficult to put a finger on how the weekend went. The team had prepared for the event for with the usual thought and thoroughness. The anticipation within the team was at stellar levels following the Spa qualifying result and a post event extrapolation of race pace without the time in the pits showed even more promise. However the anticipation as is so often the case became frustration as we never really achioeved what we set out to do.

With the drivers now sure of the car we were able to give each of them long runs in each of the practices which we feel is the best use of time. Free practice saw the JWA Porsche in ninth, tenth and seventh in class in each of the sessions. A few positive changes for qualifying and we were again thinking that fourth or even better was achievable but we did not even match our best free practice time and had to settle for ninth in class on the grid and thirty seven of the forty six starters.

The JWA team were impressed on arrival at the grid as we got the prettiest Grid girl we have had this year - thanks to whoever she was. That was probably the highlight of the day as Joel Camathias starting the car had a quiet stint losing one place early on and then a huge chunk of time to the competition as the pace car was called in incorrectly. Just on 80 minutes Joel handed over to Dave Cox who had his worst run ever - spinning on oil just 8 minutes into his session at Abbey and then again in the complex towards the end of his stint. Loosing over ten minutes in the process and drawing a line under the competetive part of the day. Paul took over from Dave and finished his stint with no trouble and Joel got back in for the final stint a new set of rubber was bolted on and we were away. Suddenly Joel is nearly 2 seconds quicker than we have been all weekend - what has happened - to the car nothing it can only be tyres - Pirelli must have found us a special set. Joel then proceeded to match the lead porches for the whole session. This is the second time this year that we have late in the race got the correct tyres from Pirelli. We'll have to do more testing.

The end result was 11th in class and 32nd overall - again slightly disappointing one day one of these events will come to us. Roll on Interlagos where we will have some exciting drivers to announce nearer the time.

LMS Round 6 Interlagos, Brazil

What a great job the team and its drivers did in the Southern hemisphere - a great attitude from all and a very competitive showing. The JWA Porsche started from a disappointing 9th on the grid but the fast race pace of the car was quickly demonstrated by Richard Westbrook in the first 4 laps - 6th at the end of lap 1, 5th on lap 2 and 3rd on lap 4 and pushing the second placed Brazilian driven Ferrari No 75 very hard indeed. Xavier Pompidou after an amazing start from 5th on the grid had stretched his lead after just four laps to a massive 6 seconds, this extended to just over 10 seconds by lap 10. However as he pitted for the first time Westbrook had caught him a little and was less than 10 seconds behind in 2nd which became 1st on lap 38 for three laps until fuel was required for the less thirsty JWA entry headed for the pits on lap 41.

Allan Simonsen took the helm of the JWA Porsche and after quickly disposing of an out of pit-stop-sequence Spyker continued the chase of the works Porsche in third place. A solid drive by Allan and the car was consolidating its postion. As the leaders pitted and rejoined the JWA car moved into 1st in class and 8th overall again and a great battle ensued between a freshly shod but heavy Marc Basseng in the Felbermeyer Proton Porsche and the lighter fuelled but on old tyres JWA car ensued. The intervention of a LMP1 car created space for Basseng and he was through and away. Not without first tweaking the last 20mm of the exhaust on the JWA car. Great driving by both. Allan pitting immediately after losing the position to replace worn out tyres.

Bryce Washington was next in and put together some very consistant fast lapping only losing out to an ultra-fast Rob Bell in Ferrari no 99 who moved from 8th to 2nd in his first stint. On lap 127 Bryce brought the car into the pits after occupying 2nd place for 6 laps – again the fuel strategy playing into our hands- to hand back the car to Westy. After 40 further laps of racing Westbrook had lost just 15 seconds to the works Porsche and had passed the two Ferraris when they stopped for fuel some 12 laps prior to Richard. Richards stint ended and it was back to Allan Simonsen to continue the chase then just two laps into his stint the radio crackled to life and the awful news - loss of drive - gearbox or driveshaft the car limps slowly through the rest of the lap and into pit lane where it is pushed to the garage. A rear right wheel hub failure has destroyed the combined hopes of so many people. The team set to with a will to change the offending part and 39 minutes later, 22 laps lost the JWA Porsche returns to the track with owner Paul Daniels at the wheel. An uneventful and very competetive stint by Paul sees the JWA catching and passing cars and as the fuel light flickers on its back to the pit lane and a driver change. Is this the start of a fine come back drive?

Bryce Washington climbs aboard for his second stint and sets about the rest of the GT2 field but it is to be all to no avail as the car returns to the pit with a broken gearbox. The third one this year and again it is 3rd gear. They do say things happen in threes. The disappointment etched on each face is heartbreaking. The most competitive run yet and it ends with mechanical failure again.

Great place Brazil, great people friendly and helpful beyond belief but is it too costly ? We can only wait and see if the LMS organisers decide to send us again. We hope so but then we still need to secure an entry into what has become a very successful championship.

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