2006 Results

LMES Round 2 Spa Francorchamps, Belgium

LMES Round 3 Nurburgring, Germany

LMES Round 4 Donington, Great Britain

LMES Round 5 Jarama, Germany

LMES Round 2 Spa Francorchamps, Belgium

Having once more missed the very expensive opening round in Istanbul, James Watt Automotive arrived at their favorite circuit with high hopes - a great driver line up would make us more competetive than ever. Sharing the car with owner Paul Daniels was 2003 GT2 champion Xavier Pompidou, alongside him australian ex rugby league star Jack Elsegood. Untimed practice was getting as much track time as possible for Paul and Jack and finding a qualifying set up for Xavier. Qualifying itself began on a damp track but drying so when the GT cars were released for the latter 20 mins an upset was in store. Not to be but the JWA team were on the ball and made the call for a mid qualifying stop exactly right - wrong tyres though - slicks should have gone on and not intermediates. Position an excellent 12th in class.

Race start was awesome as 43 GT cars thundered down to Eau Rouge. Xavier Pompidou had mad an excellent start and was rounding Radillon alongside Allen Simonsen when it all changed ahead. Two cars further up the grid had seperate incidents and in the ensuing melee the JWA porsche was side swiped by the Autorlando car of Simonsen. Simonsen was out on the spot but Xavier was on the radio to say he had missed it all!! He called later on the lap to say he had a puncture and was on his way to the pit. He arrived with the right front corner of the car hanging by a thread. Cue fast pit work.

Strange fact of the race. Because of the accident at Eau rouge the safety car was deployed and drove very slowly down the start and finish straight. The JWA porsche entering the pits was thus quicker on three wheels than all the other competitors - crossing the start line at the end of lap 1 in 18th place overall and first in GT2!

A full rebuild on the front corner and 70 minutes later the car was heading down the pit lane for an exploratory lap. It was obvious the tracking was out so in again and an experienced shout of "three turns should do it" and the car was back on track. Second lap out and the fastest lap to date and a complimentary Pompidou "just a touch of oversteer through Pouhon" - brave man.

Great consistant drives from both Paul Daniels and Jack Elsegood had the car completing enough distance to be classified as a finisher with 3 laps spare. Not quite enough to be in the points but a good fast run that when extrapolated to remove the accident would have had us well inside the top six.

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LMES Round 3 Nurburgring, Germany

Paul Daniels was to be joined by young Aussie driver Bryce Washington. Lots of Porsche cup experience in Aus but never raced in Europe. Qualifying began as a struggle as Paul struggled a little to get to grips with the car. Bryce climbs in having never seen the circuit and as enters his first flying lap every sector time is green - best time for the car - stunning pace straight out of the box. Qualifying 15th in class indicated just how much work needed to be done though.

Race day was hot hot hot. Too hot, liquid intake was very important and with cockpit temperatures getting into the 40 degrees the fittest would be at an advantage. With professional GT2 drivers collapsing on getting out of the cars it was no problem to discover that performance tailed off as the drivers got to the end of the stint and that concentration suffered. Slow pit entry laps and pit exit laps really led the JWA Porsche to get seperated from the pack and we never looked likely of troubling the scorers. A subdued team incredibly impressed with Bryce Washington looking forward to the next round.

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LMES Round 4 Donington, Great Britain

The ever pleasent Xavier Pompidou was back joining Paul Daniels and British GT runner Bo Mccormick as JWA made its way just 40 miles to its local circuit of Donington. The largest entry ever to grace the Donington Park circuit meant that the JWA equipe as race by race entrants were consigned to the scrutineering bay as insufficient garages existed. No real problem here but we were away from the main throng of people but there was more space than normal.

Hopes were high for our home event and qualifying went as well as expected with the JWA Porsche taking up 12th position ahead of some reasonable scalps - notably a Panoz. Fingers crossed that starting driver Xavier would not suffer as he did in Spa and it was with some relief that at the end of lap one he sat a comfortable tenth in a chain of GT2 cars. Then just 18 laps in the gearbox destroyed fifth gear. A long gearbox swap followed pushing us out of a classified finishing position but when a driveshaft failed twenty laps later the team drew a line under the weekend and headed home.

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LMES Round 5 Jarama, Spain

A late addition to replace the Monza event cancelled earlier in the year was a round at Jarama. JWA were more than happy with the venue having raced historic F1 cars here. The extensive F1 record keeping practiced by JWA allowed us to make gearbox revisions prior to the event that were exact. Driver line up was a little last minute with the very experienced Euro Gt racer Peter Cook joining Wolfgang "Pirahna" Kaufmann in the Paul Daniels car.

Qualifying was all about oversteer, oversteer and more oversteer. The circuit has three second gear corners where traction was everything and all runners struggled some more than others. Some teams even going so far as to swap tyre suppliers mid way through the event.

The JWA Porsche in the hands of the Piranha started strongly but as the edge went off the tyres the oversteer returned with a vengance. A mid race rear shock absorber change brought no improvement but consistant work by all three drivers kept the car in with a shout of a position. At the end we were to be a disappointed ninth just outside the points. An hour later it was confirmed the GPC Ferrari from 1st place in GT2 had been disqualified - the professional in the car having done more than 4 hours at the wheel. Why you ask - he spun off on his in lap and spent 3 minutes getting out of the gravel - enough to go OTL as the rally boys say.

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