After several opportunities to test the Aston Martin V8 Vantage race car at the Nurburgring Nordschleife, last weekend saw Pete's first opportunity to get behind the wheel of Aston Martin Motorsport's 6 litre Vantage V12 race car. The event was round two of the VLN (Langstrecken Meisterschaft Nurburgring), the first contested by Aston Martin in 2010.
The weekend kicked off with an open test session on Friday afternoon. Pete was able to settle into the car with a series of seven laps (each lap being ~26km), getting used to the greater torque and different weight distribution compared to the V8 Vantage. In addition, a couple of laps were given over to passenger "taxi-rides" for guests of the team.
"I found the car to be very straightforward to drive which is a testament to the work done by Aston Martin," Pete said afterwards. "There are some obvious differences in the car versus the V8, for example the manual versus the paddle shift gear change, but in all, the balance was excellent. We also had great support from Yokohama, as the team has switched tyre manufacturer since last year, and we were able to get some good data on tyre performance over a run."
After some discussion around the ABS system set up and some small tweaks to the rear suspension to assist traction, the team retired for the night in anticipation of a good result on race day. Saturday dawned foggy, as is typical this time of year in the Eifel Mountains, and with the 90 minute qualifying session starting at 08:30, there was some concern over visibility. However, as the cars edged out of the pitlane, the sun began to break through, and Wolfgang Schuhbauer accelerated off into the mist to bed in new breakpads and complete his required flying laps.
Pete then took over the #122 car and completed his two mandatory qualifying laps, turning in a 9:16.388 lap time, good enough for 4th in the SP8 class just behind the Corvette C6, and 47th position on the grid of 206 starters. Dr Bez then jumped in to complete the qualifying session, his first laps in the car since the 24 hour race in May 2009. "I found the car worked much better in qualifying trim, especially on braking and turn in, although I had some traction issues over the bumps which meant a slight change of driving style."
With only a short break before the race start at midday, it was time to take on fluids and get prepared. It had been decided that Pete would take the start, followed by Dr Bez and finally Wolfgang. The start format is similar to the 24 hour race at the Nurburgring, with three groups of approximately 80 cars, split by class, approaching the start line in formation, with the start-finish line lights turning green to signify the race is on.
"I took Wolfgang's advice and worked up my tyres temperatures throughout the very slow formation lap, which paid dividends on the first lap. I was able to pass the Corvette ahead, as well as a couple of Porsches, and held them off for a while. They have a lot of downforce helping them through the twists and turns but our slipstream was taking away some of that advantage. In a straight line, the Aston is so quick, they really struggled to pass but ultimately it was better not to take risks defending when the race is so long so I let them come by".
Over nine dry and sunny laps, Pete lapped consistently between 9:18 and 9:22 (with the exception of one double-yellow-flag lap where there as a big incident at Bergwerk) and brought the car into the pits for a re-fuel and driver change in 39th position. Dr Bez then took over and did a great job keeping the trouble-free momentum going before handing over the Wolfgang to complete the four hour job. With consistent laps and no reliability woes thanks to the superb preparations by the team, the V12 Vantage climbed the order to finish a tremendous second in the SP8 class, behind the Gazoo Racing factory Lexus LFA driven by Armin Hahne, Kazuya Ohshima and Jochen Krumbach.
"Our podium finish was a fantastic start to our racing relationship! Of course we all want to go one better and I know Aston Martin have some exciting things in the pipeline to help with that goal. In the meantime, I really want to thank Dr Bez and David King for making this happen, and the whole team at Aston Martin for the faultless preparation and running of the car through this race."
The team will be in action once again at round three of the VLN championship on 24th April.
