Ecurie Ecosse: Successful test for Spa 24 Hours with Barwell Aston

Friday, July 08, 2011


The Ecurie Ecosse Spa 24 Hours programme kicked off on Wednesday 6th July, when drivers Andrew Smith, Olly Bryant, Alasdair McCaig and Joe Twyman attended the official event test at the classic Belgian track. Each of them were having their first run in a Barwell Motorsportprepared Aston Martin DBRS9 chassis, their weapon of choice for the return of the famous Ecurie Ecosse name to the international sportscar stage at the Total 24 Hours of Spa race on July 30/31.

With the four drivers needing to get acclimatised to the 2011-specification 600bhp Aston Martin GT3 car, there wasn’t much time to spare during the day but the team completed its programme with all four drivers comfortable in the charismatic 6-litre V12-engined DBRS9 by the end of the test. British GT Championship race-winner Olly Bryant is by far the more experienced of the line up in modern-day GT machinery, and as expected was the quickest. Andrew, Alasdair and Joe are all very successful historic racing campaigners, however, and all set a good pace around the daunting seven-kilometre Spa track.

“The opportunity to test the DBRS9 at Spa proved to be invaluable,” said Ecurie Ecosse driver Andrew Smith, “we were able to learn a huge amount about the car and build up to a good pace. With the data we now have from the test and the additional time available to us in the car before the race itself, we are confident we will be able to fight competitively for a class podium”. The test also gave the Barwell engineers the chance to work with the latest specification Avon tyres around Spa for the first time, and the team were very happy with the set-up work carried out during the day. Former Barwell Aston Martin DBRS9 driver, and 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 winner, Tom Kimber-Smith, was also on hand to help with testing and set-up duties during the day. “We were very happy with the performance of the DBRS9 and the Avon tyres at the test,” comments Barwell MD Mark Lemmer, “and we are confident that we have a good set-up on the car for the 24 Hours, and tyres that will work well from an endurance point of view.”
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