All fighting to regain the Ad-Vantage
Monday, October 12, 2015
Darren Turner took the fight to Fuji in Japan last weekend as Aston Martin Racing continued the battle to regain its early season pace in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Along with his British teammate, Jonny Adam, Turner finished the Six Hours of Fuji in sixth place.
A Balance of Performance (BoP) change after Le Mans had a huge effect on all of the Vantage GTEs so the team was pleased to receive an adjustment after the last race in the U.S. but unfortunately it wasn’t quite enough to allow the Aston Martin squads to take the fight to Ferrari and Porsche.
“We had a small BoP change after COTA that took us around halfway back to where we were at the start of the year,” said Turner. “We all know that BoP is necessary to level the playing field across the different manufacturers and it is a difficult thing to get right. It wasn’t enough this time but it was a step in the right direction.”
Friday’s free practice sessions were held in dry conditions and both Turner and Adam found a balance in the car that they were both happy with. Qualifying too was dry and both drivers pushed as hard as they could to get that magic lap time but had to settle for sixth on the grid.
“We didn’t have any significant problems,” explained Turner. “My first and second laps went well but then I had double yellows on lap three and a Corvette in the way on lap four so I couldn’t improve. That said, the car felt good and we got as much out of it as we could but the BoP has put us in a different league.”
Sunday’s six-hour race had to be started behind the safety car as heavy rain had made the track too dangerous for the traditional rolling start. In fact, it wasn’t until 40 minutes into the race that the officials deemed the conditions to have improved sufficiently for the cars to be unleashed.
It was Adam’s turn to take the start and the team brought him in during the long opening safety car period for a top-up of fuel, thus giving the strategists more time to play with towards the end of the race.
When the safety car finally pitted after 40 minutes, Adam had to work his way past the amateur class cars before settling in to chase the pro runners. After a very long first stint, Adam pitted to hand the #97 Aston Martin over to Darren, who joined the race in seventh position.
Sunday’s six-hour race had to be started behind the safety car as heavy rain had made the track too dangerous for the traditional rolling start. In fact, it wasn’t until 40 minutes into the race that the officials deemed the conditions to have improved sufficiently for the cars to be unleashed.
It was Adam’s turn to take the start and the team brought him in during the long opening safety car period for a top-up of fuel, thus giving the strategists more time to play with towards the end of the race.
When the safety car finally pitted after 40 minutes, Adam had to work his way past the amateur class cars before settling in to chase the pro runners. After a very long first stint, Adam pitted to hand the #97 Aston Martin over to Darren, who joined the race in seventh position.
Source material - Darren Turner
Photo Credits - Aston Martin Racing
