The Road to Le Mans!
Sunday, August 14, 2005
Gearbox Failure at Silverstone Night Race
A broken gearbox forced Hong Kong’s pioneering Le Mans team to retire from the 1,000km of Silverstone on Saturday just as Darryl O’Young was producing an outstanding drive in treacherous conditions.
The Noble Group-GruppeM Racing star had shown immense skill and maturity to keep his bauhinia-emblazoned Porsche GT3 RSR in the running as torrential rain turned the track into a skidpan and spray thrown up by cars reduced visibility to a few metres.
But O’Young was powerless to do anything about the broken gearbox that ended the Hong Kong team’s hopes an hour and a half into the six-hour race.
“I was in fifth gear when I felt it go – and I knew straight away it was serious,” explained O’Young, 25. “I got it back to the pits in third gear and within minutes the mechanics were telling us there was nothing they could do.
“It’s too bad. It had taken me a while to get used to the track and the conditions, but after that I felt I was going really well.”
The breakdown came as O’Young was running seventh out of 15 in his category and just a few laps before co-driver Matthew Marsh was due to take over behind the wheel.
The setback mirrored the team’s misfortune in their first outing at Monza last month when a rear tyre blowout forced Marsh into the gravel trap and out of the race before O’Young had taken his turn in the driver’s seat.
Marsh, 36, refused to be downhearted. “Obviously, it’s disappointing, but we have to concentrate on the positives,” he said.
“Considering his relative lack of experience at this level, plus the fact it was an unfamiliar track and very difficult conditions, Darryl drove fantastically well. He showed tremendous coolness under pressure in a race where some of Europe’s top drivers were unable to keep their cars on the track.
“It’s almost impossible to explain to the casual observer just how tough it is to drive in heavy rain like that. Racing tyres are very efficient at removing water from the track, but the place they remove it to is the air and that creates a huge amount of spray. It is very, very difficult for a driver to see where he is going.”
Marsh, who had placed seventh in qualifying, added: “However, for the second race in a row, we’ve shown we’re on the pace. We were running seventh in our category, but we were on the same lap as the fourth-placed car and in position to challenge the leaders later in the race.”
The Silverstone race was the latest event in the 2005 Le Mans Endurance Series (LMES), a string of 1,000km races at some of Europe’s top tracks.
Noble Group-GruppeM Racing are competing in the LMES with the aim of being invited to take part in the Le Mans 24 Hours in June next year. It is the first time a Hong Kong team has targeted the world’s greatest endurance race.
The team’s next outing is the 1,000km of Nurburgring on September 4, when they will be hoping for better luck.
“We’re competitive, there’s no doubt about that,” added O’Young. “But you need a little bit of good fortune in endurance racing. Let’s hope we get it in Germany.”
Tuesday, August 02, 2005
Tung joins the team!
Chinese ace Tung Ho Pin has emerged as a serious candidate to join Hong Kong’s pioneering Le Mans team after agreeing to co-drive a Maserati with project leader Matthew Marsh at a race meeting in Germany next month.
It will be the first time Dutch-born Tung has raced with Marsh, the SAR’s most high-profile driver, and both are hopeful it will lead to bigger things.
The Hong Kong Le Mans team, Noble Group-GruppeM Racing, already have Marsh and teammate Darryl O’Young signed up for a series of six-hour races in Europe but need a third driver for 12 and 24-hour events.
Tung – currently racing in Formula 3 in Germany – and Marsh will join forces for the Maserati Trofeo race at Nurburgring on September 4 and the Chinese star is relishing the challenge.
“It will be a great experience to work with Matthew and it will also be an opportunity for us to find out about each other’s driving,” said Tung, 22. “I have a busy schedule but I’m very keen to be part of the Le Mans project. If I can fit it into my plans and, crucially, give it the undivided attention it deserves, then I’d love to join up with Matthew and Darryl.”
Noble Group-GruppeM Racing are bidding to become the first Hong Kong team to take part in the Le Mans 24 Hours, the world’s greatest sports car race. Their Porsche GT3 RSR is owned and sponsored by SAR companies and both British-born Marsh and Chinese-Canadian O’Young are Hong Kong residents.
The team are currently competing in a series of endurance races in Europe with a view to being invited to Le Mans in June next year.
Marsh, the reigning Porsche Infineon Carrera Cup Asia champion and the man who has spearheaded the Le Mans project, believes Tung – scheduled to demonstrate a BMW Williams F1 car on the streets of Rotterdam this Sunday – would be the perfect foil for himself and O’Young.
“Ho Pin is fantastically talented – the fact that Formula 1 teams are closely monitoring his progress says it all,” said Marsh. “Just as importantly, he is a team player, something that is crucial in endurance racing. Darryl and I have worked very well together so far and we think Ho Pin would fit in very well.”
The Maserati race is a support event to the 1,000km of Nurburgring, which Noble Group-GruppeM Racing are competing in, meaning it will be a hectic weekend for Marsh. Hours after sharing driving duties with Tung, he will be teaming up with O’Young to race the Porsche in the main event.
“The Maserati Trofeo is a short event and there’s a break of several hours before the 1,000km race, so tiredness won’t be a factor,” said Marsh. “Darryl and I both agreed it would be good to meet up with Ho Pin and for one of us to share a car with him to see his driving at first hand. Darryl is contracted exclusively to Porsche, so it has to be me.”
Tung and Marsh will be driving a Maserati Trofeo GranSport, the racing version of the road car that is sold in Hong Kong by importer Auto Italia, the company that is funding the duo’s entry.
Marsh will be hoping history repeats itself – in his only previous Maserati Trofeo outing, at Silverstone last year, he partnered British TV presenter Vicki Butler-Henderson to victory.
He added: “I'm excited by two things: firstly to be racing a Maserati again, because it’s one of the great sports car marques; and, secondly because again a Hong Kong company has backed our team. Auto Italia had to make a quick decision to get us into this race and they made it boldly. Now we have to win!”
As for Noble Group-GruppeM Racing, Nurburgring will be their third race since the team was announced last April. Marsh and O’Young took part in the 1,000km of Monza three weeks ago, when they were forced to retire while running fifth in their category, and they are next in action at Silverstone on August 13.
-- ENDS --
Released by Two Up Front, the official media relations partner of Noble Group-GruppeM Racing.
For further information, please contact:
Niall Donnelly Candy Ho
Tel: (852) 2854 2136 Tel: (852) 2854 2135
Fax: (852) 3579 5955 Fax: (852) 3579 5955
Email: niall@tuf.com.hk Email: candy@tuf.com.hk
NIGHT RACE COMING SOON
The next race in the Le Mans Endurance Series is the Silverstone 1000kms on Saturday 13th August. The race starts at 4pm and will run into the darkness. Matthew and Darryl are looking forward to getting back into the RSR and hope this time to make it to the finish line.
Our team, GruppeM Racing, are in high spirits after class victory and a magnificent eighth place overall at the Spa 24-hours last weekend.
This weekend (August 7th), Darryl and Matthew will be racing each other in the Carrera Cup Asia races at Korea's Taebaek circuit before flying across the world to London.
