ACCIDENT ENDS ENCOURAGING RUN FOR ASTON IN FLORIDA

Tim's run in the Sebring 12 hour race on Saturday in the Drayson – Barwell Aston Martin DBRS 9 ended at just over the 3 hour mark when Paul Drayson went off the track at the very fast turn 1 causing terminal damage. (See : http://driving.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/driving/article3594496.ece )

Lord Drayson had just started his second stint in the car when he had the accident after Jonny Cocker and Tim had moved the car up to 9th place during their periods in the car.   The differential and gearbox were damaged and the rules do not allow them to be replaced so the team had no alternative but to retire.    Prior to the accident the GT3 car was proving surprisingly competitive against cars to the full GT2 spec.   As well as the usual Porsche and Ferrari entries the race had drawn other new cars with a Dodge Viper, Chevrolet Corvette and Ford GT-R also making their debut in the class.   The GT2 Aston is not ready yet so the team entered last year’s ex British GT car which runs to GT3 rules and found that the car out qualified all but the Corvette of the new cars.

In the race Tim was able to catch and pass the Viper that had got ahead of the Aston early in the race and then the Corvette and so it was a great shame that a small error caused the car to hit the barriers backwards and damage the rear of the car where the gearbox and differential unit is located.    The new GT2 car will be available for Drayson and Cocker for the next round on April 6th.

Tim said: “I’d just handed over to Paul; the car had been running really well. The damage looked fairly superficial but there was a problem with the diff.”

Tim’s next race is the first round of the 2008 Porsche Carrera Cup Asia that will be run as part of the Malaysian Grand Prix programme next weekend when he begins his defence of the championship won in 2007.