Ecurie Ecosse: August 2013

Wednesday 14 August 2013

British GT Championship podium success at Brands Hatch

12/08/2013

Ecurie Ecosse scores third British GT podium in thrilling Brands Hatch enduro

Legendary Scottish motor racing outfit Ecurie Ecosse powered by Black Bull and drivers Oliver Bryant and Marco Attard picked up their third British GT Championship podium of the season at Kent’s Brands Hatch Grand Prix circuit on Sunday (August 11) to move up to second in the championship.

The squad’s Barwell Motorsport-run BMW Z4 GT3 enjoyed its last competitive outing at Austria’s Red Bull Ring for round three of the European Le Mans Series with drivers Ollie Millroy, Andrew Smith and Alasdair McCaig three weeks ago. With the team’s focus now switched back to its British GT programme, the UK event was an opportunity to score more valuable championship points.

Attard converted a solid fifth place qualifying effort by Bryant into a excellent opening stint, holding his ground at the start before making his way up to third position early on. The Surrey-based driver tried in vain to pass the 888 BMW of Steve Tandy and briefly lost ground as the Ginetta of Colin White made its way to the front.

But the Ecosse BMW was soon back into third following an off-track excursion for the Ginetta. Attard was then passed by hard charging Silver-graded driver Gregoire Demoustier in his McLaren and the Aston Martin of Mark Poole before pitting from P5 to hand over to Bryant.

Thanks to a slick-as-ever pitstop by the Barwell Motorsport crew for tyres and fuel, Bryant rejoined chasing the Beechdean Aston Martin of Jonny Adam for what was to become the race lead. Bryant set about closing the gap to the Aston over the opening laps of his stint, but his charge was interrupted when the McLaren of Demoustier, now in the hands of Duncan Tappy, resumed in between the two. Bryant was keen to pass the McLaren straight away to continue his pursuit of Adam, but his efforts were thwarted again and again as Tappy defended impeccably. This enabled the Aston to make its escape up front while the Ecosse BMW's pace was severely hampered by being stuck behind the McLaren.

Dan Brown in the 888 BMW soon closed in to make it a three-way battle for second place, managing to get ahead of Bryant before pushing hard to pass Tappy, but to no avail. With 15 minutes left on the clock Bryant capitalised on a mistake by Brown into Graham Hill Bend to reclaim third place. He then made a concerted effort to attack Tappy in the final laps, while also holding off the attentions of Brown. Bryant succeeded in his defence from the 888 BMW but was unable to pass Tappy, who held on to second by the narrowest of margins.

Third place was nevertheless a fantastic result for the Ecurie Ecosse pairing and made up for the disappointment of Snetterton eight weeks ago. Attard's opening stint was the perfect start and Bryant absorbed huge pressure to deliver a podium and a vital 22.5 championship points.

Oliver Bryant, Ecurie Ecosse driver: “This was a great weekend for us. We worked hard on the setup and found a good race balance. Unfortunately I couldn't pass the McLaren as I believe we had the pace to challenge for the win today, but I'm happy with third. Marco delivered the perfect opening stint and the Barwell crew gave us a brilliant strategy as always. I can't wait for Zandvoort.”

Marco Attard, Ecurie Ecosse driver: “After a hectic but orderly start we managed to get up to third place. There were limited opportunities to pass the 888 BMW so I thought it best to play it safe and trust Olly to finish the job. This was a great result and as usual the team performed brilliantly - roll on Zandvoort!”

Mark Lemmer, Barwell Motorsport Team Principal: “We have to capitalise on the circuits that suit the Z4 and so far this season we have done just that. We are in great shape to carry on and get the job done.”

In addition to the activities on track, Ecurie Ecosse had numerous guests and sponsors joining the team over the weekend. Significantly, the team invited five current and former young cancer patients from the Teenage Cancer Trust unit at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Surrey. Ecosse European Le Mans Series driver and former patient Joe Twyman was on hand to show the patients the ins and outs of the BMW Z4 GT3.

Ecurie Ecosse’s next competitive outing sees the team head to Zandvoort for rounds eight and nine of the British GT Championship (September 8).

2013 British GT Championship – GT3 Drivers’ Standings (top three after seven rounds)

1.   Jonny Adam / Andrew Howard (Beachdeen Aston Martin Vantage GT3) 95.5 points
2.   Oliver Bryant / Marco Attard (Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 GT3) 89 points
3.   Matt Bell / Mark Patterson   United Autosports Audi R8 LMS GT3 79.5 points

ENDS

Issued on behalf of Ecurie Ecosse

Photo credit: Gary Parravani, Xynamic Motorsport Photography

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Andrew Smith

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Email: as@ecurieecosse.com

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European Le Mans Series Podium at the Red Bull Ring in Austria

22/07/2013

Ecurie Ecosse maintains ELMS podium streak at Red Bull Ring

Legendary Scottish motor racing outfit Ecurie Ecosse, along with drivers Ollie Millroy, Andrew Smith and Alasdair McCaig, picked up their third consecutive European Le Mans Series podium of the season at Austria’s Red Bull Ring on Saturday (July 20) to maintain their lead in both the Teams’ and Drivers’ championships.

The squad’s Barwell Motorsport-run BMW Z4 GT3 enjoyed its last competitive outing at Snetterton for rounds five and six of the British GT Championship with drivers Oliver Bryant and Marco Attard two weeks ago. But with focus now switched back to its ELMS programme, the Austrian event was an opportunity to score more valuable GTC class points.

Having never driven at the Red Bull Ring before, Friday’s pair of one-hour official practice sessions were spent learning the circuit and evaluating car set-ups that would suit the technical nature of this famous track.

Championship regulations dictate that the 2013 specification BMW Z4 GT3 must carry 70kg of ballast on top of its standard minimum weight. That, as well as the car’s comparatively low torque and subsequent lack of straight-line speed relative to its rivals, meant the team would have to employ everything in its armoury to ensure a competitive run at the Series’ third round.

Having made some minor set-up changes following free practice on Friday, Millroy – the team’s ‘Pro’ driver – would remain aboard throughout Saturday morning’s 20-minute qualifying session. The BMW is extremely light on tyres compared to its Ferrari and Lamborghini class rivals, making them last longer over a race distance but difficult to bring up to optimum operating temperature during such a short qualifying run. Even so, Ollie’s fastest lap was still good enough for fourth on the grid and just a second shy of pole.

Smith was behind the wheel for the start of Saturday afternoon’s three-hour race and immediately made forward progress, passing some of the faster GTE cars while maintaining position in GTC. After 50 minutes it was the turn of McCaig who, after benefitting from a faultless fuel-only stop by his Barwell Motorsport crew, went on to complete a further 50-minute stint and retain fourth.

With 80 minutes left on the clock Millroy climbed aboard, with the BMW this time taking on fresh rubber as well as fuel. After an ultra-consistent run he pitted again for further fuel before heading back out with half an hour remaining. Incredibly, despite suffering from fading brakes, he was able to catch and pass the third placed Ferrari to help maintain Ecurie Ecosse’s 100% podium record this season.

More importantly than the string of rostrums however is that Ecurie Ecosse left Austria on Saturday evening delighted to still be leading both the Drivers’ and Team’s championships ahead of the next ELMS round at the Hungaroring in Hungary on September 14.

Ollie Millroy, Ecurie Ecosse: “We had to work extremely hard for this podium and the whole team did a fantastic job throughout the weekend to ensure we maintained our lead in the championship. I gave everything I had during my 80-minute stint which, combined with a great strategy call from the Ecurie Ecosse and Barwell team, meant I was able to move into the final podium spot.”

Andrew Smith, Ecurie Ecosse: “The Red Bull Ring is a great track and, as always, it was a privilege to race our BMW there at such a high level. The aim was to maintain our championship lead and we achieved that, but the GTC class is getting much more competitive now and with our power-to-weight disadvantage, as well as very few other teams running Bronze drivers, we are going to have to work extremely hard to maintain our lead.”

Alasdair McCaig, Ecurie Ecosse: “Third was a fantastic result for the team this weekend. We did not have the pace of the Ferraris given our weight penalty, so it was impossible to challenge the front-runners. We are hoping that this will be adjusted for the next round at the Hungaroring where we will look to safeguard our championship lead. Once again all three Ecosse drivers put in faultless, trouble-free stints and benefited from a perfect strategy from our Barwell race engineer Adam Hardy.”

Mark Lemmer, Barwell Motorsport Team Principal: “We are really suffering with the extra ballast we have to carry above the car's standard weight. It's really hurting our pace but despite this everyone remained focused and we’ve come away from Austria still just ahead in the points!”

Ecurie Ecosse’s next competitive outing sees the team head to Brands Hatch for round seven of the British GT Championship (August 11).

2013 European Le Mans Series - GTC Drivers’ Championship (top 3 after 3 of 5 races)

1. Ollie Millroy/Andrew Smith, Ecurie Ecosse, BMW Z4 GT3, 55 points

2. Lorenzo Case/Stefano Gai/Andrea Rizzolo, AF Corse, Ferrari 458 Italia, 54

3. Fabio Babini/Kirill Ladygin/Viktor Shaitar, SMP Racing, Ferrari 458 Italia, 50

2013 European Le Mans Series - GTC Teams’ Championship (top 3 after 3 of 5 races)

1. Ecurie Ecosse, BMW Z4 GT3, 55 points

2. AF Corse, Ferrari 458 Italia, 54

3. SMP Racing, Ferrari 458 Italia, 50