Jack Le Brocq’s progression through the Erebus Academy ranks into the Erebus Motorsport GT program continues to deliver impressive results. The recently turned 21-year old reigning Australian Formula Ford champion achieved another significant milestone at Sydney Motorsport Park [SMP] during Rnd#4 of the Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli, racking up pole position, two dominant race wins and a new circuit lap record.
“Yeah, it was pretty good,” he grinned in trademark fashion on Sunday afternoon, clearly pleased to have delivered for the team that some felt had taken a big step in putting the relatively inexperienced youngster into their fleet of Mercedes-Benz SLS AMG GT3s.
“This is just further testament to his maturity as a driver,” Barry Ryan, Erebus Motorsport’s General Manager-Motorsport agreed. “He’s shown from the moment we first ran him in the Erebus Academy Formula 3 program that he is a very versatile driver.
“He also showed during the opening race too that he’s still got plenty to learn, as we forget that he’s still only 21.”
“I got a bit carried away in the opening race and tore up my tyres pretty badly,” Le Brocq admitted. “In the end the team elected to change the right rear tyre during my compulsory pit stop [CPS], so that affected my tyre bank for race two, so I got a first hand lesson in tyre management.”
As he had done at Phillip Island during his maiden event in the gorgeous Mercedes-Benz SLS ‘gull-wing’, Le Brocq took a cautious approach in early practice, setting the second fastest time behind GT part-timer Steven Richards.
He was also campaigning a different ‘mount’ in Sydney, moving across to the car Craig Baird took to two dominant wins during the Clipsal 500 round in Adelaide, the team having re-stickered the Bathurst winning car he’d used at Phillip Island, for a trade show in Sydney the week after the race. Despite the change, the end result was much the same..
“The track was pretty slippery, but the reality is that I haven’t been in the seat since Phillip Island, whereas guys like John Bowe, Steven Richards and GT rookie Nathan Antunes have been busy racing since.”
It didn’t deter the Victorian though, by session two he was on top of the time sheets, and by session three he’d gone quicker again, but was still 17 one hundredths off the pace set by Richards in the Lamborghini in session one.
Sadly he never had the chance to go ‘head-to-head’ with the experienced Richards after the Lamborghini spun on the opening lap of the qualifying session and retired.
Whilst Richards was out, Le Brocq faced a new challenger in new Audi recruit Nathan Antunes, the SMP specialist in the end falling just six one hundredths of a second shy of the Mercedes in the shortened session.
“There was probably another half a second in the car, but the session finished prematurely before I could get out and make use of the second set of tyres,” he explained afterwards. “We’ll see what happens in the race.”
Controlling the rolling start perfectly, Le Brocq charged into turn one at the head of the field and proceeded to break Allan Simonsen’s standing lap record three times within the first five laps of the opening one-hour race to reset the mark to a 1:28.4500.
From there he settled into a rhythm before pitting on lap 15, handing the lead to John Bowe in Peter Edwards’ Ferrari. With a 93-second parity penalty during his CPS, he sat patiently as the team replaced the right rear tyre, emerging from the pits in eighth place.
By the time the remaining teams cycled through though, he had caught Peter Edwards, taking him for position on lap 26 and regaining the lead after Tony Quinn’s pit-stop a lap later. From there it was straight forward as he wrapped up his third consecutive win for the team, crossing the line 26-seconds clear of points-leader and reigning champion Klark Quinn.
“I was probably a bit hard on the tyres early, so I got a first hand lesson in tyre management,” he admitted. “SMP is a different circuit to Phillip Island, but we managed the tyre wear in the end, but it will change my approach for tomorrow.”
“Jack’s ability to turn around what he learnt about tyre management in the first 20 minutes of race one to then bring the right rear tyre back at the end of the next 40 minutes in much better condition shows how quickly he can adapt, even during a race with coaching over the radio,” Barry Ryan added.
Off the front again for the second one-hour race, Jack again powered away, but this time he had company, with both Nathan Antunes [who was starting the Rod Salmon Audi R8] and Klark Quinn in close pursuit.
Eager not to push the tyres too hard, Jack settled into a steady pace, but maintained the lead before a desperate lunge from Antunes at the hairpin upped the pace.
“I wanted to get clear after that and the team released me to try and make a break.”
Unfortunately for Le Brocq, Antunes stuck with him, rarely a car length away, whilst the pair dropped Klark Quinn from their tails.
As soon as the pit-stop window opened, the team brought Le Brocq in for his stop, which would be a staggering 23-seconds longer than the Antunes/Salmon combination [because neither Audi driver was ‘seeded']. After 93 stationary seconds, he returned to the race, and this time, he was cleared to go after the leaders.
It wasn’t just the Audi he had to worry about, with the consistent Tony Quinn also working himself back into the mix in the Aston Martin, whilst the Justin McMillan/Steven Richards Lamborghini was back in the action too after overnight repairs.
Sadly the Lamborghini was unable to match the pace of the leaders, so they fell away, whilst Salmon was struggling to find form, and he quickly dropped down the order as Le Brocq charged away to an incredible 57-second victory.
He also managed to break his own lap record, dropping the mark another half a second to 1:27.9783 just three laps after making his CPS.
“By the time we made our stop, I knew we had some work to do to breach the lead that Antunes had established before he handed the car over to Salmon, so we really pushed,” he explained.
“We weren’t sure whether Richo would find the speed they’d had here in testing with the Lamborghini, but we didn’t hang around to find out. Once it was clear all the threats had gone, it was just a matter of settling into a nice comfortable rhythm till the flag.”
For the record Le Brocq’s nice comfortable rhythm included laps in the mid 28s and low 29s in the final ten minutes of the race..
“Jack once again exceeded our expectation and delivered a very impressive result for our program,” Barry Ryan admitted post-race. “Erebus are looking to ensure we can keep his education on a steep curve which he is clearly able to handle in the progression of his career as we continue to move forward.”
For the Erebus Motorsport GT team their attention turns to Queensland Raceway where the penultimate round of the championship will get underway in just under three weeks time (August 2-4).
Source : Australian GT