Craig Dolby delivered one of the stand-out drives at this weekend’s Total 24 Hours of Spa, round four of the Blancpain Endurance Series, powering his New Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 from 34th place to seventh in a stellar opening stint.
The Brit, who was signed by JRM as its PRO and Driver Coach for this season’s Blancpain campaign, drove the #73 Nissan, which is being run by customer team MRS GT Racing.
He took the wheel for the opening 2hr 20min of the Belgian classic, the biggest GT race in the world, which was marked this year by atrocious weather and an eventful opening period punctuated by torrential rain showers, safety car interventions and full course yellows.
The rain made its presence felt at the pre-race warm-up, and Dolby was lucky to escape a huge moment at Eau Rouge on a wet track with cold tyres. He kept a cool head for the race start, however, which he began from 34th place after a disappointing qualifying session where regulation Balance of Performance (BOP) measures blunted the car’s competitiveness.
Race underway, and piercing the gloom with its striking new red livery, ‘Godziller’ ran perfectly and allowed 28-year-old Dolby to pick his way through the field, assisted by some shrewd tyre and pit stop decisions. To the delight of his British team-mates, Martin Plowman and JRM Development Driver Sean Walkinshaw, Dolby brought the car back for the first seat swap having made up 28 places.
Next it was 21-year-old Walkinshaw’s turn to take the wheel and face the double challenge of making his night-racing debut on a circuit being drenched by sharp, monsoon-like downpours.
Sadly Walkinshaw, like many other drivers, became a victim of the treacherous conditions. His car went off after aquaplaning through a lake of standing water after the La Source hairpin and connected with a wall. Almost immediately after, the severity of the rain prompted Stewards to impose a full course yellow.
Walkinshaw brought the damaged car back to the pits where repairs commenced, but the discovery of chassis damage spelled immediate retirement. It was a bitter disappointment for the young team, which has already shown huge potential this season.
But as if to prove that every cloud has a silver lining, the two other New Nissan GT-R NISMO GT3 cars entered both enjoyed solid weekends and reached the end of a grueling race that 25 entries failed to finish.
The #23 Nissan GT Academy Team RJN car of Alex Buncombe, (GBR) Wolfgang Reip (BEL) Katsumasa Chiyo (JPN) finished 15th overall, ninth in the PRO CUP class, while the #22 PRO-AM Cup car driven by Ricardo Sanchez (MEX) Gaetan Paletou (FRA) Florian Strauss (DEU) Olivier Pla (FRA) was eighth in class and 26th overall.
JRM Partnership Manager James Walters said: “Hats off to Craig who did an amazing job this weekend. He made up a lot of places early on and drove consistently in extremely difficult conditions. His focus and composure were all the more impressive considering his near incident in the warm-up.
Qualifying was a disappointment for all the Nissans, and the latest BOP weight and boost measures made it impossible for our drivers to find those extra few crucial tenths. Once underway, however, our race pace shows the car is strong, consistent and easy to drive. Sean was terribly unlucky to catch the rain when he did, but that’s how it is sometimes – the conditions just caught us out. Okay, it’s frustrating to come away with nothing having showed such promise early on, but we take away plenty of positives.”
Craig Dolby said: “The start was incredible. I think after the first three laps we were up to 23rd, then my engineer, Gus, made an awesome call on the first stop and we jumped more places. We climbed to seventh, and overtook the number five Audi, which went on to finish third. I really believe we were on for a top five finish. Obviously we’re all gutted not to finish, but having had a big moment myself in torrential rain during warm up, I know how it can happen. It was unfortunate for Sean but there was absolutely nothing he could have done about it. This really wasn’t his fault. Any one of us in the car would have been in the same situation. It’s frustrating, of course, having put ourselves in such a good position early in the race. We did everything right. It all felt right and the car felt amazing. But sometimes this race bites – and when it does it bites hard.”
Sean Walkinshaw said: “The conditions changed very dramatically in my stint, and on the way into the Bus Stop chicane there was a huge downpour and I couldn’t see anything. I hit some standing water on the old pit straight, aquaplaned and that was it. So much preparation went into this event, so it’s really disappointing and I’m absolutely gutted for the whole team. We just need to come back next year and try again, but our focus now will be on the next round of the Sprint Series.”
Sean Walkinshaw and Craig Dolby will be back in action in the next round of the Blancpain GT Series on 5th/6th September, at the Autodromo Internacional do Algarve near Portimao, Portugal.