After a frustrating start to his 2013 Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli campaign, reigning Challenge Class champion Jan Jinadasa arrived at Sydney Motorsport Park eager to get back behind the wheel of his ‘new’ JJ Racing Lamborghini Gallardo LP520 after a disappointing end to their Phillip Island debut.

“It’s been a tough season to date, no question,” Jan reflected. “We lost a lot of time having the car freighted into the country from Germany, then the accident during practice at Phillip Island really put us behind the eight-ball for this weekend.

“As it was, we only just made Sydney, after parts to repair the car were held up, our control arms only just arriving on Tuesday night.”

It had been a testing couple of weeks for the Victorian, who in the process of repairing the car, also set about establishing a new team to run it.

“I’ve always been a part of other team’s programs, but I was keen to take some more ‘ownership’ of what was happening, so we’ve built Team JJ Racing around the Lamborghini, and so far it’s working very well.”

Opening practice provided the team’s first chance to run the car since the rebuild, Jan turning cautious laps ahead of the weekend’s two one-hour enduros.

“We discovered a couple of issues during the opening session which the team are working on, but we’ll be right by session two.

After completing 10 laps in session two and nine in session three, Jan admitted that he was a little bit further back than he would have liked, but that the team would make some more changes ahead of qualifying.

“It turns out that the ABS isn’t working on the car, which was one of the big selling points for me when I bought it. It doesn’t look like it will be an easy fix either, so I’ll just have to make do. I’m not locking wheels, so all that time in the non-ABS Porsche must have accounted for something..”

Unfortunately Friday’s final session uncovered another issue..

“The alternator isn’t working,” Jan explained. “The warning on the dash came on almost immediately, so we may not have been running at our peak since the first session. Unfortunately the later model LP560 uses a different system, so we might not be able to do much about it ahead of qualifying.”

After a long night at the circuit, the team managed to effect repairs they hoped would work through qualifying and the two races. Sadly, it wasn’t to be..

“The guys pulled the alternator apart and discovered a broken wire, which they repaired, but it appears the damage is worse than that, it may be in the regulator, so we’ll just rely on power from the battery and see how far that takes us. If we have to swap batteries during the race, that’s what we’ll do.”

Despite the setbacks, Jan qualified the JJA Consulting Gallardo in position 11, taking almost a second off his practice best.

“I love driving this car,” he beamed post-session, “it’s fantastic to drive, I just wish I could get the best out of it.”

A cautious start to the opening one-hour race was plagued again by electrical issues, the team concerned that the lack of power was also affecting the performance of the engine.

After three stops, two batteries and 13 laps, Jan called it a day.

“There wasn’t much to be gained, so we decided to spend some more time looking for a solution,” Jan explained.

For Sunday’s second one-hour race, Jan joined fellow Lamborghini pilots Justin McMillan and Roger Lago at the back of the field, the three drivers hoping to work their way through the slower classes on their way back to the front. Again, fate intervened.

“It wasn’t right again, despite a herculean effort by the boys. All I could do was my best, and despite getting up to ninth before my compulsory pit stop, things just weren’t going to get any better, so we chose the safe option and retired her.

“In part it was a frustrating weekend, but also I had the chance to drive the car and get a feel for it, and that’s left me wanting more. There’s no physical damage to repair on the car, and just niggling electrical issues we’ll work to resolve before Queensland.

“I have to thank Joe, Nick and Michael too for the efforts they put in on the weekend, without them I wouldn’t have gotten half as far. They’re as disappointed as I am not to have completed the full quota of laps. Sometimes though, that’s just motor racing..

“Roll on Queensland!”

It’s now just a three week turnaround until the penultimate round of the championship at Queensland Raceway (August 2-4), followed by a lengthy break until the final event of the season, on the new Highlands Motorsport Park circuit in New Zealand in early November.

Source : Australian GT