“What a rollercoaster ride,” Jan Jinadasa admitted after claiming his maiden Trophy class victory during the Queensland Raceway round of the Australian GT Championship presented by Pirelli. “Who knew it would be this tough..”
The journey from first agreeing to purchase the ex-European championship contesting Lamborghini Gallardo LP520 in Germany earlier in the year, to standing on top of the podium with his maiden trophy in the category had been long and arduous.
First it was delayed in transit forcing him to miss round two in Adelaide, the car ultimately arriving just days out from round three at Phillip Island. Quick in his opening practice session, the gorgeous JJA Consulting Gallardo went hard into the wall in practice two, bringing his weekend to a premature end, whilst in Sydney for round four, ongoing electrical issues forced two DNFs.
Up against the might of points leader Steve McLaughlan in the ex-Greg Crick Dodge Viper, and touring car veteran Graham Lusty in the Mosler MT900, Jinadasa was somewhat of the ‘underdog’ for the Queensland round, but that didn’t deter him.
“Bring it on,” he joked prior to practice, although the smile was underlined by some ongoing technical issues. “For some reason we don’t have ABS,” he shrugged. “It’s been an issue since the crash at Phillip Island, yet whilst we’ve checked everything and spoken a number of times to Reiter Engineering [the manufacturers of the car], we can’t find anything..
“That was one of the reasons I bought the car, to have all the niceties like ABS and traction control, because the Porsche didn’t have them. Given I don’t know any different though after years driving the Porsche like that, I’ll cope, but it’s something which I know will make us faster, so it will be a priority to fix.”
Practice gave Jinadasa his first chance to give the car a run, although the opening session wasn’t as quick as he’d hoped. “I’m not 100% comfortable, but it may just be me needing more miles, so I’ve asked John Bowe to have a run in it later during the night practice to see what he thinks.”
Session two provided some improvement, whilst Bowe admitted that he felt the car was fine. “It’s like anything new,” he explained. “You just need to get more miles in it, the car’s fine.”
Qualifying saw the biggest improvement of all, with Jinadasa setting the 11th fastest time, just over a second behind McLaughlan, and ahead of the 7-litre Mosler.
The Mosler managed to sneak past him off the line in race one to take second in class, which became first after McLaughlan spun on lap two, trying to avoid the stationary Liam Talbot Audi, which was parked broadside across the circuit at turn four. With McLaughlan towed back to the pits, dropping four laps in the process, he was out of the equation making it a two-horse race.
After the compulsory put stop [CPS], Jinadasa rejoined behind the big Mosler, but was unable to make a pass before the flag, crossing the line ten seconds in arrears.
“I’m having dramas with gearbox temperature,” he admitted post-race. “It’s running at almost 150 degrees which is where it shuts the system down, so I speed up and gain time, but have to back off again to ensure the engine doesn’t cut out. We’ll see what we can do to get some more cooling to the system, but it’s certainly frustrating, especially when you know you have the speed.”
In the dark for race two, Jinadasa held station early, before again inheriting a position as the Viper rolled to a stop with fuel pressure problems mid-race.
The Mosler then had an off which catapulted the Team JJ Racing Gallardo into a lead he would hold to the flag, crossing the line in position nine.
“That was awesome,” he beamed post-race. “We still have temperature issues, but the cooler night air helped. Now it’s on to race three!”
Assisted by the lovely Chenae, Team JJ Racing had never looked better, prompting some extra motivation from the driver for the final race of the season on Australian soil.
A conservative start was rewarded with an opening segment inside the top ten, the JJA Consulting Lamborghini moving to ninth ahead of the CPS, although with the big Viper underway again, Jinadasa was holding down third in class.
With the dashboard display again showing gearbox temperatures well into the red, he chose his moment late in the race to charge through on the Lusty Mosler to take second in class, ninth outright, and victory for the Trophy class.
“That’s fantastic,” he beamed afterwards.
“It was another tough weekend, but Pete, Joe and Nick kept things alive with the car, and we prevailed. Tough luck for Steve, but I know just how he feels after the season we’ve had. I enjoyed racing against Graham, he was a real gentleman, but a tough racer, and that Mosler was quick.”
For the team it’s back to their Melbourne base for repairs and assessment, with the ABS and traction control high on the agenda. From there it’s decision time about New Zealand for the season finale in November.
“The track looks fantastic, and I’m pretty keen, but I’m not in the championship hunt after all the dramas through the year to date, but we’ll assess it over the next couple of weeks and see what we can do.”
Source : Australian GT