Drayson Racing Has Plug Pulled in Long Beach Qualifying

by Thomas Moore

16 April, 2010

Drayson Racing Has Plug Pulled in Long Beach Qualifying

LONG BEACH, CA., USA – Drayson Racing metaphorically had its plug pulled in qualifying today for tomorrow’s American Le Mans Series of Long Beach. The UK-based, Le Mans Prototype (LMP) team will start sixth overall for Saturday’s 100-minute, sprint race after a master switch failed in qualifying during Jonny Cocker’s (Guisborough, Yorks, UK) “hot lap”. The result was the instantaneous halting of the Judd V10 engine ending the team’s time trial only three laps into the 20 minute session. Cocker, who shares the No. 8 Drayson Racing Lola Coupé with Judd Power with Paul Drayson (London/Gloucestershire, UK), turned a time of one minute, 17.084 seconds around the 1.968, 11-turn, temporary, street course giving the team the top six grid position for the second round of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) season.

Cocker was on what was going to be his fastest lap when the master switch – which provides a single location through which all the electricity of the closed-cockpit car is routed for safety reasons – failed as he entered Turn Nine. The team’s initial diagnosis of the problem bases the malfunction as the result of vibration. The two-time British GT Champion was able to safely bring the car to a halt and was able to momentarily restart the car in anticipation of returning to the pit lane for a repair. However, Cocker was not able to keep the Second-Generation, E85 Ethanol-powered car running due to the master switch ending the team’s qualifying session.

The event is the shortest on the ALMS schedule putting a great deal of importance on every lap turned. Bringing further emphasis to a mistake-free run is the tightness of the course which puts a premium on passing and a large 36-car field – the largest single event in Long Beach Grand Prix history. Paul Drayson will start tomorrow’s race from the outside of the third row with Cocker finishing the race. This is the first-time that either driver has competed in a street course in the 700-horsepwoer, thoroughbred LMP car. Each has one previous Long Beach start (2008) driving in the GT2 class for production-based entries.

SPEED Channel will broadcast the event at 8pm (US, Eastern Time) on Saturday, 17 April. Motors TV will provide UK/European coverage at 18:03, 25 April. International radio is provided at www.radiolemans.com. Check your local listings for a complete broadcast schedule.

Live timing and scoring of each session can be found at www.americanlemans.com.

Quotes

Paul Drayson, Owner/Driver: “The race start will be pretty hectic with so many cars on the grid. Overtaking is going to be challenging on the narrow street track. A lot can happen in 100 minutes. We have a great car and could do well here.”

Jonny Cocker, Driver: “We were looking good. We had made some progress during the day and I think, not having the problem, we would have been top three for sure. We were able to get one lap in and qualify sixth. All’s not lost. We aren’t starting from the back of the grid and I think our strategy will give us the opportunity to be contenders at the end of the race. We should be able to get a good result I think.”

To visit the official web site of Drayson Racing, please go to

www.draysonracing.com. To see up-to-the-minute notes on Drayson Racing, please follow “DraysonRacing” on Twitter.

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