Drayson Racing Turns Heads with Top-10 Sebring 12 Hour Qualifier

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Drayson Racing turned more than the Michelin tyres on its No. 007 Aston Martin Vantage GT2 while preparing for Saturday's 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida; they turned heads. From the E85-fueled car's first test run on the famous Sebring International Raceway on Monday, those involved in the American Le Mans Series began to take notice of the Elspeth and Paul Drayson-owned team's Vantage GT2 showed marked progress since the end of the 2008 season. Any doubts of the car's improvement were removed in today's 25-minute qualifying session for the GT2 class when Jonny Cocker (Guisborough, Yorks, UK) placed the car ninth on the class grid. Cocker will be joined by Paul Drayson (London/Gloucestershire, UK), and Rob Bell (St. Helens, England) behind the wheel of the British racing green machine during the 21 March event.

The Official Partner Team of Aston Martin Racing turned seven laps in practice with Cocker's quick time of two minutes, 5.692 seconds coming on the fourth trip around the 3.7-mile, 17-turn Sebring circuit. The lap was 2.6 seconds off the pace set by the class pole position-winning car.
To complete a long day which included three total hours of available track time, the Dale White (Bozeman, MT, USA) managed team took part in the mandatory night session. American Le Mans Series rules dictate that any driver starting in Saturday's 12 hour event must take a minimum of three laps at racing speeds of the circuit at night. A rain storm swept through central Florida between the qualifying session and night practice leaving a freshly scrubbed track surface to challenge the three British drivers as they took to the course in the setting sun.

The operation stuck to protocol getting the drivers their required track time on the damp track with grooved tyres. As the preferred racing line dried, the call came to run each driver through the car on the dry-weather, racing slicks. Cocker was first on the slick tyres and set the fifth-quickest time of the session (2:06.384). Drayson and Bell followed becoming accustomed to the race day setup. Ted Higgins, crew chief for Drayson Racing, also took the time to lead the organisation in a pit stop practice as the programme rotated through its drivers. In total, the team ran 29 laps during the night practice.