Promising Sebring Ends with Disappointment for Drayson Racing

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Drayson Racing showed much promise in its debut event of the 2009 sports car racing season; today's 57th Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring presented by Fresh from Florida. The No. 007 Aston Martin Vantage GT2 came to the American Le Mans Series season- opener performing stronger and more consistently than at any time since its premiere in 2008. However, that promise would come to an early end here at Sebring (Fla.) International Raceway when the car's engine lost oil pressure deep into the race's seventh hour. Driver Rob Bell (St. Helens, England) brought the car to a safe stop and stepped from the Elspeth and Paul Drayson-owned entry while in seventh-place of the GT2 class on lap 204. Bell, who started the car at 10:30 AM (ET), was joined in the 'Second Generation' E85 ethanol-fuelled Aston Martin by Paul Drayson (London/Gloucestershire, UK) and Jonny Cocker (Guisborough, Yorks, UK).

Drayson, the Minister of State for Science and Innovation for the United Kingdom, has pioneered "green", environmental causes in motorsports since the start of his career. Running the latest, 'Second Generation', cellulosic E85, Bio- Ethanol fuel, the team entered today's event with a mandate to threaten the factory efforts in the Grand Touring (GT) category of the Michelin® Green X® Challenge Award - presented to the GT team that completes the 12 hour race distance the quickest while having the smallest impact on the environment. At the time of its retirement, the No. 007 was running third in the Michelin® Green X® Challenge just fractions behind two 'works' entries from the GT1 class.

The Vantage GT2 is largely in development by the Official Partner Team of Aston Martin Racing. As the sole organisation running the Vantage GT2 in professional, international competition, the burden of developing the car has rested on the shoulders of the Dale White (Bozeman, MT, USA) managed operation. Today's 12 hour classic was the first true race assessment of off-season advances. The new suspension and powertrain enhancements provided substantial improvements to the car's overall competitiveness throughout the week offering much anticipation for the coming season.

Prior to the race-ending oiling issue, the only major challenge for the team was a spin coming one hour and 17 minutes into the event. The team opted to keep the car on the same tyres while filling the fuel tank. The combination proved an evil mix creating a severely oversteering car. Cocker was able to fight the handling until pushed off-line by a faster Prototype. Once on the dirty portion of the track, the car lost grip and spun backwards into the tyre barrier in Turn 17 damaging the car's rear wing. An impressive nine- minute repair returned Cocker to the race.

Today's 12 Hours of Sebring, the second for each of the three drivers, is the start of an ambitious season for the United Kingdom-based programme. From Florida, Drayson Racing travels to Barcelona, Spain for the first round of the Le Mans Series, the 1,000 Km of Cantalunya scheduled for 5 April. Four additional events will be run in the European-based Series with the No. 87 Drayson Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT2 before returning to North America for the Petit Le Mans and Monterey Sports Car Championships in October. The effort will closeout the '09 season with back-to- back, November weekend events in Japan and China with the Asian Le Mans Series. Highlighting the season is the team's participation in the 24 Hours of Le Mans. The 13-14 June race marks the team's first invitation to compete in the legendary event.