Ireland’s Matt Griffin this weekend kicks of his European Le Mans campaign with the Silverstone-based GT team RAM Racing. After 15 months of planning and preparation the team will be fielding two Ferrari 458 Italia’s in the LMGTE category of the ELMS series at the Northamptonshire track for drivers Griffin and Johnny Mowlen (no.52) plus Gunnar Jeanette and Frankie Montecalvo (no.53) who will not be alone in having family and friends around them to cheer on the team. Buoyed by a very positive pre-season test programme, Ram Racing is confident that it has done everything possible to full prepare for the season as a whole and more specifically, the 3 Hours of Silverstone on Saturday afternoon. Following this weekend, the series will take Ram Racing to Italy in May, Austria in July, Hungary and France in September. The gleaming white Ferraris will be up against some stiff opposition in the class from three other Ferraris and three Porsches, piloted by some high profile drivers.Griffin commented, “On the prospects for the Ferrari in the ELMS: “I think our Ferrari 458 GTE will be very strong in the ELMS this season as the car has really proved itself in international competition in the last two years. The entry is very strong, with some top teams, but I am very confident that Ram racing will get the maximum out of our F458. Also Johnny and I make a strong team so overall I feel confident for the weekend ahead.” “Silverstone is a great circuit and always produces exciting racing. My favourite part of the track is the Maggots and Becketts complex; it’s very important as it leads onto the Hangar straight, is super-fast and you need to be fully committed through here. The most challenging part for me is the new section of track constructed in 2011. It’s very tight and technical and, to be fast, you have to be inch perfect.” Dan Shufflebottom, Team Principal: “I am both optimistic and realistic about Ram Racing’s prospects this weekend. I believe we’ve got one of the best line ups in the field, supported by a crew of guys who have all gelled together exceptionally well. Not all of us had a background in GT racing, but I think that’s been a benefit rather than a disadvantage as we’ve been able to look at how we operate from a fresh perspective.” “As it’s Silverstone, I believe our biggest challenge will be the weather and the conditions rather than the opposition. At this time of year you could have four seasons in one day, and that’s potentially a headache for the engineers in terms of knowing whether to use a dry or wet set up when in changeable conditions. It’s a bit of a cliché to say that it’ll be the same for everyone but that’s about the sum of it so we’ll be using every bit of experience we have in every area to face those challenges.” The rejuvenated European Le Mans Series, now under the same management as the FIA World Endurance Championship, will have a grid of 25 cars for the opening round, with anticipation of more entries in the future. A great TV package has been put together by the series, with a potential reach of 600 million households across 100 countries. European Le Mans Series 2013 Schedule: 13 April: Silverstone, 18 May: Imola, 20 July: Red Bull Ring, 14 September: Hungaroring, 28 September: Paul Ricard.

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Griffin Keen To Get The Party Started

Andrew Watson has today announced that he will compete in this year’s Ginetta GT Supercup series. Having enjoyed a very successful debut season racing in the British Ginetta Junior Championship, Watson has now chosen the Ginetta GT Supercup in a Ginetta G55 as the next step in his racing career. Watson made his mark early on in last year’s Junior championship with a debut visit to the podium at Donington Park which was only his second weekend in the championship. Andrew finished the season with six podiums, three of which came in the last four rounds of the championship, with a first and second at Silverstone and also setting two new lap records at both Silverstone and Brands Hatch. Watson will return to Douglas Motorsport for his Ginetta GT Supercup campaign. Photo: Jakob Ebrey Andrew is set to remain with 2012 Ginetta Junior Team Champions Douglas Motorsport, with whom he has shared the majority of his motor racing success over the last two seasons. Team Principal Wayne Douglas commented on how Andrew had developed over the season and how on a recent test day he had immediately got to grips with the more powerful G55, “I am really pleased that he has signed up to race with us again this year. I am confident that both the team and driver are up to this new challenge. I think we will have a great season.“ Speaking about the announcement, Andrew explained how much he is looking forward to the new challenge, “I think we will have a very successful 2013 season. I felt right at home in the car straight away. I’ve learned so much by competing in Ginetta Junior last year so now I feel that I have a good knowledge of all the tracks that I will be racing on and I’m really looking forward to seeing what results we can produce over the season. The competition is really strong in the GT Supercup, so it will be good to test myself against the best in the business.”

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EXCLUSIVE: Watson steps up to GT Supercup

Silverstone announces plans to ensure it can deal with any possible repeat of the poor weather than hit the 2012 British Grand Prix

Crash.Net Formula One Newsfeed

If you had asked me two weeks prior to the Walter Hayes Trophy this year if I was planning to do it I probably would have laughed at you. It was a very late decision and meant a very busy ten days of preparation on a car that hadn’t turned a wheel in over three years! But given the opportunity to do the most competitive Formula Ford 1600 race of the year I wasn’t going to say no. It could be said that when I arrived in Silverstone on a miserably wet Wednesday evening that I was slightly unsure as to how the weekend would go. That was even more so the case after I got only 2 full laps in the first practice session on Thursday morning due to red flags. Thankfully though by the end of the day we were right on the pace of the fastest cars in the wet. Friday again started off very wet but as the day went on it dried up. We had a lot of work to do to get the Aigle Music, Enya car working in the dry but we were within half a tenth of the fastest time and right amongst the big names. We were the final qualifying session on Saturday morning and we got caught out by the track drying much faster than we had anticipated. This left me in seventh place on the grid for my heat, much further down than our testing pace had shown in what was one of the most competitive heats. Come the race itself it was totally dry and with a good start I had made one place already by the end of the first lap. By half distance I was in fourth position catching Joey Foster. A lap later I was in third challenging for second when I managed to avoid a collision which allowed to me to get into second. A lap and a half left and the gap was too much to the leader but second was a good result from my starting position either way. I was very happy with my race craft in the heat and that is due in no small part to the caliber of the Irish Formula Vee class which I have raced in for the past 2 seasons. I was woken on Sunday morning to the sound of a lot of rain pounding down on the roof of the truck and drips of water falling down into my sleeping bag! I wasn’t very sad it was the last night I would have to spend in the back of our freezing truck but I was excited for the race despite the weather. After a few hours of delays due to the immense amount of water that had fallen during the night it was time for my Semi Final. I was to start fifth on the grid just behind Peter Dempsey. At the start I had too much wheel spin and lost two positions but after a few laps had made my way back up to fifth position when I came together with Callum McLeod going for fourth position. It was a bad end to a great weekend but I have to be very happy with the pace in a car that we had such limited running! It gives me a lot of confidence for next year as I had the pace to run with the best and as my dad would say. “I had a few lessons you wouldn’t learn in school!” Until next time, Kevin

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Kevin O’Hara: The Walter Hayes Trophy

The end is near! Only one weekend left until I pack away the helmet and suit for another long winter. Sorry I haven’t written a blog for you guys for a while, but the leaving certs taking a lot of time from me! Well I’ll start with Rockingham where the team are based throughout the year. Although it was our home event, I unfortunately could not get off school to do any test days which was particularly bad as there were a few test days the week before the race that all the top lads did which was frustrating but I didn’t feel it would make too much difference. The weekend started off fairly well when I was one of the quickest in the wet free practice sessions on old tyres. When it dried up in the practice session on Saturday morning the pace just was not there and I was really wondering where I was losing it as the car felt perfect. When we compared data to my teammates I was losing it all on the straights, which we thought, was because he got a tow and I didn’t. So we did not change anything for qualifying and as my teammate was very quick that weekend in all the sessions we decided to try run together in qualifying and tow with each other. Throughout the session we were both running in the top 3-4 but towards the end I noticed that even in his tow, Andrew would pull away from me massively in the straights which was very frustrating as I was catching him in the twisty part to the track. After the session I ended up way down in 7th for both races, however we did notice that the car was overheating massively due to debris in the radiator, which was causing the straight-line speed problems… We hoped! In race 1 I (somehow) was turning the first corner in 3rd only to be met by a driver behind not braking early enough, shunting me straight into my teammate on my outside, which damaged both our steering racks. I battled away on lap one with my steering wheel constantly wanting to turn the wrong way. As I was going through the chicane side-by-side with Pepe Massot in 4th place, I was left with a half cars width between the tyres and his car, so unfortunately we made contact which bent the steering even more and put me in a half spin and I ended up dragging the car home to finish 8th. Race 2 was a similar start going into the first corner in 3rd, but this time I managed to come out of it in 3rd! After a couple of laps swapping positions with Pepe Massot, Harry Woodhead and race 1 winner Ollie Chadwick, I began to pull away and catch the two lads in front. However after another couple of laps Ollie Chadwick and Pepe Massot stopped battling and caught me straight away and it was during that race where I really noticed my straight line speed problems when Ollie and Pepe would just drive past me on the straight and I’d get them back during the rest of the lap. On the last lap I was in 3rd heading into the final chicane when Pepe tried the same move I tried on him in race 1 and unlike him, I left him room for the right hand 2nd part to the chicane but then as I was on the inside turning left for the last part of the chicane, heading onto the main straight for the final time he turned left into me pushing me onto the grass and making him spin right in front of me. This in turn let Ollie Chadwick past both of us and finish 3rd dropping me to 4th place. Silverstone was a very up and down weekend. Despite being unable to do any pre-event testing, I was confident of my pace around the Northamptonshire venue from the Media day back in March where I was quickest. Friday practice went well with myself and team mate Andrew Watson running at the front of both sessions until some of our rivals fitted new slicks to beat us by a few tenths. We were really delighted to see Andrew driving so well recently allowing us to work together in qualifying and the races. In qualifying we tried this but unfortunately we kept hitting traffic with other drivers trying to do the same. However the 15 minute session meant after a few laps I had to just back off and get some clear track myself to try and put in a few competitive laps. By the end of the session I managed to qualify 9th for race 1 and 8th for race 2 despite being unable to put a solid lap together with the assistance of another car to work with. In race 1 I quickly made my way up to 4th place right behind my teammate. On lap 3 as he passed Harry Woodhead for 2nd, I was pushing hard to try get passed Harry too. However I got hit hard at the rear quarter panel from Sennan Fielding making me spin off the track and rejoin in 13th position. I pushed hard to try and regain some valuable championship points. Starting the last lap I was in 8th catching the battling Oli Basey-Fisher and Ollie Chadwick and managed to get passed the both of them, crossing the line in 6th. Thankfully after the race justice was served as Sennan Fielding, who finished 4th, was handed a time penalty by the Clerk of the Course, moving me to 5th. What made it even more frustrating was the fact that I had the 2nd best lap time during the race as the car felt perfect for the first time all weekend. However, this left me full of confidence for Sunday’s race 2. Starting 8th for race 2 I managed to make my way up ahead of Andrew at the start putting me up to 5th on lap 1. Sadly just as I really felt I had the pace to pass the lads in front of me, the yellow flags came out at the last 2 corners leaving only the 2nd corner to pass at. Eventually I made my way to 3rd behind Pepe Massot who was now leading and Andrew in 2nd. I just managed to get passed Andrew as the yellow flags came in, but then as I was pushing to past Pepe, MORE yellow flags appeared! However, every cloud has a silver lining, and this was my championship rival causing the yellow flags, sitting in the gravel! I pushed everywhere I could to try and pass Pepe but he never put a foot wrong and after a few laps sitting behind him I knew it was going to be all or nothing. I tried a very ambitious move around the outside of him at the first corner but as I was trying to tuck back in behind him after the failed attempt, Andrew snuck back passed and just got his nose in front before we got to the yellow flag zone. The last lap in that race was the best laps racing that I think a lot of people will say they’ve seen in a long time. Four of us crossed the line to go onto the final lap within 0.8 of a second with Fielding in 5th another half second back. As we rounded the 2nd corner with Pepe and Andrew both defending I decided to follow the normal racing line to try and gain on them on the exit. However Will Palmer dived up the inside as I tried this so I just hung it around the outside and all this allowed Fielding to close in on us. As we were all going down the back straight heading into the last complex, Andrew was slightly in front in the middle of the track with Pepe to his left, I was directly behind Andrew with Palmer to my right and Pepe and Fielding to my left. As all this was happening I was shouting out a few prayers as I knew it would not be simple to get 5 into 1 in Ginetta Juniors! Andrew tried to go around the outside of Pepe and if he had of made it I would have followed him into 2nd, but he got a bit sideways letting Pepe up the inside and me with nowhere to go! I was braking for the last corner, a 180 degrees right hander and once again got a little love tap from Fielding behind pushing me on past the corner and allowing him and Palmer up my inside. Crossing the line I was 0.04 behind Palmer but he had a 5 second penalty for exceeding track limits, as I was aware of during the race. I apologise for writing such a long blog but there’s just so much to say and if I would talk about everything in these it would be 10 times longer!! Big thanks to my team Douglas Motorsport and my Dad and brother for providing me with such a quick car but it was just unlucky for getting hit off in race 1 and all the yellow flags making it hard to pass in race 2! Thanks to my sponsors also, Kennett, P1 Digital and Murray Motorsport. Speaking of my sponsors, Kennett, my newest sponsor this season have a fantastic range of products including watches, one of which I wear myself. To see the one I wear why not visit my website http://www.niallmurray.com where you will find a link on my homepage to see their full range of fantastic products. If your still wondering what to do with yourself, have a look at my twitter account @niallmurray5 where I’ll post all relevant info and news over the weekend. Thanks a million for reading! Niall

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Niall Murray: The ups and downs, but I can still win!