A last minute call to Sean Edwards has put him in the Porsche 997 Cup S seat alongside Oliver Morley for this weekend’s two FIA GT3 races at his home track of Silverstone.

“I got the call today from my manager Phil Hindley to see if I was available and although very last minute I am looking forward to working with the team and Oliver for the first time. The last time I raced GT3 was back in 2006 and we won, so I expect to pick up where I left off and do a good job this weekend as I am sure the Porsche is more competitive now then it was back then. The weather looks suspect for this weekend too and these cars are superb to drive in the wet and I know the track very well, which brought me victory last year in the British GP Porsche Supercup race!” commented Sean.

So it looks like a strong pairing for the first round of FIA GT3 this weekend in the Muhlner Porsche and I suspect we will see a good result from the pair.

The Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup series moved onto one of the most challenging tracks of the season, the infamous Spa-Francorchamps in the Arden Mountains. “It’s my favourite track in the world” explained Sean on the lead up to the weekend.

Practice was just about wet enough for rain tyres to be used. Immediately Sean set the bench mark with a 2.48.863, which would not be beaten throughout the whole 45 minute session. “Practice was good, we did a good lap straight out of the box and then tried various changes, but the track got even more slippery after the first few laps, so we could not improve our time”.

Qualifying was an interesting affair, was it going to be wet or dry? Sean was first out on track and it was spitting with rain over half the track and on his first flying lap, he went straight on at Les Combe, over the grass and lost his front splitter, along with flat spotting the tyres. This left his without a real lap and down in twenty sixth position. The track was now dry and the team was testing a few different setups on the car, prior to using the second set of tyres! With 15 minutes to go, Sean set a time of 2.26.034 to claim the provisional pole position and pitted to wait for the end. Unfortunately the lap wasn’t perfect and they had gone out a bit too soon, as the track was faster at the end, so he dropped down to fifth place. Still, this was a great starting place for Sunday’s race.

The biggest question was the weather, all the Supercup teams were busy in the early hours of the morning, using the F1 weather stations to predict what was going to happen and set the cars up accordingly. Everything was pointing towards a dry race, so the whole grid opted for full dry settings and slick tyres. The race got underway and Sean held position in fifth on the run up through Eau Rouge, but got a good run on Van Lagen for fourth and went to the outside, but all hell broke loose in the braking zone for Les Combe! Rene Rast, Jeroen Bleekemolen, David Saleens and Sean Edwards all went straight across the grass on a slightly damp braking zone. The only one who made it through was Van Lagen, with Rene Rast being the only causality spinning into the barrier. Sean was now up to fourth place and putting big pressure on Saleens for third and on the second lap he made a slight mistake, which allowed Sean to slip up the inside and then set about Bleekemolen in second.

Then, contrary to the F1’s high tech weather predictions, it started to rain and with everyone still being on slicks, it started to get very tricky. Sean, now formally known as the rainmeister of the Supercup grid was all over Bleekemolen, the newly crowned champion for second place. But it was not made easy, he made his car as wide as possible until Sean finally got a run through Eau Rouge and slipstreamed him down to Les Combe, out braked him and went round the outside, he was now in second place, all be it 6 seconds behind the leader who had escaped while the battle for second was going on.

“I thought there would be no way to catch Jap, as the gap was so big, but I pushed hard and brought the gap right down in only a few laps”. All of a sudden, Van Lagen got it all wrong at the top of Eau Rouge, which allowed Sean to close right up and slipstream him all the way down the back straight and in the same move he had done for second place, went round the outside into Les Combe and took the lead of the race! In the remainder of the race, he pulled out a nice cushion on Van Lagen and just kept the car on the track to bring home his second win of the season in emphatic style. “I am so happy, I was expecting my second win in Valencia when I had pole position, but it was not to be, as we got excluded from qualifying. So to win here at Spa is just amazing and my first year in Supercup has surpassed all my expectations! Thanks to everyone from Konrad motorsport for giving me an amazing car, as we have been fast throughout the weekend, both in the dry and the wet, so it’s a fantastic result for the whole team”.

After Sean’s stunning victory in Spa, he has moved up to seventh in the driver standings and is the top rookie so far this season. The team’s championship is also very close, with Jiri Janak scoring solid points for the team in eighth. All will be decided in Monza, where Sean could theoretically still claim the runner up spot in the championship and the team have a very good chance of winning the teams title. Monza is this weekend, so no time to relax for Sean and Konrad Motorsport!

Sean Edwards arrived in Valencia with high hopes of a good result. The Konrad team had been somewhat been re shuffled, with Jan Seyffarth going to Tolimit and being replaced by Jiri Janak in the number 23 Konrad machine.

The test session didn’t go well for Sean, as while he was running his brake pads in, there was a problem with the front suspension. He came in, but the team could not fix it in time and they missed the whole session. “It’s very unfortunate, as the track is very different to drive on the Michelin tyres and ceramic brakes and they have changed the track a bit since last time, so we are on the back foot already.” Sean said after testing.

Qualifying being forty five minutes, the team decided to use the first thirty minutes as a test session, to get the car and driver on the pace. This worked well and the car was perfectly setup for the second set of new tyres. Bleekemolen was on provisional Pole Position and already out of his car waiting to see if anyone would beat his time. Konrad sent Sean out with eight minutes to go, with the notion of full attack. He then set about a blistering lap, to secure Pole Position by only 0.004 from Jeroen Bleekemolen, with three minutes of the session to go, much to Bleekemolen’s suprise! Third was Stephan Rosina just 0.046 behind pole and Damian Faulkner was fourth, just 0.052 behind pole! It has to have been the closest qualifying in the Supercup’s history.

On the in lap to the pits, disaster struck when Sean’s car ran out of fuel. Under Supercup rules, there has to be a minimum of 2 Litres left in the car at the end of each session, so that they can analyze it. The team set about removing the fuel tank and every last drop they could find in the car, but it was to no avail, there was only 1 Litre in the car. The same problem for Sean’s new team mate, Jiri Janak, he qualified in 20th and ran out of fuel too. It was a disaster for the team, with the stewards ruling both cars to be stricken of all their lap times and start at the back of the grid! Somewhere along the line, there was a slight miscalculation on the fuel consumption and with the different temperatures between the days, qualifying used a lot more fuel than was anticipated by the team.

Sean and Jiri started the race in 26th and 27th positions, with nothing to loose they were going to work together through the pack, along with Sean’s former team mate Jan Seyffarth, who crashed in qualifying. All three got off to a good start, gaining three of four places off the line, but at turn 2, Van Splunteren got hit and caused havoc, Jiri went inside and got away with it, where as Sean and Jan were stuck outside and both got his, causing rear end damage to the suspension. Sean then set about making his way through the pack and with 7 laps to go, he was upto 15th and stuck behind Sebastian Bleekemolen, who was making life very difficult, blocking at every passing place. Eventually he did get past and made it to an incredible 12th place by the finish of the race! Jiri followed him home in 13th. “It was a good race from both of us, there was nothing more we could do starting so far back. We got some points and prize money with no damage at least, from a weekend to forget really. I am going to Spa with a lot of confidence for a good result now, which we deserve.”

The week-end in Budapest started off with a good practice. Sean and his team mate Jan Seyffarth ended up 7th and 9th, only a few tenths off the pace. Qualifying, however was a disaster. The team just didn’t get the setup of the cars or the timing of using the new tyres right, so Sean and Jan ended up down in 16th and 17th, which meant the race was always going to be tough.

The team, not letting this bad start dampen their spirits worked hard all night to prepare the cars which paid off by both Sean and Jan both getting off to good starts in the race making up around 4 places off the line! Unfortunately Jan got taken out on the first lap and nearly collected Sean on the way causing Sean to lose a few positions avoiding him. Sean then made his way past a few cars and that’s when he started attacking Armindo, unfortunately for Sean Armindo kept blocking him and closing the door. Armindo braked a bit early at turn 12 and Sean tried to take advantage of this by diving to the inside. Armindo either didn’t see Sean or tried to shut the door again but whichever it was he just turned into the corner as if Sean wasn’t there. Sean explained later “I tried to avoid contact by going over the curb, but that just launched me into the side of him and put me out of the race with broken suspension.” This was an unfortunate and dramatic finish to Sean and Konrad Motorsports race. The race as always did go on without them seeing Damien Faulkner in 1st, followed by Jeroen Bleekemolen in 2nd and Patrick Huisman in 3rd.

A weekend to forget for the Konrad team as they scored no points for the teams’ championship. They must look forward to Valencia now and try and get the best possible result to bring them back into the championship hunt.

The weekend started off with a lucky escape, as Sean was caught for speeding on the way to Silverstone. He was a little bit late for his drivers briefing, but was let off with a warning only, luckily.

The 45 min testing session was a bit inconclusive, as the team didn’t have any good tyres left from Magny Cours, due to damage done in qualifying by some F1 carbon parts on the track. So the team had to work hard on a setup for qualifying and were in the dark as to which way to go.

Sean’s lap was good enough for 9th on the grid with his first set of tyres. “Again, my inexperience in the Supercup shows a bit, as I didn’t push hard enough on my first lap with the F1 rubber down. The track was a full 3 seconds faster than in testing, it’s amazing. It’s still a top 10 starting position, so I should be able to get in the top 5 tomorrow.”

As the race loomed closer, the rain was falling thick and fast and all the teams prepared the car for a fully wet race. “My start was good and I gained two places into Copse. Then I couldn’t see anything, so I backed off and lost a few places again but then got them back through Maggots/Becketts and into Stowe.”

All hell broke loose after Stowe. “I saw a few cars spin ahead and just missed the UPS Porsche driver and then my team mate spun and got hit by Faulkner and I was up to 4th! I just missed hitting Rosina as he slammed his brakes on at Woodcote. As I overtook him I saw the safety car boards and the backed off and let him back past, it was really impossible to see anything in the spray and I was very lucky not to have hit him.”

The restart came some four laps later and he was side by side through Copse, Maggots and Becketts with fellow Brit Danny Watts, but he managed to stay ahead. He then took immediate advantage, with a bold move around the outside of David Saleens into Stowe, for 2nd place.

There was only one person standing in the way of Sean and his first win, Stefan Rosina. He tried a switch back into Stowe, which resulted in a bit of contact and the places remained the same, for the time being. Then on the next lap he got a great run through Woodcote and lunged the unsuspecting Rosina into Copse and made the move stick to the delight of the crowd!

“Once I was past, I had no idea how many laps were left or how close the other cars were behind me, as all my windows were fogged up and I couldn’t see anything out of the mirrors, so I just put my head down and drove near the limit, trying to stay on track and on line, which I just about did. I thought I saw the flag out of the corner of my eye and then I saw the marshals clapping at T1 and it was over. I was overjoyed and couldn’t really believe it. I would like to say thanks to all the support from the fans this weekend, it has been really amazing and too my whole team for all their efforts in preparing such an amazing car and too everyone else for their support this year!”

Sean had taken a tremendous win in front of his home crowd, which was 180,000 strong and to
top it all off, it was a one two for the Brit’s with Watts finishing 2nd. His first win in the Porsche Mobil 1 Supercup came at the British GP of all places and we will be seeing a few more good results by the seasons end no doubt.