After the superb third place finish at the Total 24 Hours of Spa, the Tech 9 motorsport team moved onto the latest, and more regular length, round of the FIA GT Championship, at Adria in Italy, with hopes of picking up another good result – at a circuit it had never been to before.

Despite some drivers having issues with the size of the track at the Italian venue, the event offered another aspect for the fans, teams and drivers, with the race starting on Saturday evening and running into darkness. Certainly something different compared to a regular race weekend.
“It was a fantastic event overall,” said team boss Phil Hindley. “The facilities and the quality of the track were good. The floodlit racing was really good. Obviously it doesn’t compare with the big tracks that the series visits, like Spa, for instance, but it was a nice meeting.” And the track even boasts an indoor paddock.

With no previous set-up to work from for Adria, the team set about getting the car dialed in during the two free practice sessions on Friday, ending the first one with the Porsche 997 in P4 – and a quartet of Ferraris behind it. The second session saw the team finish up eighth on the timing screens, with an almost identical time from the first session. However, the Tech 9 boys were concentrating on their race strategy, in readiness for the fight with more experience driver line-ups ahead of them.

“We went into the weekend blind as we had no data from last year,” said Hindley. “If you look at all the other front running GT2 teams out there now, they’ve all got pro-driver pairings with massive amounts of experience at this level. We decided to go for a strategy to give both our drivers a chance to push throughout every stint.”

The team qualified in seventh place and had decided to set the Porsche up to work best on the softer compound tyres. At the start of the race, Sean Edwards was given a short stint of just eleven laps, before handing over the car to Leo Machitski, with tyres that had plenty of life in them, that he could push on and stay consistent, before handing back over again.

Sean Edwards once again got the drop on the Ferraris ahead of him as the lights went green, moving up to fourth place at the start. He’s somewhere in that gaggle, above, behind the GT1 cars – he’s the one making up ground! His opening stint may have been intended to be slightly longer than it actually turned out to be, but he was held up by one of the Citation Cup Corvettes, so the team called him in to allow Leo to get good track position and good tyres under him for his time behind the wheel.

Although feeling under the weather with a cold, Machitski drive a superb stint, having a fierce battle with one of the Edil Cris Ferraris, which he passed to move up a place. Unfortunately, a couple of laps later, nearing the end of his stint, he had a slight spin and handed the place back.
After handing the car back over to Sean Edwards, with the team changing to medium compound tyres at the pit-stop, Leo was starting to feel the effects of his enthusiastic stint.
“When I got out of the car I’ve never felt so exhausted in my life!” he said. “I’d caught a cold on the Monday before the event and had spent three days trying to get rid of it as much as possible. Even though I did a fairly short stint, I felt so tired. It’s just down to fatigue as I did an hour and a half in the car at Spa for my first stint, and would have been happy to do another one.”
“The battle with the Ferrari was good, but I was disappointed to spin and give him the place back, though.”

In the second half of the race, Sean pushed hard, despite suffering from some mild oversteer on the harder tyres. A great drive allowed him to bring the car home over the line in sixth place, which would eventually be fifth after one of the Scuderia Ecosse cars was excluded.
“Leo did a great stint and handed the car over in good shape, he’s getting faster all the time and drove really well,” said Sean Edwards. “We were always going to be up against it with the pro-driver line-ups in the other teams. It was hard work, but good to get another result like this,” he added.
“I had a fantastic weekend overall,” said Leo Machitski. “I really enjoyed myself. I’m definitely starting to click with the car now and it’s helping me get faster. I was only five tenths off Sean’s times during one of the free practice sessions, which is great.”
“The team did a great job all weekend and to start eighth and finish fifth is a good result, especially against this opposition,” he continued. “I’d like to think we can keep up these sorts of results and maybe get another podium finish before the end of the season.”

“We had a bit of oversteer on the car after Sean took it over again in the second part of the race, but that was because we’d set it up around the softer tyres and he was able to deal with it well to bring the car home for a good finish,” elaborated Phil Hindley.

“We looked at the opposition at the start of the year and said that a sixth place over a weekend is a good result and that’s what we have been getting. This is the top level we’re racing at now and the guys ahead of us are really raising the bar and anything above P6 is a good weekend. I hope we can have more of the same at Brno.”

Oschersleben saw the return of the FIA GT championship for its fifth round, with Ferrari dominating the opening four races. Was this going to be the turning point for Porsche? Well the statistics said otherwise, with the nearest Porsche being over two seconds off in quali last year, although it being the 996 model, it was still a big gap.

First practice saw Ferrari dominate the first four places, over a second clear of the nearest Porsche and the Tech9 machine even further adrift! “We are really struggling with the car at the moment, but it might be because we are on the tyres from Monza, which are a much harder compound then the tyres Michelin have brought here” Said Sean after practice.

Second practice again saw Ferrari dominate, just under a second away from the leading Porsche and Tech9 still struggling to set any sort of decent time. “We really are struggling with the car right now and we need to have a look through all the data to see what is going wrong before quali” said a disgruntled Sean.

Heading into quali, Sean had this to say “We have had a look through all the data now and it appears the high cross winds have been affecting us quite badly and we have too much rear grip, which is causing all this understeer. We have figured out a setup for quali and in theory it should work! Obviously we will see how it goes, but hopefully we can salvage a decent lap time.”

Salvage a lap time he did and stuck in an amazing lap that put him fourth in GT2 and first of the Porsche’s! “The setup still wasn’t perfect, but it was a lot better then this morning and I managed to put a decent lap together and put the car in a good position for tomorrow’s race. I was really pushing on my third timed lap and was -0.187 up on my best after the first two corners, but then I pushed a bit too hard and lost it at 120mph at the fast kink and went through the gravel, which was a shame because it might have been pole…”

It was race time now and the Tech9 crew had worked hard over night to clear all the gravel out and get the car setup for the race. “Hopefully I can get one of my flying starts again (Zuhai 7th to 2nd, Silverstone 3rd to 1st and Monza 5th to 1st) and try and take the lead into turn one and see where we go from there. If I do get out front, I will try and keep the Ferrari’s behind, as we know they are quicker here! “ Sean said.

The red lights went out and the race was go, Sean got another flying start and managed to get the lead round the outside even before the braking for T1. He also managed to just about avoid all the GT1 carnage and still keep the GT2 lead. In the next 20 laps there was a fraught battle for GT2, with the Porsche of Zani, Ferrari of Muller and the Ferrari of Bruni all trying to have a go at the Tech9 machine. But Sean was having none of it and held his ground throughout his first stint. “It was an amazing battle and I have to say Muller and Bruni were very fair drivers, they had a few opportunities to give me a tap, but they didn’t, unlike someone I remember from Silverstone. I had great fun in trying to keep them behind, but we had also lost radio communication and it was hard to know what was going on or when I needed to pit. I just went as hard as I could until the fuel ran out really” said Sean.

After 18 laps, the Ferrari of Bruni managed to get by Sean into the last corner, only a few laps before his pit stop. He then handed over to co driver Leo Machitski for the middle stint of the race and Leo rejoined in a net second place and was holding his own! That was until a certain Mr. Vilander decided to barge his way through at the last corner, causing considerable damage to the Porsche (only cosmetic) and that brought down the red mist with Leo, as he then tried to out brake the Af Corse Ferrari and Edil Chris Ferrari (3 abreast) into T1, which, unfortunately for him, didn’t happen and he ended up backwards in the gravel trap, beached! The Marshalls would not push him out, so he got out of the car, only to then find that the Marshalls were willing to push him out, so he got back in and strapped himself in and drove back to the pits. With no radio communication or tv coverage of the crash, the team had no idea what had happened, until they saw him come down pit lane. At this point Sean was ready to change over, but Leo had not completed his mandatory 35 minute stint and had to go back out for another 4 laps, loosing valuable time.

By the time he handed back to Sean, they were down to eighth place, 3 laps down on the leaders and all hopes of a podium lost. “I just drove consistently and had some fun with the car, trying different lines and getting the brake balance right, basically I just used it as a test session as we were not going to gain any places, unless someone dropped out.” said Edwards. Which in fact one of the Edil Chris Ferrari’s did and promoted them to seventh at the end of the race.

“Sean did a mega job in his opening stint, he really showed his talent once again out front, while being able to keep everyone behind him as well.” said team boss Phil Hindley.

So, another few points for Tech9, but after it looking so good in the opening stint once again, you have got to wonder, they must be starting to get frustrated with their bad luck so far this season. Maybe Spa will be the turning point for them and they might finally get the result they deserve.

Onboard video highlights from the race.

FIA GT returns to the classic circuit of Monza, the home of Ferrari, for the fourth round of the championship. The circuit, which was built in 1922 was very different to today, with its fast layout and notorious banking; it proved to be very dangerous. These days however, it is a shadow of its former glory, although the high speed banking is still there, it has not been used in years and the track is now up to the standards of modern F1, even so, it was looking like an exiting venue for round four of the championship.

The team had prepared with a couple of days testing, which had allowed Leo Machitski more seat time to get closer to team-mate Sean Edwards’ pace.

“It was great for me as I wasn’t feeling comfortable in the car,” said Leo. “Not with the seating or anything, more the fact that I wasn’t able to push hard straight away and it was a really good test from that point of view. I ended up just 1.3s away from Sean by the end of the two days and I felt a lot happier.”

The opening free practice session was a promising start, with Sean setting a time which put him third in class, just half a second off the second placed Edil Cris Ferrari of Paolo Ruberti and Damien Pasini, while the pace setting Ortelli/Bruni Ferrari was only a few tenths further away.

In the second session it was a slightly different story, with the Porsche finally settled into 8th in class by the time the chequered flag was waved. But, the team had already made the decision that going for an outright time was a pointless exercise, so were working on a race set-up.

Sean headed into qualifying where the home bred Ferraris managed to lock out the Porsche runners from the top three places. However, Sean managed to set a lap that put the Tech 9 car fifth on the GT2 grid. Even more encouraging was that when the team studied the data after the session ended, he had set two sector times that could have put him second on the grid – unfortunately, not over the same lap!

“We were looking for a top four when we went into qualifying, so fifth wasn’t too bad,” he said. “But, the data shows the car was good enough for P2, which would have been good. We have a good car for the race though as it’s hardly using its tyres.”

With a good car and solid, front running pace, the team headed into the two hour race on Sunday afternoon in top form, knowing that it should be able to mount a challenge should any of the cars ahead falter.

As the lights went green Edwards got his (now becoming) normal flying start and charged from fifth to second as the field turned into the notorious first chicane at the end of the main straight. “I could have got the lead, but did not want to risk too much into T1 of the first lap, after all its a two hour race…” he said.

He managed to hold the place for the first half of the lap, before one of the Ferraris demoted him to third. He then had a battle with the chasing cars behind him and in doing so, lost out to the pair in front.

After holding on to the final podium position during most of his stint, Edwards handed the car over to Leo Machitski for his turn in fourth place, before he would climb back behind the wheel for the final part of the race.

Leo put his extra seat time to good use, putting in a good drive during the middle part of the race. A charging Andrew Kirkaldy put him under pressure in the early part of his drive and once he got past, Leo was able to latch onto the back of the Ferrari and pick his own pace up. Unfortunately, he went a bit fast and took a trip across the Parabolica gravel, losing time, but able to continue – before handing back over to Sean in sixth place.

The team lost out slightly to the Ferraris by having to change tyres at the second stop. The Tech 9 car was being good on its rubber, but the Italian machines were better, gaining valuable seconds during the pit-stops.

In the final stint Edwards pushed as hard as possible and had a comfortable cushion between himself and Tomas Enge behind him, although the cars ahead of him had too much of a gap for him to catch them.

With just two laps to run it was Sean’s turn to have a trip across the gravel at Lesmo two, when he ran wide on water from another car. The moment wiped out his lead over the Ferrari behind and the final lap was a tough battle between Sean and the Czech star, which ended up as a three car charge across the line, as one of the GT1 Aston Martins came up on them at the very last corner.

“It got a bit interesting into the last corner, as an Aston was trying to lap both of us and we were all side by side, with me defending the inside line, but luckily I managed to hang onto the place,” said Sean, who had just half a second in hand over the Ferrari as he reached the chequered flag. “The Ferraris were so good on their tyres, it cost us just that bit more to change, even once,” he added. “Leo put in a superb stint, though. He’s getting better every time he gets in the car.”

“I thought at the start of the season that sixth place would probably be a good result for us in GT2 this year,” said Phil Hindley. “The level of competition is incredibly high and in the two hour races, against these guys, sixth is really good. I’m really pleased with Leo, he’s learning very quickly and the closer he gets to Sean, the better chance we have of pulling a surprise on the guys ahead.”

The team worked so well this weekend,” added Leo Machitski. “The car felt so good every time I got in it. The level of drivers in FIA GT2 is incredible and you have to drive flat out every second over two hours to be in with a chance of a good result. The car was certainly quick enough for a better result, but both Sean and I made small mistakes, which might have cost us another place.”

The Tech 9 GT2 squad certainly has the equipment and the commitment to aim for the top step of the podium, perhaps the Spa 24 hours will be where it can put one over on the rest of the FIA grid. It’s Oschersleben first though, for another two hour race (July 8).

Onboard video highlights from the race.

Again, Leo spent more time trying to get closer to Sean’s time, which he ended the day doing, only being 1.4 seconds off, which will put the Tech 9 crew in a really good position coming into Monza next week. It rained in the afternoon and it was a chance for Leo to get to grips with the car in the wet, which he did. After about 30 laps out there, the team decided to call it a day early, not wanting to risk damaging the car for Monza.

Leo commented “I am really happy with the past two days, it has really helped me a lot and I feel really confident with the car and what it’s doing now. The setup of the car has also improved and it’s more suited to how I like to drive, which is good. I am really looking forward to Monza now and we are aiming for a podium”

Sean commented on Leo over the two days “I am really happy with Leo’s pace now, he has really worked hard and is going really well now, you can see from watching him, that he is so much more confident in the car! I really think we have a good chance for a podium at Monza now.”

Tech 9 completed one of two days testing at the Silverstone south circuit. The aim of the two days was to give Leo Machitski more time in the car, so he could get up to speed with the Porsche. After the first day testing, Leo had reduced the gap to 2.5 seconds off Sean, which was an outstanding improvement!

“I am really happy with how today has gone, Leo has really improved a lot and it’s great to see! We also tested a new Michelin compound and it also was a good step forward, so it should put us in good stead for Monza.” Sean said.