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.

Porsche Supercup racewinner Sean Edwards is set to become the latest driver to join the 2009 Le Mans Series grid. The 22 year old from Henley-On-Thames, United Kingdom will drive a ARC Bratislava-Kaneko prepared Saleen S7R in the LM GT1 category at the 1000 Km of Catalunya on April 5th.

The British driver is not unfamiliar with the Saleen S7R. In 2008 Edwards joined ARC Bratislava for the first two rounds of the FIA GT Championship. Alongside team owner Miro Konopka Edwards nearly secured an overall pole position at the opening race at the Silverstone circuit after treacherous weather conditions hampered the qualifying session. Unfortunately the team retired in both races that Edwards raced.

ARC Bratislava-Kaneko Racing will enter one Saleen S7R in the Le Mans Series this year. At the Le Mans Series official test days at the Circuit Paul Ricard HTTT the Saleen was third fastest in the LM GT1 class, its best time in two days just over a second slower than the fastest time set by the Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette C6.R.

“I am grateful to Miro for the opportunity to drive the Saleen again and in a new championship for myself. The experience of racing with LMP’s for the first time will be a valuable one for me and I look forward to the challenge,” says Edwards.

“The team and I have high hopes as usual, especially after the two races we did in the FIA GT, claiming two pole positions and leading both races in our class until we hit technical problems unfortunately. As a team I am confident we will work well together and we are aiming to be on the podium in the GT1 class. The most important aspect of a 1000km race is to keep out of trouble, especially when being lapped by the faster cars and as long as we can do that and have no technical gremlins, I am confident we will be on the podium.”

The full line-up of the Saleen for the Barcelona round of the Le Mans Series is Sean Edwards/Miro Konopka/Paul Daniels.

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.”

Saturday saw an early start for the warm up at 9.45, and after the Tech 9 mechanics stayed up all night to fix the blown head gasket on the #99 Porsche, it would be the only chance they would get to test the car before the start of the 24 hours of Spa.

Their hard work had paid off: Sascha Maassen finished the session without any problems and it looked like they were all set for the start of the big race, all be it already very tired.

Four o’clock approached and the usual build up to the event was well under way, with the driver’s parade round the track. Sean Edwards, Phil Hindley and Sascha Maassen had come to the decision that it would be best to use Sascha’s experience of 24 hour races to start it from the back, due to the a penalty for changing the head gasket, and work his way through the slower GT3’s, before handing over to Sean for the second stint and Leo Machitski for the third.

The start neared and there was nothing more the team could do but watch as the race got under way. The car started in 46th and last place respectively, but Sascha quickly moved up through the field and one hour into the race he was up to 19th overall and right on the back of the GT2 field. After about one hour and twenty minutes he came in to hand over to Sean and was in 9th place in GT2.

The car was running well and Sean quickly picked up where Sascha had left off, making his way through more of the GT2 field to5th place and in the process setting the #99 machines best lap of 2.25.560. He briefly lead the GT2 field, as some of the leaders had already done their second stop. After a consistent stint he came in to hand over the car to Leo and said: “The car is running really well at the moment, we have a strategy to keep a consistent, comfortable pace with no risks and see where we are at the end. Our main goal is to finish, but it would be great to get a podium, as we really deserve it.”

Leo’s stint went without a hitch and he put in a great performance, only being one second off Sascha’s pace and two seconds off Sean’s pace, which is the closest he has been all year. “I am really impressed with Leo’s pace at the moment” Sean said “He is really going well and he is doing a really great job, but there is still a long way to go in this race.” “Leo is obviously revelling in the amount of time he is getting in the car, as he is getting closer and closer to Sean’s pace, which is great to see” Said team boss Phil Hindley.

After Leo’s superb stint, it was Sascha’s turn to do a double (around two hours forty minutes to three hours). In his first fuel stop, the team noticed the car was using a lot of oil from the data, which was not a good sign with the engine troubles they had earlier. But luckily it was only a faulty cap on the endurance oil tank that had broken, spilling oil everywhere, which they had to clean up in the next pit stop (loosing them around four minutes) and re fill the oil tank.

Sascha had done a great job and it was Sean’s turn to do a double stint as Sascha came in at around 11pm to hand over. Obviously by this time it was night and it was Sean’s first lap in anger at night. “It was really weird, it’s hard to see through the corners and the GT1 lights are really blinding when they come up behind you, it’s impossible to judge the distance when they start flashing you” commented Sean. After a consistent first stint, he came in for fuel and new tyres, by this time he was used to driving at night and immediately went out and set a blisteringly fast pace on the new tyres and another fastest lap for the #99 car of 2.24.498. They had now made it up to 4th place in GT2. Sean continued his second night stint at a very fast and consistent pace and he had stayed out of trouble in preparation to hand back over to Leo at around 2am. He then got some well earned rest, well all that he could, before he had to get in for another double stint at 6am. “Karen woke me up (women in charge of everything to do with the drivers) and I was still very tired, as I could only manage one and a half hours sleep during the night.”

It was Leo’s turn to drive in the night now and he went pretty well, with a consistent stint in the car. “It was quite fun driving at night, but a word to all those GT1 drivers, when you flash us from a long way back, it just makes things worse, as we don’t know how far you are behind, so it will just take longer for us to let you past… And some of the GT3 cars have a stupid amount of lighting as well, they look like GT1 cars!”

Sascha was out next for another double stint and again kept out of trouble and kept a fast and consistent pace. “We are going well at the moment, we have had no problems with the car really and it all looks good. We just have to keep this pace up and keep out of the pits to be in the frame for a podium.”

He came in from his double stint and handed back over to Sean, just as the rain started to fall. “It started to get tricky then, as it was wet and dry around the track, so tyres were very hard to choose between, but I stayed out on slicks for as long as I could, until it really started raining.” The team put Sean on Intermediates and sent him on his way, with the car handling so well; they were one of the fastest out on track. A big crash brought out the safety car and the #99 took the opportunity to come in for full wets and a splash of fuel. They were up to fourth place now and so close to the podium they could almost smell it. Luck struck when the second place AF Corse car had a big crash at the top of Eau Rouge and that promoted them to third place in GT2 and tenth place overall and brought out another safety car.

It was raining hard now and Sean was still out there, nearing the three hour maximum driving time for one driver, he was called in to hand back over to Sascha, who went out on dry wets. By this point Sean was pretty tired, retreating to the Porsche truck for a massage, only to be interrupted half way through, because he was needed to go back out on track already! Unfortunately for him, Leo was not feeling too well and Sascha only wanted to do one stint on the dry wets, so Sean had to rush back into his suit and get back in the car in record time. “It was literally a split decision for me to go back in and I had three minutes to organise my self. I was still putting my helmet on when he stopped in the pit box, it was a mad rush!”

He was back on full wets, with the rain coming down so hard, that the safety car was called out because cars were aquaplaning off everywhere. Sean spent almost an hour behind it, before getting going once again. He nearly did another three hours in the car before handing back to Sascha and at this point it was already about 1pm, with only three hours to go, everyone was starting to get paranoid, nothing had gone wrong with the car yet and they had a comfortable lead over the Ebimotors Porsche in fourth, surely nothing could go wrong now?

Sascha came in and handed back over to Leo for the final stint of the race and he worryingly said there was a low water pressure alarm, but it was nothing to be too alarmed about and he was told to cruise home, which he did. The car came across the line to the roar of the team, who had been up for god knows how many hours and they had secured third place in their first ever 24 hour race, a race which is hard to finish, let alone on the podium!

“Finally we have got our podium, we have waited long enough for it and what a race to get it at! I am so happy right now, but it’s kind of an anticlimax after driving for 24 hours and then to be doing nothing, no noise, no adrenalin and nothing to think about anymore. The whole team did an amazing job and I just want to thank every single person for all they have done” said Sean.

“It was a great experience for my first 24 hours and the whole team did such a great job and Sean did an amazing job, driving almost twelve hours on his own!” Leo said.

Phil Hindley said after the race “The whole team pulled together and got a podium, in our first 24 hour race it’s a massive achievement and all the drivers performed perfectly.”

“The team and my co drivers did a great job and I am really happy to be on the podium here in GT2. We had no problems with the Porsche and it shows how much this car has come on in one year, with all the problems we had last year with the development car!” said Sascha.

So, to conclude Tech 9’s and its two regular driver’s first 24 hour race, it was an outstanding success. They kept to their strategy of a comfortable pace and keeping it out of trouble and they ended up with a podium. To finish first, first you have got to finish and that was very true of this race, especially for the championship leading AF Corse cars, who both crashed out due to driving errors and now throws the championship wide open!

Adria is next and back to the normal two hour format, but this time on Saturday night and the team will be carrying the momentum from Spa through to this race and will be looking for another podium, maybe even one step higher this time?

The Total Spa 24 Hours is the sixth round of the 2007 FIA GT championship and the blue ribbon event of the season and what better place to have it then Spa Francorchamps! Tech 9 started their preparations for their first 24 hour race weeks ago, as it was going to be a tough race for the team, drivers and car alike.

Practice one saw Sascha Maassen (Porsche factory driver) spend most of the time in the car setting it up for the race, red flags, among other things made this very difficult. Never the less he was happy with where the car was and said it only needed a bit of tweaking to make it near enough perfect. The last thirty minutes of practice one was left to Leo Machitski and Sean Edwards, Leo starting and handing over to Sean after twenty minutes of driving. Unfortunately for Sean, a red flag left him only to complete an out and in lap before the chequered flag. “I have not driven the new configuration of Spa and not had a chance to drive this car round here either, so it’s a bit hard having so little time in the car, but hopefully next session I can get a bit more in.” Sean said.

In practice two, Sean and Sascha spent forty minutes tweaking the setup of the car between them and agreeing on a setup for the race and qualifying, with Leo spending most of the time getting used to the track in the Porsche. Sean commented “I got 6 flying laps this session, which was good, but traffic is a big problem out there, Sascha managed to get one free lap in, but I didn’t. I was 0.7 of a second up on him through Eau Rouge before I hit traffic though, so it’s is looking promising for qualifying. Although I am still not totally comfortable with the car and track yet, hopefully I can get some decent running in the three qualifying sessions.

Qualifying one was split between Sean and Leo with Sean just trying the limits of the car and track before his soft tyre run in qualifying three. “I set a pretty good time and am happy with the track and car now and I am looking forward to qualifying tomorrow morning!” said Sean. Most GT2 cars used there three sets of new tyres in the first qualifying, which put the Tech 9 machine slightly down the order in GT2, but it looked good for there qualifying run.

Unfortunately just before qualifying two (at night), they found that the cars water pressure was increasing quite drastically and could damage the engine. So the three drivers had to complete there one mandatory lap at night and then park the car unfortunately, while the Porsche engineers went to work to find the problem. IMSA had already taken the spare engine from Porsche, after blowing theirs on the way to the parade on Wednesday. So they set about taking the engine apart and finally found that it was the head gasket that had gone and needed replacing for the race. “Luckily we found a problem after stripping the engine and we are fixing it now, so we should have no more problems with that” said team boss Phil Hindley.

The penalty for this though was the Tech 9 car would have to start from the back of the grid for the 24 hour race, behind all the G3 cars. Although qualifying is not important, as the race is so long, it will still make it hard in the early stages of the race, something that they could have done without.

It’s looking like Sascha will start the race with a double stint (2 hours 40 min), being the most experienced driver with 24 hour races and Sean will follow with a double stint after that.

So, a dramatic start for the team already, but hopefully they will be a bit luckier in the race, stay tuned for a quarterly update (every 6 hours) throughout the 24 hour race starting at 4pm local time tomorrow!