Alex Kapadia

Last weekend was supposed to be my first weekend at home for a while after going away to the Dubai 24hrs in early January and then on to visit family in Australia. I was due to fly home last Tuesday but instead found myself heading to Bathurst to compete on the famous Mount Panorama.

Since Le Mans I have been quite busy. 2015 saw me racing for four different co-drivers and team in the Radical European Masters series and I am proud to say we led races and scored podiums with each one. There was no let up at the end of the “normal” racing season.  I did a round of the AsLMS for AAI Motorsport helping them make progress with their Adess LMP3, and I drove a Ferrari 458 for Dragon Racing at the Gulf 12hr and Dubai 24hr working with long time co-driver and friend John Hartshorne. While most of my experience is in prototype machinery I have been trying to get more GT miles as there are far more opportunities for pro drives available in GT than prototypes. Driving a GT is a very different style to learn but I am glad to say that I feel I finally cracked it around Bathurst this weekend. Here is what happened…

After the Dubai 24hr my wife Jenna and I flew to Sydney to visit her sister who has just had a new baby. I had my kit with me and was conscious that Bathurst was the week I went home, this seemed too good an opportunity to let pass and so my first few days in Sydney were spent making contact with teams on the entry list to see if any of them still needed a driver. The feedback was there were no spaces and almost all had their driver line ups sorted. I contacted the series organisers and got myself on their driver/ride board just in case anything changed.

I heard nothing and gave up hope of being at Bathurst this year so on Tuesday morning I got up and packed my bag ready to head home. We had a couple of hours to kill before the flight left so headed down to Bondi beach for one last hour of sun before heading to the airport. As we arrived at the beach I received a message from Mirco Schultis asking if I was still in Australia as he would be keen to chat if so. I replied that I was, and the message came back, “Well you are European so I guess you are at Bondi, come and meet me for a coffee”. From where I was I could almost see the café where he was sitting, and within a few minutes we were chatting. Mirco had flown his Mercedes SLS over for the race and was being partnered by Renger Van Der Zande and Patrick Simon. I had met Mirco at an ELMS race in 2011 and had been copying him on my press releases ever since so he was up to date on my progress. He had decided that he wanted a fourth driver in the car and had seen my name on the driver/ride board. Within the hour were in a car on the way to Bathurst.

Mirco, Patrick and myself at Mirco’s new Bondi Office – Gusto Espresso Bar

We arrived at the circuit late on Tuesday night and the first thing we did was do a few of laps of the circuit. The word awesome is overused but not when describing this place. Parts of it make the Nordschleife look tame. Imagine the faster sections of the Nordschleife with more extreme elevation and waist high concrete walls lining the track, many of which have a steep drop on the other side. All this with the stunning backdrop from Mount Panorama makes what is now my favourite and the most challenging track I have ever driven.

By the third lap in the hire car we had figured out which way it went and had a little speed on turning into Turn 2 just as a five foot high kangaroo jumped over the fence, bounced off the apex kerb and shot in front of us. We missed it but were all in hysterics about how crazy the place was. As if it needed to be made harder we now had Skippy and his mates playing chicken.

The car was entered under Mirco’s Mishumotors banner but was being run by the excellent Erebus Motorsport. The Erebus owned cars had all been prepared weeks ago and had also been to a shakedown test to iron out any bugs. When we got to the circuit on Wednesday to meet the team, the car had not arrived yet, a delay meaning that it did not arrive until late on Wednesday  afternoon. When it did turn up it looked stunning in the Martini livery and certainly drew a lot of attention in the paddock as the team set about seeing what they had to work with. The guys found a few issues with the car and worked late into the night to try to get the car ready before scrutineering on Thursday.

The car looked great in the Martini livery

For the drivers most of Wednesday was spent with Bathurst local driver Mike Reedy. Mike now spends his time as a driver coach in Europe but his home town is Bathurst. He was at home over the European winter and had offered to show us around the circuit and give us a few tips. This was really helpful as all four of us were new to the circuit and I really want to thank Mike for giving up his time to help us.

By now I was getting to know Mirco and Patrick and was really enjoying their company. Co-driver Renger van der Zande arrived later on Thursday afternoon after a delayed flight from Daytona via Amsterdam and Abu Dhabi and I was pleased to find that he is one of the nicest guys in racing. He knew the Mercedes well and is down to drive for them at the Nurburgring and Macau this year so it was nice to know we had a good benchmark in the car. Erebus were also employing no less than four AMG works drivers for the race namely Bernd Schneider, Maro Engel, Thomas Jaeger and Nico Bastian so we were not going to be short of a reference lap or two.

There was an Erebus team barbeque on the Wednesday evening put on by team owner Betty Klimenko. She does a great job of making everyone feel welcome and looking after us all. I met all the other drivers in the team and had to pinch myself at one point when I realised that instead of being at Heathrow collecting my luggage I was at Bathurst having a joke with and being taught German swear words by Bernd Schneider.

Thursday was another day of preparation with another trackwalk, getting radios checked and working, seat fits for all four drivers, and again it ended up being another late night as the team found more things on the car that were not to their liking.

After what seemed like endless waiting, Friday practice finally came round and the first two sessions were used by Mirco, Patrick and Renger to get some laps. I got my first six laps of the circuit in FP3 after lunch. The track was every bit as challenging as it looked but the car felt very nervous at the rear which was not what we wanted with the walls so close. We kept working on the set up and the guys felt that they had improved it by the end of the day. I did not get another run that afternoon but knew we would benefit more if we could give Mirco more seat time and it worked as his times came down as he got more confident and was much more relaxed as we left the circuit on Friday evening. As a silver driver you generally get the least running as the gold driver usually sets the car up and does qualifying and the bronze driver needs the lion’s share of the laps to get more confident. As we had four drivers in the car we each were going to get less time. As most of my drives come at the last minute I have got used to learning circuits and cars quickly and this helped a lot this weekend. I normally make sure I have done a simulator session before heading to a new track but this time I did not get chance for obvious reasons.

Saturday morning saw me get another short run and the car actually felt worse. We had copied the set up from the other team cars overnight but something did not feel right. We had tons of oversteer and so again we kept changing the car to give a more solid rear end. Myself and Patrick did another three laps each at the start of qualifying and we both felt we had improved it but were not quite there yet. Our times all dropped by a few seconds but when Renger qualified near the back of the field we knew something was still not right.

Driver’s briefing had a few interesting extras that you do not get in Europe, namely instructions on the “Kangaroo Flag” and a warning that if you park the car and climb over the wall out on track, then “Things that look like sticks may not be sticks” referring to the deadly brown snakes found in the region…as if it was not dangerous enough already!

As we headed back to the house the Erebus guys again worked late on the car on Saturday night and when we arrived on Sunday we were told they had found a cracked suspension pick up point. We are not sure if this definitely was the issue, but it felt like a different car on Sunday, it even had a bit of understeer, probably from all the changes we had made trying to cure the oversteer issue. I want to thank Betty and all the guys and girls from Erebus Motorsport who worked so hard not only to make our car fast and reliable but also to make us feel welcome.

The other unusual thing about the Bathurst 12 Hours is that the race starts at 5.45am on the Sunday morning. In Australia the TV schedules are planned around the six o’clock news and apparently this never changes. The race has to finish at 5.45pm in order to allow time for the podium to be broadcast before the news. So this means a very early morning start and driving the mountain in the dark for the first half hour or so. There are no mandatory night practice sessions here at Bathurst, that stuff is for those soft Europeans trying to make it easy on themselves again!

Renger was down to start our car with me second then Mirco and Patrick. We left the house at 4.45am and it was a strange feeling being stood on the grid before the sun came up.

Renger and I on the grid before the start at 5.45am

At the start Renger did extremely well to dodge a spinning Mika Salo at Turn 2 and as the sun came up he worked his way up from 20^th to 13^th. He was obviously happier with the car as he beat his qualifying time despite starting on his qualifying tyres and having more fuel on board.  We pitted at 1hr 15mins and I jumped in. We opted not to change tyres as we expected that we could double stint them. Our stop only cost us one position and I headed back out in 14^th. It was great to get a decent long run in the car and immediately felt that the car was way better than in practice. I got into a rhythm and got down into the low 2m05s fairly quickly. About forty minutes into my stint the safety car came out so I pitted again for fuel only. By now I was really feeling confident. Bathurst is a place whether confidence means laptime and I managed to get down to a 2m04.095 on my last lap before pitting despite the tyres now being three stints and a qualifying session old. We pitted in 8^th overall and 2^nd in class. I was really happy with that as now it was looking like a good result was possible and I also knew there was more pace to come later on new rubber if we needed it. The highlight of my weekend was walking up to the timing screens to see where we were and Bernd Schneider and Jochen Bitzer  (Head of Customer Sport from Mercedes AMG) saying “Well done, good job”. That felt good and meant a lot coming from them.

Mirco and Patrick continued the race for us and were showing well, running inside the top ten overall after five hours, when a small mistake during Patrick’s stint put the car in the wall at the top of the mountain. The car could not be driven back and the damage was too much to repair, we were out.

It was such a shame as we felt we could have won our class had we had a clean run. However anything can happen on a circuit like this and we were all aware of this when we started. If it was easy it would be no fun. Despite the disappointment we had come and shown well on the mountain despite being a team of four Bathurst rookies. Most importantly Mirco had enjoyed the experience.

Personally I was really happy with my performance and my time on old rubber put me 3^rd quickest of all the rookie drivers over the weekend behind Maxime Soulet and Rob Bell. I know that I would have been able to find more with another stint but it will have to wait for another visit to the mountain. Considering that at the start of the week I was not even expecting to be there at all I cannot be unhappy. Another great experience chalked up and I am far better prepared if the opportunity arises to return.

Alex Kapadia and Dragon Racing recorded a strong run in the Dubai 24 hours last weekend. The team had looked set for a top five finish before bad luck in the last four hours of the race caused them to drop down the order.

Kapadia was driving a Ferrari 458 GT3 alongside Ferrari factory driver Matt Griffin as well as John Hartshorne and Khaled Al Mudhaf. “The plan was to win the Pro-Am category but the new driving time regulations meant that as Bronze rated drivers John and Khaled would have to do 12 hours of the race between them. We were not sure if they would be able to complete this so the only option we had was to go up to the Pro class allowing Matt and myself to drive longer. We also chose to bring Rob Barff into the squad to allow Matt and I to get some rest through the night.”

“The strategy was drive for fifteen hours staying out of trouble, then race for the last nine. It was working and we were up to 6th place overall by 6am. Then as daylight came Rob was hit by a Porsche while lapping it and this damaged the rear of the car. We lost around half an hour recovering and fixing the car.”

“Despite the disappointment we still finished 10th in class and 19th on the road from 100 starters. John and Khaled had a great time and put in some impressive performances. I really hope we are back here again next year.”

Alex Kapadia and Team AAI finished 2nd in the LMP3 class in the second round of the Asian Le Mans Series at Sepang.

Partnered by Masataka Yanagida and Ollie Hancock the trio recorded the first race finish for the new Adess chassis. “Team AAI employed us to get a result for the car and we have done that. I am happy that we have made big progress with the car over the last few days. There is still a lot of improvement to come.” said Alex after the race.

Alex Kapadia has been called up to race the Team AAI Adess LMP3 at the second round of the Asian Le Mans series in Sepang.

He will be partnered by three times Super GT Champion Masataka Yanagida and fellow British driver Ollie Hancock.

Kapadia previously drove for Team AAI in the Le Mans 24hrs this year. “I am extremely proud to be asked to rejoin the team to help them develop the Adess. The team had a tough time at the last round at Fuji and we have been brought in to help get a strong result.”

Alex Kapadia and Riccardo Dona took a win in the final round of the Radical European Masters series at Barcelona.

The duo who were driving for Nielsen Racing, put in strong stints to pull away from the pack and recover from being taken out by a spinning car in the first race of the day.

The win helped Riccardo Dona secure 3rd place in the 2015 Radical SR3 European Masters Championship.

Alex Kapadia and Jeremy Ferguson took a hat trick of podium finishes when they paired up in a 360 Racing Radical SR8 at Monza.

Ferguson was due to share the car with 360 regular James Swift but when business commitments meant Swift could not make it, he called Kapadia to fill the seat.

Kapadia started well by taking pole during a wet qualifying session. Onboard video can be viewed here: https://www.facebook.com/467226320113589/videos/513303968839157/?video_source=pages_finch_main_video&theater

In the races both Kapadia and Ferguson showed stunning pace to go from the back of the grid to the front twice after issues at the start of the races. Ultimately a win eluded them this weekend but they took satisfaction from being the quickest car on the circuit all weekend.

Having already given you my Campsite to Cockpit backstory I have now completed the Le Mans test weekend. For our team, last weekend was not just another test, it was also the first time that most of us had met each other, let alone driven the car.

Many teams come to Le Mans halfway through an ELMS or WEC campaign and they already know the car and each other very well. None of us had ever driven the car before and we had never worked together before. In addition both myself and San needed to complete our mandatory ten laps, and familiarise ourselves with the car and all its systems and controls. As a reserve driver for Murphy Prototypes last year I had already driven the circuit before but San had never been here before so needed to learn the track too.

With all this in mind I arrived on Friday afternoon to prepare for the Sunday test. To an outsider you cannot believe that you would need to arrive two days early for a test day but the reality is that there was not a spare moment over the three days.

On arrival the first job was to head straight to the garage and meet the team. These are the guys that will be working relentlessly over the next two weeks to give us the best chance possible in the race. They are also the guys who you put your trust in to keep the car reliable and safe. This commands respect and I always make a point of introducing myself to every team member and remembering everyone’s names. It is difficult when you meet about twenty five people all at once to take in and remember everyone so I make a note on my phone of every name and then if I forget any I have it there. This system works and is crucial to building the respect and a relationship with the guys.

AAI Motorsport have a technical partnership with the highly experienced Prospeed squad so the majority of the team are Belgian but we also have drivers from four different countries, an Italian engineer and a Japanese team manager. It is a truly international affair. It became clear that language and clear communication are going to be important factors.

I also met San for the first time on Friday and was relieved to find out what a dude he is. He is a really nice guy, huge enthusiast of the sport, and a proper character. I could tell we were going to have some fun over the next few weeks.

Then there was some serious prep to get done. I was allowed to utilise some spare space on the car to give a few of my personal sponsors a bit of extra branding. Vapouriz and Club100 were very happy to get a few good spots on the rear of the car. This is likely to be seen a lot on the onboard cameras as the LMP1 cars lap us. The team wanted to install a new radio kit and drink system to my helmet, I needed to check I was comfy in the car and more than anything I needed to understand all the controls and systems for the car. A few days before the test I had been sent a thirty six page document by the team explaining everything, now I needed to see how much I could remember! Much of it was standard stuff like the locations of switches and controls but you also need to understand and remember the different engine maps positions, TC options, and also important, how to put the car in reverse. You think you would hardly ever need to use reverse but it is important in case anything happens in the race and the ACO officials also do random tests during the test day to check you can put the car in reverse without outside assistance. Once that was all memorised we headed back to our accommodation from Project100 in a lovely house in the woods between Mulsanne and Indianapolis.

The next day involved signing on, taking all our kit to scrutineering, a team briefing with the engineers where a run plan was decided on, drivers briefing and a track walk. At nearly 14km long you do not walk the whole track. We headed out by car to see the public road section which is everything from Tetre Rouge round to the entry to the Porsche curves and then did the rest on foot. I always pay particular attention to the condition of the sections linking the Bugatti circuit to the public road as these are only used twice a year and build up a film of dust and dirt. Interestingly the new tarmac on the outside of the Porsche curves was pristine but the construction traffic that had been present to lay the tarmac had spread mud all over the circuit itself. I noticed it was a brown colour in comparison to the dark black of the new run off. This meant it was likely to be really slippery and take a while to clean up.

Sunday came round quickly and I was first out in the car to get my ten laps. They went by very quickly and I was relieved to have got it out of the way and off my mind. My first impressions of the car we that it had more oversteer than I was expecting and we started to work to dial that out as the day went on. We also had a few minor issues with the traction control but got this sorted quickly too. Until this point conditions had been dry but as San headed out for his ten laps the clouds came over and it started to spit with rain. A few laps into his stint San had lost tyre temperature and had a small off into the gravel at turn 1. No damage done and he was back on the way within a few minutes. He got his ten laps done and Xavier managed to jump in for a few laps before lunch on wets.

So my first session was over and I had had my first experience of a GT car at Le Mans. I felt that compared to my ten laps in the Murphy LMP2 the GT was a far harder car to drive, as we were not flattered by anything like as much downforce and also you are constantly being dive-bombed by LMP1 and LMP2 cars travelling up to 45 seconds per lap faster. I am used to multi-class racing in Radicals but I am usually the one doing the passing. I now had a much greater appreciation for how hard the GT drivers work to not only get the cars round the circuit but also how you needed to have one eye on your mirrors all the time and how the skill is to lose the least amount of time being passed. When an LMP1 is behind you the headlights just fill the mirrors even when they are still 100 metres back and you cannot see how far behind they are. If that is what it is like in daylight it is only going to be worse at night.

After lunch Xavier and I did some more runs, focusing on a good safe set up to make San feel as comfortable as possible. He still needs more time in the car and we know that our race result will depend on how confident he is with the car. I was happy to see that in the wet I was only a couple of seconds off the fastest GTs at the time, while feeling that there was a lot more still to come. Being an older car the 997 is likely to struggle for ultimate pace in the dry but I think a wet race could help us.

I have had a busy week since the test and with two days of driver coaching in the Radicals, trying to cram a few days in at my business and also the Radical European Masters at Silverstone this weekend. As I write this I have just this afternoon taken pole for the first race so we are hoping for two good results on Sunday before jumping in the car on Sunday afternoon and driving straight from Silverstone to Le Mans ready for our scrutineering first thing on Monday morning.

One last thing; a bit of personal advice to anyone who is driving to Le Mans… DO NOT SPEED. You WILL get caught. A few years ago I was banned from driving on the way down to Le Mans and just a few weeks ago I got caught on the way back from a race in Dijon. The Gendarme will line the roads between Calais and Le Mans literally camouflaging themselves in the long grass around the bridges, looking out for crazy Brits who think they are immune from penalties in France. Trust me after a very big fine, a number of hours in the police station, the threat of confiscating my car and a court hearing (in France) I will not make the same mistake again. The Thursday and Friday of Le Mans week are peak hunting season for them. Take it easy.