Popular Indian car racer Karun Chandhok and his team, JRM Racing, registered its best-ever result of the season on Sunday at the Six Hours of Fuji in Japan, finishing second in the privateers’ class and fifth overall. The #22 HPD ARX-03a driven by David Brabham, Peter Dumbreck and Karun Chandhok had qualified in P3 in the privateers’ class for the penultimate race of the FIA World Endurance Championship, setting up a good race today.
Peter got the six hours underway for the team and had a good start, gaining a place in the first corner. He was in the car for the first two hours and 40 minute. After a double stint, the Scot driver handed over to David. He was able to run at consistent pace, constantly swapping track positions with the #12 Rebellion.
Karun drove the #22 during the last third of the race. Minor contact with the #1 Audi was made during his first stint, and during the last minutes of the race he also had to do an extra pit stop to change the rear end of the car that had been damaged. Nevertheless he managed to stay in fifth position and even set the team’s fastest lap of the race, a 1:30.907.
The team now looks forward to the eighth and final race of the year that will take place in China in two weeks’ time.
Karun Chandhok said, “Great to be on the podium! It was a good race and finishing for the team was a fantastic feeling, particularly as it’s our best finish of the season so far. I had a bit of contact with the Audi and there was a bit of bodywork damage but apart from that we were reasonably quick. We do need a little bit more pace to finish ahead of the Rebellion – we stick with them at some parts of the race and only need a little bit more to get ahead. It’s nice to get a trophy for the boys, and it’s very positive for us and for the team moral. I’m very pleased after a couple of hard weekends in Brazil and Bahrain, and hopefully we can finish the season strongly in China.”
Nigel Stepney, team manager and chief engineer, said, “This is our best result so far and we are absolutely delighted. The race went according to plan. We probably lost the chance to fight the Rebellion during Peter’s second stint on new tyres when we had a bit of a performance problem. But the boys did a fantastic job changing the rear bodywork in an extra pit stop and it was a positive race overall. We’ve been promising it for two races, Brazil and Bahrain, so it’s finally nice to get to the end and achieve what we know we can do.”
James Rumsey, team principal, commented, “Overall, a very positive result today; we can be very happy and proud. The team has worked very hard during the whole weekend and finally it all came together in the race. This is our best result of a season where we have improved race after race and we certainly deserved it. It’s also great to finally see our drivers on the podium for the first time. Now we have to continue working hard and do our best to end the season on a high.“