Sumo Power GT – Nigel Stepney takes over

27th August 2010

Rye, East Sussex, England


Sumo Power GT have officially announced that Nigel Stepney has been appointed their new Team Manager. The highly experienced race engineer takes over from Allen Orchard and will lead the team for the remaining five rounds in this year’s FIA GT1 World Championship.
The move comes at the season’s mid-way point following Mr. Orchard’s resignation from Sumo Power GT’s holding company JRM-Group earlier this week. Executive Director and Team Principal James Rumsey said: “We are disappointed to lose Allen, but I understand his wish to further his career in other areas of motorsport. I would like to thank him for all the work he has done during his time with us and wish him every success for the future.”
“I am delighted that Nigel has accepted the position of Team Manager and see this as a significant step in the progression of Sumo Power GT. I am sure that with the experience he brings with him, we will be able to build on the considerable success the team has already achieved.”
Mr. Stepney takes over ahead of this weekend’s round six of the global GT Championship at Nürburgring in Germany. He has worked with NISMO (Nissan Motorsports International Co. Ltd.), the team’s partner in the GT1 project, since its specially constructed Nissan GT-Rs started racing in 2009.
He then Joined Sumo Power GT when it acquired the cars in January this year.
A former F1 Chief Mechanic, having worked with drivers such as Ayton Senna and Michael Shumacher, Mr. Stepney possess a wealth of technical knowledge and hands-on experience at the highest level in the sport. Having accepted the offer to move from his previous role as Chief Engineer to Team Manager he said: “The GT programme has been a new challenge for me and I’m therefore delighted to be offered the Team Manager’s position. I look forward to continuing to develop the cars and the team as a whole and to build on the success we’ve already achieved in what is a relatively short space of time.”

Sumo Power Race Preview

24th August 2010
Rye, East Sussex, England
FIA GT1 World Championship – Round 6 preview
Nürburgring, Germany: 28 & 29 August 2010
The Sumo Power GT team, the only British team participating, will be back in action next weekend, when it heads to Germany for round six of the FIA GT1 World Championship at one of the
world’s most infamous racing circuits: Nürburgring. And, with the technical nature of the track similar to that of Spa, if its two Nissan GT-Rs perform as well as they did in round five, then a top result is on the cards this time round.
Although the results in Belgium were not a true reflection of the pace of its two cars, the team was delighted that both set front-running lap times, with car 23 holding second place and challenging for the lead – even with 50-kilos of success ballast on board. However, with a drive train problem forcing it into retirement with two laps to go and with car 22 involved in clashes with other cars, the team unusually finished out of the points in both races.
Therefore, with the experience gained at Spa, added to further progress made during a successful test at Snetterton last week, the team is extremely upbeat about its chances of gettin back into the top three this weekend. Further helping the team’s aspirations to get both of its cars on the podium this weekend, will be the loss of ‘Balance of Performance’ ballast: car 22 running with none and car 23 having its allocation reduced to 10 kilos.
Out of the ten races (two per round) held so far, Sumo Power GT has scored an impressive five podium finishes, with a first, a second and three third places – results that see it third in the teams’ points table at the season’s half-way point. In the drivers’ standings, Michael Krumm and Peter Dumbreck in car 23 are ninth and Warren Hughes and Jamie Campbell-Walter in car 22 are tenth out of fourty two drivers, both are also only a few points behind their closest rivals.

As usual, weather and track conditions will also play a significant part in performance and strategy this weekend, together with the all-important management of tyres, championship regulations which impose  a limit of four sets of slicks per car to cover qualifying and both one-hour races.
Of the 12 teams, 24 cars and 48 drivers that make up the FIA GT1 World Championship grid, most are familiar with the 3.23-mile (5.2-kilometre) German Grand Prix circuit and, in particular, two of the Sumo Power GT drivers. For Michael Krumm, this is his home track and one where he began his career, winning his very first Formula Ford race at the ‘Ring. Jamie Campbell-Walter also has good memories of the track as, driving a Lister Storm, he notably won the last FIA GT race held here in 2001.
The weekend timetable sees the Sumo Power GT Nissans first take to the track on Friday at 11.00 for Free Practice, followed by Pre-Qualifying at 16.30. Qualifying takes place on Saturday at 09.00, with the first hour-long race starting at 14.15, with the main Championship race, also one-hour long, scheduled for 15.15 on Sunday.
The members of the team gave their thoughts prior to race day.
Michael Krumm, from Reutlingen, Germany – Driver Car 23
“As I won my first ever race at the Nürburgring and have driven there many times I know the circuit quite well, although there have been a number of changes over the years. I think that some parts of the track will suit our cars, but maybe not as well as Spa. Overall we should perform well and, with this being my home track, it would be great if Peter and I could take our first GT1 win this weekend.”
Peter Dumbreck, from Kirkcaldy, Scotland – Driver Car 23
“We have a good base set-up for the car and understand it a lot more than we did at the start of the season. We nearly came away with second place at Spa and, as car 23 will be carrying less ballast this time, I am expecting to be fighting for a podium position again.”
Warren Hughes, from Newcastle, England – Driver Car 22
“Having raced at Nürburgring a few times, like Spa, it’s a circuit where weather and track surface conditions can play a big part, so tyre management will again be very important. Because of its corners it’s a technical circuit – which is fine by me – and, as we now seem to be competitive on most types of tracks, I see no reason why we shouldn’t be in the running for another good result.”
Jamie Campbell-Walter, from Oban, Scotland – Driver Car 22
“My most vivid memory of Nürburgring was winning the FIA GT race in 2001 when I was driving for Lister. I also finished second there in a round of the LMS a few years ago, so it’s a circuit I like. At the start of the season I would have questioned how competitive our cars would be on this track, but after recent performances I think we stand a very good chance of being at the front.”
Allen Orchard – Team Manager
“Our cars performed really well at Spa and, although the results didn’t reflect that, we came away having learnt a great deal about set-ups for that type of circuit. Our shake-down at Snetterton last week can only be described as perfect and therefore, the whole team is really looking forward to this weekend.”
James Rumsey – Team Principal
“Considering we’re only at the season’s half-way point, I am very pleased with the way things have gone so far. We have made even more progress with the development of our cars recently, so it will be interesting to see how well they perform at a circuit as technically demanding as the Nürburgring.”

Rotorstock 7 Report

Rotorstock 7 started out grey and overcast but as they day went on the weather brightened up providing us with some great entertainment on track with the HKS Drag Series and RWYB and elsewhere around site including the new sprint track.
View more photos on the Rotorstock 7 Gallery page.
Despite some threatening looking weather the track opened to the first few eager Run What Ya Brung (RWYB) participants on time with some HKS racers also taking advantage of the early track time for some testing before their first qualifying session.
The Show n Shine started off relatively slowly but after a quick scout round of the club areas we soon had it populate with some top quality cars which led to some tough de
cisions being made in the judging for the top 3 cars in the show. With the pictured Toyota Supra the eventual winner.
This very clean Suzuki Swift was one of the first cars to turn up and the owners put a great deal of effort into cleaning the car itself, and they were very unlucky to miss out on second place. When the sun came out the Cosmic Black Metallic Pearl paintjob really caught the eye.
As ever the RWYB competition was fiercly fought between all those taking part with the leaders changing throughout the day.
The cars of the HKS Drag Series were the ones to watch throughout the day and although there were some big names missing, those that were here had some excellent battles in all of the classes. We even saw an excellent 7.53 second pass from Leon Green in his Pro Toyota Supra and an equally impressive 9.8 second run from Rob Shadwell in his Street class Skyline. The full race report will be published at www.japdragseries.co.uk.
Toyota Supra - Winner of the Show and Shine Contest
For the first time ever, there was a HKS Academy competition which acts as a feeder class for the HKS Drag Series, intended for those who would like to try out racing in a competition format before comitting and investing in upgrading their cars and equipment and it proved to be a huge success.
The sprint track made its debut at Rotorstock 7 and what great addition it was to the show! The track was continuously busy from start to finish, and with just under 40 people entering the competition was tough. All were battling it out to claim trophies for the top three fastest times of the day and the inter-club competition prize.
The track was a mixture of fast sweeping right hander’s, 90 degree left and rights and hairpins; perfect as it didn’t favour any one type of car. There was great variety of vehicles from, of course, the newest RX8’s, to Lotus’s, to drifting Nissan Skyline’s. One for the more usual cars was Tony Kirk’s Tiger Avon fitted with a modified RX8 engine. The car, which looks like a Caterham, flew round the track and was holding the top spot for the majority of the day.
Honda Civic - Winner of the HKS Drag Series
Other notable entries were Umar Masood in his Mazda RX7, who started very steadily at around 52’s per lap but by the end of the day posted a very respectable time of 41.84, just 1.7 seconds off the eventual winner.
Leroy Anderson also entertained in his Mitsubishi Evo 3 by launching off the line in spectacular fashion and four wheel drifting around the track.
The day though belonged to Robbie Kazandjian who had studied the track by walking it first thing and worked out how to get his yellow RX8 around the track the quickest. He posted the fastest time on his very last run of the day which dropped Anthony Kirk down to second and Mark Nash, in his very fast Lotus Elise Turbo (fitted with a very good handbrake!) to third. Robbie also claimed the inter-club competition win for the RX8 Owners Club.
Rotorstock 7 started out grey and overcast but as they day went on the weather brightened up providing us with some great entertainment on track with the HKS Drag Series and RWYB and elsewhere around site including the new sprint track.