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Donington Park

26/08/2001

Werner Lupberger Column

Commitment Fulfilled

The first of a regular column from the popular South African, this series was planned to begin post-Donington - so the timing is perfect.

It's difficult to explain in words what I was thinking and feeling as I crossed the finishing line on Sunday afternoon. After all the work, struggles and determination that the whole Ascari team has shown over the past 18 months, it was hard for it all to sink in. I have been racing all over the world in F3, F3000 and now sportscars since I was 18 and I have never come across a team as committed as Team Ascari. They are a very special group of people.

The weeks up to Donington were not ideal for me, as I went back to South Africa for the first time in a few years to see my family and picked up a bug of some kind and was in bed for about a week. I've never been so ill in my whole life and thought there was no way I could be at Donington. But things got better and I started to regain my strength the week before the race. The thing that concerned me though was that I had been out of the gym for all that time and now it was going to take some hard work to get back to the level I was at before the illness.

Donington has always been a good circuit to me; I won an F3000 round there in 1999 and qualified well last year in the Ascari. This year we had a feeling that our time was going to come here. We had tested and raced at the track already this year and we had plenty of pace throughout the weekend. We had a problem in qualifying that kept us back in fifth - Ben was called in to the weighbridge when the conditions were at their best, but we were still confident for the race.

I usually start the races and have done for all except Spa this year, but it was decided that Ben should have a turn here at his home race. It is always difficult for a driver to simply look on and hope for the best at the start when you are not in control, but Ben and I have a good understanding and know that neither of us will do anything stupid. We are mates off the track as well as on it and I don't think you will find that kind of relationship very often between two team mates in sportscars.

Once Ben had got past Nielsen's Dome he could run at a good pace and we looked to be pretty comfortable, running just as quick as Lammers. The safety car then obviously helped us out, although there were four or five cars between Ben and the Dome when the restart came.

Towards the end of Ben's stint, his tyres started to go off quite a bit and he was losing time on the Racing For Holland Dome (which had stopped a little earlier and had fresher rubber), but we were still in contention and confident that we could maybe reduce their gap in the second portion of the race.

The changeover went quite well, it is something that we have perfected since the beginning of the year, but at Donington you have to get in on the right hand side and that has the added danger of interfering with the re-fuelling. But it all went smoothly and I emerged from the pits right behind Sam Hancock's Lola and 'wow' does that car have some torque! I was catching him in the corners but under acceleration that thing is impressive.

I eventually got him at Redgate and he tried to hang on around the outside but I was wise to it and drifted across to defend the line in to the Craners. It was a good little battle and it was quite funny because Sam rang me the following day and we had some good banter about it all.

After getting by the Lola I found that the pace of our car without traffic was mighty and I soon reeled in the Dome of Katoh. We seem to have improved a lot in a straightline recently and our new aerodynamicist, Andy Coventry, is already making improvements. Ben did some tests at Santa Pod before Donington and we made a lot of progress with the car.

Once up to Katoh I found it a lot more difficult to pass the Dome and I concentrated on pressuring him with faints and dummies under braking for the hairpins, I even turned my headlights on to try and distract him. It seemed to work as exiting Goddards he spun off. I actually thought he had headed to the pits because I was through before he rotated. The next time around I saw P1 on the pit board and I started to think that maybe this was at last our day.

After the Dome had problems I knew that I had to keep a steady pace and Ian (Dawson) was on the radio telling me to keep a consistent pace and not to push as the Dome had dropped out of contention.

The last pit stop was the most nerve racking as I stalled it on the exit a couple of times. I was so preoccupied with getting away cleanly that I pushed the pit lane speed limiter before I dis-engaged the clutch, but apart from that I was away and back out with over a minute lead.

In the last 20 minutes I was in the 1:29s and in control, although I was still slightly nervous as the dashboard was broken and I had no readouts so if something was going to go wrong I wouldn't get any warnings or anything. It is in these situations that Ian is so good because he is really calm and puts your mind at rest. He kept saying, "Keep concentration and don't worry about the Ferrari." He was referring to one of the Scuderia Italia cars that was ahead of me. I knew it was a few laps behind, but I was in a position where it was holding me up, but I didn't want to be too close as he (Angelo Zadra) was all over the place. It turned out later that he had a wheel coming loose and he finally lost it at the Old Hairpin and went across the grass. Luckily I was clean through and then I had to just keep my concentration and coast to the flag.

Crossing the line was fantastic and seeing all the team on the pitwall, the mechanics, Roger Griffiths our engineer and even Fred and Lena our catering people was very special. When I came in to Parc Ferme everyone was so happy and asking how I felt but I really couldn't take it all in until Theresa and I drove back home in the evening. All the lads from the team had to pack everything immediately after the race as we now go on to Ireland this weekend. They were all staying at Castle Donington on Sunday night and I think they might just have had a couple of orange juices, they deserved it!!

Like I said, it didn't really sink in properly until later that night and also when I woke up the next morning. I just opened my eyes and thought, 'Yes....at last we've done it'. Now we can go for more and what better place to start than at Mondello this weekend. It's a bit of an unknown for everyone but we must finish ahead of Zadra in the Ferrari. That is critical because he has 20 points on us, but if the Domes are as good around Mondello as they were around Donington then I think we are looking at a four way battle for the title. This championship has got better and better with so many different cars and drivers winning and that is something that makes it all the more satisfying when you stand on the top step like Ben and I finally did on Sunday.