Ben Barker once again proved both his individual pace and that of the Gulf Racing Porsche during a Le Mans 24 Hours that bore a lot of similarities to last year’s event.
With the first – and only – FIA World Endurance Championship ‘superseason’ straddling two calendar years, the 2019 visit to the Circuit de la Sarthe was not just the second of the campaign, but also the final round of a globe-trotting journey that began in May 2018. The Gulf Racing team embarked on its trek with tenth place in France a year ago, and returned to Le Mans confident of better, having come close to breaching the podium in several events sandwiched between the 24-hour marathons.
Having put the #86 Porsche 911 RSR comfortably in the middle of the 17-car GTE-Am pack in both free practice and the opening qualifying session, Barker was frustrated in his bid to emulate last year’s second place on the class grid, posting the fourth-best time of Q2 after finding traffic on each of his quickest runs. To make matters worse for the Gulf team, a gearbox leak was discovered in the short break before final qualifying, necessitating both the ‘box and engine to be removed from the car in order that repairs could be effected.
“The problem could have spelt the end of our bid for the class pole,” Barker admitted, “but the Gulf boys pulled out all the stops to get the car back on track, and that really cemented the team’s motivation for the rest of the event. Thomas [Priening] then completed a great team effort by finding a clear lap and improving our best time to move the #86 up to third in class during the final night qualifying session.”
Having gone fastest of all during the pre-race warm-up session, Barker was back behind the wheel for the start of the 24 Hoursand, in another echo of the 2018 event, found himself battling former Porsche Supercup rival Matteo Cairoli as well as polesitter Matt Campbell for position in the opening stint. Where Barker and Cairoli had gone doorhandle-to-doorhandle on the first lap a year ago, this time the trio remained nose-to-tail throughout the opening two hours, eventually breaking away from the remainder of the GTE-Am runners as they opened up a gap of around five seconds to fourth place.
“The car and tyres felt great and I found a good rhythm right from the start,” Barker noted, “I probably could have made a lunge to try and pass the pair ahead of me, but it was a bit too early in the race to be taking silly risks. We all set our fastest times of the race in those opening laps, so there was no quarter given, and it really looked like we could be in the thick of the podium fight.”
The Cambridge native handed over to team owner Mike Wainwright at the end of his stint and, even though the #86 dropped off the lead lap during the evening hours, the combination of Barker and Priening reduced the gap by taking the bulk of the driving through the cooler night sessions. Unfortunately, just as had been the case in 2018, the hard work was undone by an unfortunate incident that saw Wainwright put the iconically-liveried Porsche in the gravel at Indianapolis as dawn was breaking, losing another two laps while it was recovered and dropping outside the top ten in class as a result.
With mechanical reliability again being a hallmark of the GT category, the Gulf team was now relying on errors elsewhere in order to renew its challenge for the podium, but they never came, leaving the undoubted pace of the #86 enough to claim ninth place in the remaining hours. That became eighth in the hours after the chequered flag had waved, with the winning Ford being disqualified for a technical irregularity, but Barker was able to point to another personal achievement amongst the various positives that Gulf Racing could take from maintaining its 100% finishing record in the blue riband event.
“The result wasn’t what we wanted – or what we honestly thought we could achieve,” Barker sighed, “but the car was the best it’s been all season, the pit crew were as exemplary as always, and all three drivers were on it throughout the race. Although Cairoli stole my lap record by less than a tenth of a second, I was still the fastest GTE-Am driver in terms of average lap time and, with Thomas third on that list, I think we proved what a potent combination the #86 team had.”
The Le Mans result left Barker and Wainwright in a share of seventh place in the final GTE-Am standings, and Gulf Racing sixth overall in the teams’ table, leaving the former F3 champion to reflect on another hard-fought campaign.
“Having the latest mid-engined version of the Porsche RSR made a big difference to our competitiveness, and it was great to be able to chase class poles and podiums,” Barker smiled, “The team showed its potential all season, and should have had some silverware to show for its efforts. Unfortunately, what could have been second at Sebring became fourth in the closing minutes of the race – and that kind of reflected the year as a whole.
“I have to say, however, that the team was rarely at fault for our frustrations. Gulf Racing might be the smallest team in the FIA WEC field, but it is certainly one of the most efficient for its size and is constantly punching above its weight. It was great to see Thomas come on board and show his speed, while Mike has continued to progress throughout the year. Unfortunately, we’ll not be able to retain Thomas next season as he’s now a gold-rated driver like myself, but Gulf Racing will be back fighting hard as always.
“On a personal note, I need to thank the team, Sacred Coffee, Montaplast and CARS for their ongoing support, and I look forward to representing them all again in 2019-20.”
While the WEC ‘superseason’ is now consigned to the history books, Barker and the Gulf team will only have to wait a couple of months before embarking on another world endurance campaign, with round one kicking things off on home soil, at Silverstone, over the weekend of 1 September.
