Ben Barker and the Gulf Racing team again had an FIA World Endurance Championship podium in their sights as the series moved onto the second round of the 2019-20 season – and again saw it slip away through no fault of their own.
Coming off a strong performance on home soil at Silverstone, where the result did not reflect that it hardly put a foot wrong, the entire Gulf team was in confident mood as they arrived in Japan for the 6 Hours of Fuji. The former F1 circuit had proven favourable for Gulf’s #86 Porsche 911 RSR in recent years and, when Barker triumphed in a kicking competition to mark the ongoing Rugby World Cup taking place around the country, the omens looked good.
When the track action got under way in earnest, the British combo used the practice sessions to get to grips with the various tyre compounds and, having settled on a set-up, Barker went into qualifying in optimistic mood. His performance lived up to that feeling, as he lapped fourth fastest amongst the Pro category drivers and as second fastest Porsche. With team owner Mike Wainwright lapping quickly on his team-mate’s used rubber, the #86 slotted into eighth place in class.
“I felt really confident going into qualifying and was pleased to be within four-tenths of the arguably faster Ferraris and Aston Martins,” Barker commented, “Mike also did a great job on my used tyres to put up an aggregate time good enough for P8, giving us a good platform to build on in the race.”
Wainwright was also behind the wheel for the start of Sunday’s race but, with the rain that had been a theme of the week leading up to the event still in the air, a tactical battle lay ahead. The Gulf car – now sporting a black-and-orange livery – remained eighth overall through the first stint, before starting to make a move towards the front when Barker took over. The Cambridge native produced a quick and consistent run as the #86 climbed to second in class before Wainwright returned to the cockpit.
Just as a run at the podium appeared possible, however, the Gulf team’s fortunes turned, first with Wainwright suffering a puncture early in his run that forced the #86 into an unscheduled pit-stop, and then the onset of light rain, which caught the team on the wrong tyres for the changing track conditions.
“I had fun passing seven cars to take us to P2 but, ultimately, doing two additional stops cost us a potential top five spot,”Barker acknowledged, “Our pace was very good, and it was encouraging to again be one of the fastest Porsche drivers, but it was another case of what might have been. It’s tough on the team, especially as they were lightning fast on the pit-stops again, but we’ll just move on to China and hope for better fortunes.”
The 2019-20 WEC season continues at the Shanghai International Circuit in China over the weekend of 8-10 November.
