We followed RAM Racing driver Tom Onslow-Cole during the recent Barcelona 24 Hours as the pressure mounted to deliver the anticipated team championship win.
The life of a racing driver is not always glamorous, especially when the watch alarm chimes with emphatic clarity from the bedside table at 03:45am - an hour that the larks would deem too early. The temptation to silence the noise and get a few more hours' sleep had to be resisted, because the scheduled flight to Barcelona would not wait... even for rising star Tom Onslow-Cole. Besides, it would be somewhat ironic if the Casio Edifice-sponsored driver missed the start of the fifth round of the 2015 International Endurance Series because he was late.
A quiet taxi ride to Luton airport gave Tom the opportunity to collect his thoughts. Staring into the night he reflected on what lay ahead for the RAM Racing team and the other three drivers sharing wheel-time in the #30 Mercedes SLS AMG GT3. So far this season the Northamptonshire team had achieved a hundred percent podium success rate, accumulating a 29-point lead in the hard-fought battle for the team championship. Another podium finish at the Circuit de Barcelona Catalunya would secure this important title, but alternative outcomes still needed to be considered. Tom had already made the calculations: three other teams had a mathematical chance of wresting the title; most notably Scuderia Praha, the experienced Czech outfit that had battled through torrential rain to win this event last year. But there was also the five other GT3-spec 'Gullwings' among the capacity grid to bear in mind. With identical specification levels, performance differential within the fierce A6 class would likely come down to the drivers themselves.
Caught in the eye of this storm, Tom retains the calm demeanour of a professional used to working under all kinds of pressure, but it's possible to discern that behind those eyes his synapses are firing at maximum revs. After a quick glance to check that his Edifice watch has synchronised to local Spanish time, he looks up to analyse the most efficient route through the holidaymakers to the rental car lot and escape into the Catalonian countryside. Even the squeeze through the pit garage is despatched with laser-guided intent in order to get trackside and finally take in the 2.9-mile circuit. Later that afternoon Tom 'walked' the circuit at the only pace any good racer understands - flat out.
It was a cobweb-blasting run that put him in touch with the flow of the course and created an opportunity to burn brake markers and apex points into his subconscious. The next time he would go out on the circuit, Tom would be on the front row of the starting grid, carving the lines that everybody else would hopefully be trying to follow.Race day dawned bright and clear and all 74 cars took to the field ready for the midday start. Though he made a clean getaway, Tom is the sort of driver that plays the long game and often avoids the temptation to scream off the start line with all guns blazing. Instead, like a fearsome predator he waits patiently to pick off weakening competitors. The #5 Mercedes took an early lead, while the championship rival #4 Ferrari slotted into second.
However, by 13:30 both these cars had fallen by the wayside with mechanical issues and the guttural V8 of Tom's Mercedes had powered itself into the lead. A pit stop at 16:00 marked the end of Tom's first successful stint behind the wheel, and a slick changeover to German driver Thomas Jägerensured the team didn't lose too much ground. In fact, by 18:15 the lead was extended by a significant margin, a position the RAM raiding Mercedes held for almost one-third of the entire race. Twelve hours in and the AMG suffered a power steering failure that added a new layer of white-knuckle endurance into the mix.
It was no longer possible to tip the car into corners with smooth, intuitive movements; every corner was now a battle of wills - man against the machine's natural inclination to run straight. As the race pace slowed in the early hours the lead position was eventually relinquished and some contact with another competitor around dawn dropped the British team into third place overall. When lead driver Tom jumped behind the wheel for his second and final last stint at 08:00am, he understood that the weight of expectation was very much on his shoulders. The collective ambition of every last member of the team was to retain that unbroken podium record and return home with the team championship title. And it was now Tom's duty to deliver that wish on everybody's behalf. Few teams had lasted the course without issues of some kind or another. But while this was some comfort for the team, from Tom's perspective this was no time for complacency. In fact, this was the time to dig deep and try even harder. And as the hands of his Casio Edifice EQB-510 timepiece finally ticked past the vertical, signalling the end of a punishing 24 hours, he was able to breathe a sigh of relief that the members of the RAM Racing team had indeed achieved their aims. They were now the well-deserved 2015 GT3 Team Champions of the International 24 Hour Series.
Tom Onslow-Cole: It’s unbelievable to stand here as championship winners before the season is over. It’s my first international championship win and it’s been such a pleasure doing it with RAM Racing. I look forward to many more successes with the team. I’m sure there is much more to come!
Team principal Dan Shufflebottom: Many teams take three or more years to win a championship, so this makes me extra proud of the crew who have delivered in every race to earn us an international championship trophy for the cabinet. This 24H Series championship win is for all of them.
