Hexis Racing tourne une page du Livre des Records du Grand Tourisme

A chapter in the history of races for Grand Touring cars closed on the Donington Park circuit. The Hexis Racing Team, 2010 runner-up and 2011 FIA GT1 World Champions, again upset the forecasts. The French squad was lying fourth before the last round and it left Donington in second place in the Teams’ Championship*, while its drivers, Fred Makowiecki and Stef Dusseldorp , also took second place in the drivers’ ratings* missing out on the title by one point! The team won Saturday’s and Sunday’s races, and it shares the 2012 record for the number of pole positions (3), victories (2) and fastest laps (3) in the qualifying races, as well as the outright record for the number of wins in the championship races with three successes!

“After the major disappointment at the Nürburgring we were determined to fight back and win on this magnificent circuit,” said team manager, Philippe Dumas. “Mission accomplished as we were quick throughout the weekend with a fairly tight Balance of Performance.” In fact, on the grid for the qualifying race there were seven different makes in the first seven places covered by under 8/10s! In the first race the no. 1 McLaren GT of Stef Dusseldorp and Frédéric Makowiecki took the lead during the round of pit stops, which it held to the chequered flag. No. 2 in the hands of Grégoire Demoustier and Alvaro Parente was ninth on the grid, twelfth at the end of the first lap, and finished in third place!

On Sunday, the two Hexis Racing McLarens repeated their performance with Makowiecki-Dusseldorp and Parente-Demoustier finishing first and third respectively. The event, however, was marked by two serious accidents. The first was on lap 1 and led to the race being interrupted. The window for the tyre and driver changes hadn’t been closed when the second crash occurred involving the two teams battling for the world title; this led to a long neutralization and the race was finally red-flagged. The Vita4one BMW was the car that suffered the most and its driver Yelmer Buurman was evacuated to hospital. Fortunately, reassuring news about his state of health was released shortly afterwards. The no. 38 All-Inkl Mercedes-Benz was excluded from the race. Even so its drivers, Basseng-Winkelhock, became world champions, one point in front of Makowiecki-Dusseldorp and Buurman-Bartels, the tie being broken by the Hexis Racing drivers’ higher number of victories.

“The championship shouldn’t be judged on the rather downbeat conclusion of the last round as up till then the races had been run in a very sporting ambience,” underlined Philippe Dumas. “All-Inkl Münnich Motorsport deserves to succeed us in the teams’ title. They did a great job in terms of reliability and pit stops.”

Overall, the balance sheet is more than positive for Hexis Racing. “We can be proud of the work we’ve done throughout the year against teams of the caliber of All-Inkl.com, Vita4one, Reiter, Audi WRT and AF Corse. We had the only new car in the field and maybe it’s our most complete season: we started from scratch and took up the challenge. We’re not blowing our own trumpet by saying that we were the quickest. Becoming double runner-ups with the record number of victories was completely unexpected. We had this drive to win in what seemed to be inextricable situations. People doubted our capacity to fight back after Nogaro, but in all the difficult moments we showed that Hexis Racing is a winning machine. I’m happy to have beaten teams who are in a different league to us from a financial point of view, some of whom arrived with four works drivers!”

As the English round marked the end of an era, it was time for a look back at the three years of the FIA GT1 World Championship, which has provided its fair share of thrills and excitement. “Over the period as a whole I think that Hexis Racing has racked up the best results. We’re writing a page in the history of GT racing – it’s the truth.”

At Donington, Hexis Racing was able to count on the presence of one of the major figures in motor sport, Martin Whitmarsh, the McLaren Formula 1 team principal and Chief Operating Officer of the McLaren Group. ”I feel that he’s really involved in this GT project and that he’s taking it seriously. I’d like to thank all the guys at McLaren for their involvement with us. They too knew how to react; they were able to supply us with the tools that meant we were competitive at the end of the championship. A big thanks too to the Hexis Group without whom nothing would have happened. And then there are our four drivers who helped us make the difference; they were competitive and stuck together. We saw Mako at his best with the record number of victories in this world championship. Alvaro, our ‘Flying Portuguese’ epitomized the team itself. Greg did a good job. I hope we’ve helped him to progress and that this season with two world championship podiums will be a good memory for him. Finally, Stef is in the process of forging a great set of results in GT. It’s his second year in this branch of the sport and he’s still only twenty-three; he was irreproachable and he’s getting quicker and quicker.”

The season isn’t quite over yet as Hexis Racing will be taking part in the Blancpain Endurance Series again in the last round on 14th October in Navarra. “We’ll be on a mission for McLaren to prove that an MP4-12C can be competitive in this high-quality championship. We’ve scheduled tests with Michelin and we’ll start refuelling practice.” As for the driver line-up it will consist of Fred Makowiecki, Alvaro Parente and Stef Dusseldorp who will all be on hand at the Spanish circuit.

Antonin Grenier, the photographer and video cameraman who was with the team in all its trips this season, has added the creative spark of his talent to the end-of-season fireworks display! He has brought out a superb film that celebrates a great team and a great family – Hexis Racing!