The fledgling TF Sport team officially launched its 2014 programme during the Avon Tyres British GT Championship Media Day at the Donington Park circuit on the Derbyshire/Leicestershire border on Tuesday (8 April).
TF Sport was established in January of this year by former British Touring Car and British GT racer, Tom Ferrier, after a fruitful four-year stint as Team Manager of the Scuderia Vittoria outfit.
In a very short space of time, Ferrier has formed a top-class racing operation that’s not only set to take on the British GT Championship – one of international motorsport’s most competitive and high-profile GT racing arenas – but will do so having been recognised as an official Aston Martin Racing Partner Team – a sought-after title that’s held by a select few globally, providing ambitious teams like TF Sport with advanced technical support and feedback from Aston Martin Racing’s expert engineers.
The results of four months of intense preparation were displayed with pride at Donington Park on Tuesday (8 April), as TF Sport and its four drivers – Paul Bailey, Andy Schulz, Andrew Jarman and Devon Modell – joined their fellow British GT contenders for the media preview day.
The TF Sport-run Horsepower Racing Aston Martin V12 Vantage GT3, which will be piloted by Bailey and Schulz, and its striking new-for-2014 red livery was unveiled to the assembled media, with Jarman and Modell’s GT4-spec Aston Martin V8 Vantage also looking resplendent alongside it.
Official testing in the afternoon was a prime opportunity for teams and drivers to lay down a marker, get a direct comparison with their rivals and refine setups ahead of Oulton Park’s season-opener (19-21 June).
Both TF Sport Astons performed remarkably well throughout. In their first ever run on new Avon rubber, Jarman and Modell posted the ninth best time overall in GT4 and the Bailey-Schulz pairing ended the day with the sixth fastest time – 1m29.752s – having been prevented from ascending further up the order when an oil spill forced drivers to take a less-than-optimal line through one of Donington’s famous turns.
Bailey said: “I think we’ve had a great day. Everybody likes the look of the car, which is important, TF Sport has done a fantastic job and I’m delighted with Andy’s (Schulz) times. If we had had a clear lap we may have been higher up and I’m exactly one second quicker than I was here ten days ago on worn tyres. I’m still on a vertical learning curve and although our experience in the endurance races will be a big gain, we’re starting with a clean sheet of paper with this car.”
Schulz said: “It was quite a positive day. We have more setup data to work with and I managed to find good lap times on old tyres. I couldn’t better my time on fresh rubber due to traffic and spilt oil on the track. While we ran an Aston Martin in Britcar last year, this is a completely different package and the only thing you can carry over is knowledge on how the car behaves. We have experience of driving it, but not to this spec so the more track time we get, the better.”
Modell said: “This was only my second run in the GT4 Aston and it was better, as we put brand new tyres on it. I had to learn how to get the best out of it, being my first time on fresh rubber, but the car feels great. We’re working with it, trying to get rid of the little niggles but it’s not far away from where it should be. I was about six tenths off the other Aston Martins – that’s the only reference we have until the balance of performance between the different makes and models of car is worked out – so I think we’re in good shape.”
Aston Martin GT4 Challenge Champion, Jarman, said: “The car definitely felt better on my main stint in the last session but three laps in to my run oil was spilt and compromised the racing line so I was easily losing half a second a lap. There is scope for improvement, particularly at the rear-end, as I was spinning the rears up quite considerably out of the corners. As a pairing, I think Devon (Modell) and I are very strong. Our lap times are fairly similar and that will make the difference in a competitive situation.”
TF Sport Director, Tom Ferrier, concluded: “The GT3 went very well and I’m delighted to have ended up sixth, even though Paul (Bailey) and Andy (Schulz) could have gone even quicker. It’s difficult to know where we stand with the GT4 until the balance of performance is worked out but I’m satisfied with the pace on old tyres. It’s exciting to launch the team’s programme after putting so much hard work and energy into it and we’re looking good for Oulton Park.”
For more information on Aston Martin Racing, please visit the official www.astonmartin.com/racing website, ‘like’ the Facebook page or follow @AMR_Official on Twitter.
And for more on TF Sport, visit the official www.tfsport.co.uk website, ‘like’ the team’s Facebook page of follow @OfficialTFSport on Twitter.