Karun Chandhok Finishes the 6 hours of Silverstone in 7th position

Indian racing star Karun Chandhok and his JRM Racing finished the 6 Hours of Silverstone in seventh position, fourth in the privateer class in the fourth round of the 2012 FIA World Endurance Championship. Just months after entering the championship in the ultra-tight LMP1 class, JRM showed solid improvement, racing competitively with the privateers. The race was however not without incident as Peter Dumbreck – who started the race – was pitched into a spin at only the first corner. The Scot rejoined the race but had a fight on his hands to regain track position amongst the LMP2 cars from 20th position. When he handed the car over to Karun 1.5 hours into the race, Peter was already back up to seventh.

Karun then started the first of his four stints in the car. Over the three hours he piloted the #22 he moved steadily up the order, first picking off the Strakka Racing of Nick Leventis by a rate of 5secs a lap. He then set out taking the #13 Rebellion and got past for fifth by the midpoint of the race. A spin through Copse Corner 1.5 hours from the end of the race dropped the team back to seventh, but undeterred, David took over the challenge to finish the race two laps behind the #12 Rebellion. Karun Chandhok commented, “We’ve definitely moved on from the last WEC event we did in Spa. The speed is better compared to the rest of the privateers – I was able to match the pace of the Strakka and Rebellion for most of my stints. Then at the end unfortunately I was going into Copse and had to go on the marbles to get past a GT car and lost grip and spun.

It’s looking a lot more positive for Brazil and with a three week gap between here and Interlagos we can really look at everything and work out how to get everything coming together.” Nigel Stepney, team manager and chief engineer, said, “The car ran reliably throughout the six hours and for a great deal of the race we were on the same lap as the other privateers – despite the spin at the start. It shows the speed is there and we are getting closer and closer to putting together a good overall result. It gives us a lot of confidence for the rest of the championship – we’re edging there. If we can get all the components together in the right order at the right time we’ll be very competitive in Brazil.”

The next race will take place at Interlagos in Brazil on September 15.