14 January 2018
A summing up of Jon’s performance at the 2018 Dubai 24hrs with Nathan Freke, Mark Farmer, Dominic Paul and all the awesome, hard working people at Century Motorsport:
✅ Jon’s first time at the circuit
✅ First time driving the Ginetta G55
✅ Fastest lap in FP2, 2:08.961
✅ Pole position in qualifying, 2:07.871
✅ New lap record, fastest ever Ginetta GT lap of Dubai Autodrome!
As a team we completed 484 laps in the race, finishing 4th in the SP3 class and 66th out of 91 cars. We lost approximately 3 hours in the pits after the engine failed, which was only 8 hours in to the 24hr race.
I expected us to be out of the race when the engine blew up. It was a huge testament to the fantastic team that Nathan has built – that instead of giving up and packing everything away, everyone showed their professionalism, determination and true grit to get the new engine in the car and get us back out on circuit.
With 5 hours of the race remaining, we had made our way back to within just 15 seconds of the car in 3rd in class - but a loss of drive due to an issue with the RH driveshaft meant another visit back to the pits - and a 15 minute delay which dropped us back another few laps.
Still, we made it to the end, which in itself is an achievement which we can be proud of.
A massive thanks to everyone for working so hard over the 4 days at the circuit, it was a truly memorable event!
I think we all feel that we have unfinished business and we enjoyed our time in Dubai, so I hope to be back again in 2019!
For more information visit Jon's website at www.jonbarnes.com
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ENDS