Le Mans winner and JRM driver David Brabham relects on his 2012 season, including his thoughts on the new World Endurance Championship.
"The 2012 season offered more new and exciting opportunities for me, with a return to JRM Racing to tackle our first FIA World Endurance Championship campaign in the HPD ARX-03A. It was great to return to prototypes with a team I know, in a car engrained with my DNA.
"My involvement with the HPD programme stretches back to 2007 in America with Highcroft Racing, capped with back-to-back American Le Mans Series titles in 2009 and 2010. I’d obviously moved away from the programme to do the FIA GT1 World Championship in the Sumo Power Nissan GT-R last year, so it was a nice surprise to be back in a HPD for 2012 and continue my relationships with JRM, HPD, Wirth Research and Michelin.
"For JRM, it was a new championship and a new challenge. We knew it would take time for things to evolve and for us to get on top of everything, to run really competitively.
"We got the year off to a good start at Sebring with third in the LMP1 privateer standings, when it was a mad rush to even get the car there. We had a couple of really good performances then lost our way a little mid-season, but a good outing at Le Mans gave us some confidence. We weren’t the fastest but we did what we had to do and finished sixth. That was a good achievement and definitely one of the highlights of the year.
"Towards the end of the season things started to come together a lot better and we were very competitive. The second place LMP1 privateer podiums in Japan and China were just reward for the hard work that the team put in.
"Having raced in the US for over 12 years, I also had a few things to learn. American racing is very different to the FIA way of racing, so it’s interesting having been through both experiences. Put it this way, in all my years racing in the States I don’t ever remember going to the stewards office, but in my first race with JRM last year I’m called straight to the stewards because I’ve done something wrong.
"In America, if you do something wrong they wander down the pit and have a chat to you, explain what’s happened and you get on with it. An FIA championship is naturally different, it’s very much rule driven and you end up spending a lot of time talking to the stewards. Once I got an idea of the different rules and regulations my visits thankfully became last frequent!
"I knew I wasn’t going to win the title against the likes of Audi and Toyota, but it’s cool to be racing in a World Championship. I’ve done that before, in F1 and World Sports Cars, and it brings a whole different meaning to what you’re doing. It’s great to see the World Series for sports cars start up again and I hope the championship continues. It’s got a lot of potential and it’s great to be part of that new beginning.
"At the moment I’ve got no plans for 2013. I’m waiting to hear of JRM’s plans, so things are quite open at the moment. It’s early stages yet for teams to be finalising their programmes, so it’s a case of seeing what’s out there and getting a decent campaign together to go and win some races and championships.
"In between my race commitments, I’ve been busy continuing my role as MSA Team UK National Race Coach. My company, the Brabham Performance Clinic has run the MSA’s young driver performance development programme for six years now and it’s just grown massively since we first started.
"When the MSA put out a tender for the programme back in 2007, I knew from my own racing experiences, the ups and downs and what would have helped me when I was a young up-coming driver, what the programme should be to start with.
"As it evolved year-on-year, the MSA started to get a much better understanding of the way they wanted to take it. We’ve worked in close partnership in recent years and it has become much more of a joint venture. It’s been great to continue that close working relationship with the MSA, Robert Reid, and James Wozencroft for rallying throughout 2012. I’ve learnt a lot over the last six years and I’m very proud to have been part of the scheme for so long.
"The racing season is done but it’s still a really busy time, especially with the exciting developments with my new website www.davidbrabham.com. It’s something I’ve been working on for a while and hope I’m close to launching early in the New Year."
