Taking it to the front:
Ian Bickerton, team owner, DBA Creation Autosportif
By Kate Shaw
Photos courtesy Jamie Longmuir
LA SARTHE, France (June 17, 2005) – Among the teams making their debut appearance at Le Mans in 2005 is the DBA Creation Autosportif team, who join the LMP 1-675 class in this year’s race. Followers of the LMES and the ALMS have been electrified by the appearance on the scene of this team of privateers, which burst out of the box straight to the front of the field, elbowing Audi for the front row on more than one occasion. The Great Britain-based team ran two races in North America in 2004 with the Zytek engine – Petit Le Mans in Braselton, Georgia and Laguna Seca in Monterey, California – and in both races drivers Nicolas Minassian and Jamie Campbell-Walter gave the Champion Audi team the run of its race in the early going, to the delight of the North American fans. Now they have brought their experience and flair to the biggest sports car race in the world.

Unfortunately in the two North American races they suffered engine failures and didn’t make it to the end. It was this among other considerations that convinced team owner Ian Bickerton to switch from the Zytek to the Judd engine for 2005 and bring the revamped car to prove itself at the biggest sports car race in the world.

“The car was built by Reynard originally,” explained Bickerton. ”The current car is the third iteration, and it continues to improve; we believe it has a lot more to give and we are determined to find it all. We are a small team with limited resources, but we believe our car to be competitive with any of the teams in our class on the day.”

The decision to change engines was an easy one to make. “When we initially bought the car from Zytek,” explained Bickerton, “we asked right away, ‘will there be a Works [factory] team?’ Because if there is a Works team, the customer teams always feel as if they are not quite getting the full attention of the company. They assured us that there would be no Works team, not a chance, not thinking that way at all – and then Presto! A Works team turns up. We had the Phase 3 engine; there was a Phase 4 engine developed but would we get it? That was the question.”

The conversion to the Judd was not difficult at all. “The same people were involved in both the Zytek and the Judd program,” Bickerton said, “and Judd gave us full support. Our team manager Stan Hall worked closely with all concerned to make everything run on rails. The contract was announced on December 21, 2004 and on February 2, 2005 we were testing the engine at Magny Cours [France].”

The largest amount of work involved was in the electronics, which were handled ably by DC Electronics in company with EFI, with input from Judd whenever it was needed. “The engine is a little smoother than the Zytek, and as powerful if not more so, according to the drivers. We did have an engine failure during a test at Paul Rickard, going down the long straight, but Judd stepped right up and within two weeks the problem was solved and the car was back on the track. We did a lot of early testing, both because of the engine change and because of our switch to Michelin tires, which we are very happy with.”

Issues will develop in a new program, and Bickerton admitted that they took a four or five day excursion down the wrong road when a vibration developed in the car for which they could not account. “We spent four or five days blaming the Michelins,” he said, “and finding nothing at all wrong with them that would have caused that problem to develop. Eventually we took the engine and put it onto the dynamo and twisted and turned it – and found that the problem was in an engine mount which we had designed for the car! The issue was remedied and the car is now ready to go.”

I commented that the car seemed to run equally well in the wet session on Wednesday and the dry on Thursday. “The car actually goes better on a wet track,” said Bickerton. “It develops huge downforce and sticks to the track almost too well! Naturally the Pescarolos with their bigger engines are quicker, and the Audi is still the car to have on race day. However, we’re very happy with our P7 qualifying position for the race tomorrow. We developed a very good program for the two sessions, including only two sets of qualifiers [tires], and changed to the race engine in the second session to help bed it in. Nicolas [Minassian] is a very forthright man and he told us that he could have two more seconds out of the car; however, we wanted to keep the race engine to 200 KM of running time last night and he complied without further ado.”

For the Le Mans 24 Hours, regular LMES drivers Nicolas Minassian and Jamie Campbell-Walter have been joined by veteran Dyson Racing pilot Andy Wallace, whom Bickerton considers the heart of Dyson Racing, his regular billet in the ALMS. “Andy and I are old friends,” he said, “from 1988 when we raced here in the Silk Cut Jaguar. Andy is the greatest asset Rob Dyson has in his organization, and I’m sure that it was Andy’s doing that young Chris Dyson is now as quick as he is! Andy has been invaluable to our team, not only in his driving skills but his ability to set up the car and to ‘teach Le Mans’ to the younger drivers, not only how to drive the track but how to conduct themselves at an event of this magnitude. Andy helped develop not only the Bentley program, but other racing programs, and the help he can give our young drivers can’t be overstressed. For example, he emphasized that they have to dismiss all sprint racing ideas and techniques from their thoughts. An endurance race is a matter, not of running out front for 24 hours, but of taking care of one another, taking care of the car, and being there at the end.”

As for the upcoming 24 Hours of Le Mans, the car has been consistent in its lap times, regardless of which driver is behind the wheel, and Bickerton said, “We think a podium place is not out of reach; however, if we achieve P6 and are within an hour of the winner’s time, for a small team in its first 24 Hours of Le Mans, that will be as good as a win for us.”

In a 24 hour race anything can happen and generally does. The fans can expect a good show from DBA Creation Autosportif and we look forward to cheering them on to the finish on Sunday afternoon that they richly deserve.