Hexis Racing -From FIA GT3 to the ADAC… The battle rages on all fronts!

From one sporting arena to the next, Hexis Racing continues to send its Aston Martin DBRS9 cars into the fray to face international challenges and to put its drivers on the podium. After Monza and the Nürburgring, the upcoming meetings are going to be juicy for the team from Lédenon.

At the end of this week the team will be racing for the first time on the famous Norisring street circuit before heading back to the Magdebourg area for the next round of the FIA GT3 European championship at Oschersleben.

Hexis Racing's DBRS9 cars came out on top in the match against those of home-based Brixia Racing. Of course, team manager Philippe Dumas will settle for no less than outright victory but he was relatively pleased with the way his cars performed in what were difficult conditions.

"This car is known to run better with higher track temperatures but so far this season in Europe we have had mostly cool or changeable weather conditions. In Monza we were among the front runners and I'd say that at the moment we are probably about the third best in Europe, behind the Ford GTs and the Corvettes."

Thanks to a colossal 24-place climb through the field, rookies Thomas Accary and Pierre-Brice Mena managed to pick up their first points of the European championship season by finishing 5th in race one. They were also the best-placed Aston Martin in the Saturday's racing. With their excellent race strategy, Jean-Claude Lagniez and Fredéric Makowiecki might have legitimately felt that they were in the running for victory, as Philippe Dumas explained:

"There was a safety car procedure at the beginning of the driver change slot, so we took advantage of it to bring Jean-Claude into the pits. Unfortunately, after Fred took over, the race officials handed him a stop and go penalty for coming out of the pit lane three-tenths of a second too soon! After that he got stuck in the pack and could do no better than 9th in the race.

Strangely enough, the next day two other crews were sanctioned for the same type of incident but they didn't bother with the stop and go. Normally that would have earned them a black flag and disqualification. Instead, all that happened was they were given an additional time penalty after the race, which is a lot easier to live with. As far as I can see it's best not to stop if you pick up a stop and go!"

Despite the honour of third place on the podium and the satisfaction of being the best placed Aston Martin in the race, Jean-Claude and Fred lost a slot in the overall standings thanks to this somewhat curious interpretation of the rule book. They are now lying 4th. "We were a bit choked about that but given that the conditions were not in our favour the race result was nevertheless positive. I am happy for Jean-Claude because he drove his best race since joining the team," said Philippe Dumas in conclusion.

Clément Mateu added "we got the points counter working in Italy, which is important at this point in the season. The times we clocked when the track was dry also augur very well for the summer races. Now we are looking forward with great anticipation to the improvements promised by Aston Martin Racing. Once we have them we should continue our progress."

Next up: the third round of the European championship in Oschersleben, next July 5-6. Last May, Hexis Racing marked its debut in the ADAC GT Masters with a podium place on the East German track.

Hexis Racing, which has been competitive since the day it entered the ADAC GT Masters, welcomed two new drivers for the second round in Nürburgring. Swiss driver Michel Frey (34) flirted with Formula 3 in his home country's championship and in the German Recaro Cup before going on to race in the Porsche Carrera Cup.

The crew comprising him and in-form Julien Rodrigues were well in the running for a podium place in Race 1 until the Swiss driver paid an impromptu visit to the gravel trap. Julien put in a strong finish to take Aston Martin No.29 past the flag in 7th place. The Franco-Swiss team was going for a Top 3 spot again on the Sunday but this time a tyre burst put them out of the race.

The other Aston Martin entered by Hexis Racing on the Nürburgring was driven by Manu Rodrigues and Christian Hohenadel, a 31-year old German driver who made a name for himself in the fast and furious Alfa 147 and Seat Leon single-make tin-top categories. Like many of his fellow Germans, Christian cut his GT teeth racing a Porsche. If it hadn't been for a driver changeover sanctioned by a stop and go for being a few tenths of a second too quick, Christian would not have had to wait until the Sunday to win his first two points.

Manu took his third Top 8 placing in four outings, adding to the 8th and 5th places he achieved partnering Philippe Dumas in Oschersleben. Clément Mateu had the final word: "It was a great pleasure to welcome these new drivers.

They soon got used to the car, which is encouraging for the future. We have two important meetings coming up, and our crews will be looking to pick up as many points as they can in both the series in which we are taking part this season."

Coming up: For the Norisring meeting, team-manager Philippe Dumas will, as in Oschersleben, be paired with Manu Rodrigues. The other car will be crewed by Christian Hohenadel and Julien Rodrigues. Nüremberg will play host to races in the ADAC GT Masters, DTM and F3 Euro Series categories.

The meeting is expected to attract a crowd of over 140,000. This unusual 2.3km town circuit is famous for its three hard braking sections, including the tricky Gründig hairpin, which sees the cars slow from 250kph to 50kph. The GT3 cars will probably be lapping in barely 50 seconds!

For three consecutive weekends the Hexis Racing team went back and forth between Germany and Italy. Gautier, the team's trucky told us about his adventures on the road to Monza: "The shortest road from Oschersleben to Milan goes through Switzerland," he said.

"On the way in we filled out the customs forms with no problem. But we got stuck at the border between Switzerland and Italy, which is little more than 50 km from Monza.

The Italians didn't want to let us in! Apparently the Swiss customs officer had made such a cock up of the paperwork that we weren't allowed to enter Italy, France or Austria, or even to return to Germany! Net result: we were stuck in Switzerland [Editor's note: this is not a lot of fun in a country with no race track when you have three Aston Martins in your trailer!]

After talking it over with Anthony, who was with me, we decided to make for the French border, figuring that we'd have a better chance of convincing them that we were Frenchmen wanting to get back into France.

There was nobody at the border crossing when we got there, so we drove straight through with no problem. But that Swiss blunder cost us 16 hours and an extra 1000 kms on the trip counter! We took no chances on the way back from Monza - we went through Austria instead!"

Côme Ledogar, winner of the coveted ACO/Auto Hebdo Scholarship Trophy this winter, is one of several up and coming drivers competing in the new Formul’Academy Euro Series. He has also joined Hexis Racing as a mechanic. He takes care of tyres and fuel for the Aston Martin driven by Fred Mako and Jean-Claude Lagniez in the European FIA GT3 championship.

This job fits in perfectly with his schedule of driving and schooling, for which he hopes to specialise in mechanical engineering. Already in the points after the first four races of the season (in Lédenon and Pau), Côme crossed an important threshold in Magny-Cours.

Driving in front of the French F1 Grand Prix crowd, he swept the board in race 2, taking victory after having qualified in pole position and clocking the fastest lap in the race! The trophy presented to him at Magny by Sébastien Bourdais will soon be joined by others on his mantelpiece, of that we feel sure!

At Nürburgring, Hexis Racing entertained some forty clients of Hexis's new German subsidiary. The event took place in the Aston Martin Racing reception facility. A similar event is being planned for the Norisring, this time in partnership with ADAC, the powerful club which organises the DTM. Squeezed between these two events Hexis Racing organised a 'day of thrills' on the Lédenon circuit, to which 25 VIP guest had been invited by Thomas Accary's sponsor Euro Négoce.

Will Hexis Racing be the star of a TV show? The team has been taking part in filming for the BBC's Top Gear series. The first sequences shot at Zolder in Belgium are already in the can. More about this in due course!

www.hexisracing.com

- Romain Didier / future racing commm- also photo