KARUN CHANDHOK’S JRM RACING QUALIFIES IN 6TH POSITION FOR 

THE 6 HOURS OF FUJI

Qualifying session:

20 Minutes – 6^th position

Fastest lap:   1:30.410

October 13, 2012, Fuji, Japan: Indian racing star Karun Chandhok and his JRM Racing will start the Six Hours of Fuji, the seventh round of the FIA World Endurance Championship, from third in class and sixth overall on the grid. David Brabham was in the HPD ARX 03a hot seat for qualifying for the first time since the season opening race in Sebring and set a best time of 1:30.410 on his fourth lap on track.

It had been a very positive start to the day as JRM Racing claimed the fastest privateer spot and P4 overall in the third practice session. David drove car #22 during the whole of the session, completing 20 laps and setting a best time of 1:30.432.

Tomorrow’s race will be the first time in 24 years that endurance racing reverberates round the foothills of Mount Fuji. The Six Hour race will be the penultimate round of the season and JRM Racing will seek to regain ground in the privateers’ championship, in which it is currently third, only 31 points behind second-placed Strakka Racing. 

Karun Chandhok, who is driving in Fuji for the first time, added, “I’ve really enjoyed my first laps at Fuji. I’ve never raced here before so having the test on Wednesday was a big advantage as I could learn the track before we got into the race preparation. It’s a great circuit, with some quick flowing corners, particularly turn three, the kink, which puts you under a lot of pressure in the car. It looks a close battle between all the privateer teams, as usual. It doesn't seem too bad regarding traffic here: you get cars and they do get in the way and for the qualifying session it could be bad, but for the race it will be better than some other places. Our aim will be to beat the privateer team’s and I am confident we can.”

Nigel Stepney, team manager and chief engineer, said, “We have had a strong pace during the whole week here in Japan, both at the Collective Test on Wednesday and during the race weekend, but unfortunately we could not set a lap like the one we did on Wednesday, going below 1 minute 30 seconds. We wanted to do two timed laps straight away but we picked up traffic and we had to lift to make a gap. All the same we're happy with the car's pace for tomorrow's race. A six hour race is long and we are okay on strategy for that so there is every reason to be positive.”

James Rumsey, team principal, commented, “Third overall in the privateer class is not too bad; if we can match that tomorrow we would be relatively happy. We have the speed in the car, as we showed on the Collective Test on Wednesday and this morning and we are confident in strategy, tyre wear and fuel consumption. We are starting in a good position near the front and we know we have a strong race pace, so we are looking forward to tomorrow and keeping positive.”

 You can watch live streaming of the Race at www.fiawec.com starting 7:30AM on Sunday