Race 1 & 2 Report
The Sumo Power GT team emerged from its first ever race weekend in positive mood, having brought its two Nissan GT-Rs home in both FIA GT1 World Championship races, finishing 11th and 13th in the first ‘Qualifying’ race and 12th and 16th in the second ‘Championship’ race, at the spectacular Yas Marina Circuit in Abu Dhabi.
Even with its cars proving to be 100% reliable throughout the two one-hour races, the team had a more challenging week than anticipated, with this being its inaugural event – Sumo Power GT having only been formed in January.
After its Nissan GT-Rs posted the fastest lap times in Wednesday’s Balance of Performance tests, things were looking good for the race, but with 30 kilos of ballast added by the FIA in an attempt to equalise the speeds of all 24 cars on the grid, the team was justified in its concern that this was a far too severe penalty. Its fears were endorsed when the cut-short qualifying sessions on Friday revealed that Michael Krumm and Peter Dumbreck in car number 23 would line up 9th and Jamie Campbell-Walter and Warren Hughes in car number 22 would line up 19th on the grid.
