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Gulf Oil-liveried McLaren

22 November 2011 2 Comments

Leeds-based Anglo-American team United Autosports / GR Asia took delivery of their McLaren MP4-12C GT3 race car last week and wasted no time preparing it for its inaugural race scheduled this past weekend.

As a matter of fact, they had flown the GT3 race car to Asia on the same day it was delivered to their shop.

They unveiled their stunning Gulf Oil-liveried McLaren MP412C GT3 race car at the prestigious 3.8 mile lap Macau Circuit in China.

Although it wasn’t the typical Gulf Oil livery, the color combination on the GT3 car still grabbed tons of attention during the weekend.

It participated in the 12 lap Star River-Windsor Arch Macau GT Cup series.

Britain’s Danny Watts was the man behind the wheel piloting the GR Asia Ltd-sponsored development car.

Although the Macau circuit is Watt’s favorite track to race on, this was his first time racing the McLaren in it.

Below is a clip of the roll out of the Macau GT Cup cars.

The MP4-12C handled the narrow street circuit like a boss navigating through a field of 30 cars.

Danny endured heavy traffic and a few red and yellow flags but end up qualifying in the 3rd spot on the grid.

On race day, Watts with hardly any time getting himself familiar with the new car, relied on his experience and continued to adjust his driving skills to match the new McLaren GT3 car.

But on the 3rd lap, this happened..

As serious as the crash looked, fortunately, there were no serious injuries.

After the restart David Watts continued to battle and crossed the finish line in 3rd place – a podium finish in its debut race!

Danny Watts (GB). Age 31. Born: Aylesbury, UK. Lives: Thornborough, nr Buckingham, GB
“I’m very happy with third for the first time here with the McLaren. We’ve learned a huge amount this weekend, developed it and moved it forward throughout the whole four days, so to get a podium on its début is just fantastic and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Every year the standard gets higher and higher, the drivers turn up in better cars all the time, and it’s fantastic for the category that twice Macau Formula 3 winner and works DTM driver, Edoardo Montara, turns up in his Audi. You have to be on your toes, and I think collectively as a team, we did a great job all weekend.

“At any normal circuit braking issues wouldn’t be so much of a problem because you’ve got plenty of run off, but in Macau, you want to have confidence in your brake pedal because the track’s lined by barriers and if you out-brake yourself by two metres you hit the wall. So unfortunately I had to bring my braking point back a little bit, which meant we lost a little bit of time, but apart from that the car’s handling was excellent, really responsive, good traction, great rear end, and overall the car was really strong.”

Richard Dean (GB), Managing Director & Co-Owner of United Autosports.

“It’s a shame the race was in two halves with a big accident, but thankfully everybody was okay. It just shows what can happen around Macau. To get two cars back in one piece and running well compared to some of the cars that were coming back is a relief. Danny was driving well within himself but there were not enough laps after the red flag to really challenge. This McLaren development car was delivered to us on the day it flew to Asia, so we had very little time to get to know it. The fact it came here and ran trouble free is a tribute to McLaren GT and I’m really excited United Autosports have achieved a first podium with the car, which really bodes well for the future. There is so much potential in the car; I can’t wait to get my hands on the new definitive 2012 customer version!”

Big Congratulations to the whole United Autosports / GR Asia team!

Britain’s Danny Watts (Thornborough), brought the stunning GR Asia-sponsored McLaren MP4-12C GT3 home for a superb third place in Macau on Sunday in a race of attrition and confusion, while Richard Meins gained a place from his grid start to take the closest possible seventh in the United Autosports Audi A8 LMS.

Scheduled for 12 laps, the Star River – Windsor Arch Macau GT Cup race was abruptly halted on the third lap after a massive accident at Mandarin involving Frank Yu’s Ford GT, Eddie Yau (Porsche 911) and John Shen (Ferrari F430 GT) with Yuk Lung Siu spinning his Lamborghini Gallardo to avoid the mêlée. The whole crash had been set off by Akihiro Tsuzuki’s Audi, which had dumped oil on the track at Mandarin.
There was a lengthy delay of over an hour as the organisers cleared the wreckage but this gave the United Autosports team a chance to check the brakes and ABS issue on Watts’ GR Asia-sponsored McLaren.

To add to the confusion, the restart was originally scheduled for seven laps but as the cars moved away from the grid, the restart was run under the safety car for two laps with only five laps of racing under the green flags.

Italian Edoardo Mortara soared away in the factory Audi A8 LMS, just as he had before the stoppage, leaving Watts to argue over second with Japan’s Keita Sawa (Lamborghini LP-560). The pair fought tooth and nail over the narrow track and on the fifth lap, the McLaren was climbing all over the Lamborghini trying to find a way by.

Meanwhile Hong Kong-based Briton, Meins was having his own battle with Tomonobu Fujii (Aston Martin DBRS9) and Weng Sun Mok (Ferrari F458), the trio circulating the twisty street circuit bumper to bumper for the remaining laps.

Another accident on lap seven was narrowly averted after two spinners blocked the track but managed to get going again without being collected, as the leaders continued their relentless pace at the front.

With two laps remaining, Mortara continued stretching his lead while Sawa and Watts were comfortable in the podium positions. The British driver was a further 10 seconds ahead of fourth place Rodolfo Avila’s Porsche 911, ultimately giving the McLaren a great third place on its first visit to the Guai Circuit and Watts’ 10th anniversary race in Macau.

Meins held on for a superb seventh place, a mere 0.318 seconds behind his race-long rival, Mok, Richard having found that overtaking the Ferrari in the time remaining was just not possible, but still managed to set his fastest lap of the race in the process of hunting down the man in front.

It was an excellent result for the young United Autosports team to end the 2011 season, and the Leeds-based Anglo-American sportscar outfit now sets its sights on 2012 and the winter GT Endurance races in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bathurst.

Helpful Links:
UNITED AUTOSPORTS
MACAU Grand Prix

2 Comments »

Ralph said:

Ooh yeah bring it back!

The Gulf livery that is…

Unlike the org. McLaren F1 which in my view looked only good in race trim the MP4-12C looks good straight out of the box in street or race trim.

I have to visit Brussels, Belgium someday for a 1:1 viewing of it.
Living in the south of Holland that is the closests dealer or to Düsseldorf, Germany.

[Reply]

# 22 November 2011 at 7:26 am

Brendan said:

That crash looked terrible, looks like there was something on the track. The first car went off kinda of funny, but the second Porsche that went off really points to some oil or other slippery substance on the track in my opinion. The cars that followed also had some trouble with traction, but they would have been sliding on bits of paneling or fluids left from the earlier crashes.

[Reply]

# 23 November 2011 at 10:02 am