DSC snapper Richard Leach was at a sunny Snetterton last week, where several teams from various series were testing ahead of the new racing season. Among them was Generation Bentley and their two British GT drivers, Steve Tandy and James Appleby. We caught up with both of them afterwards to see how things were progressing with the Continental GT3.
When did this programme begin?
JA: “Dad and I had been in discussions with M-Sport in early 2013 about buying a car, but that fell through when our proposed British GT entry foundered. We stayed in contact, though, and placed an order immediately after Goodwood; so late October/early November .”
ST: “I had various options for BGT after last season ended and when David Appleby talked to me about the Bentley project I was impressed. David, James and I then visited M-Sport and had a look around and I was even more impressed. I did the deal virtually there and then.”
We know Steve well through his BGT and historic racing, but what is James’ racing background?
JA: “I had an unusual start in that Mum wouldn’t let me race when I was young because of the danger, while Dad didn’t fancy being one of those ‘Kart Dads’ you see scrapping with each other by the side of the circuit. I’d been riding quad bikes since a very early age and by the age of 15/16 I was cocky enough to ignore Mum’s objections and tell her I was going racing, so I started endurance racing on a Yamaha in the Nora National Youth Quad Championship.
“After a couple of seasons of that, Mum persuaded me to switch to something that had a rollcage and I started rallying in an MG ZR before switching to a Subaru. By 2008, though, it became clear that finding the backing to continue rallying would be near-impossible, so I switched to circuit racing and started in the SEAT Challenge with only half a day of testing at Brands Hatch behind me. That meant I was learning all the circuits as I went, but I still managed to finish all but one race; and every time I did finish, I finished in the points. I think I came 10th in the championship.
“I didn’t race at all in 2009, but then entered the new Aston Martin GT4 Challenge in 2010 with Appleby Engineering. I came second with Ant Scragg that year and the two of us teamed up again in 2011 to take on the FIA GT4 European Cup.
“We won and came second at Spa that year, which was great. In fact the whole season was great as there’s nothing better than racing with your best mate.
James Appleby (centre right) with Ant Scragg at Spa in 2011
“My only race since then has been the 2012 Aston Martin Le Mans Festival race, where I joined Robert Nimkoff in a Generation AMR GT4. We finished ninth overall and second in class.”
So how are the two of you gelling?
ST: “James is my third teammate in three years and I was naturally wary at first as he has much less racing experience than either Joe [Osborne] or Dan [Brown]. However, after seeing him in action at Snetterton this week, I’m impressed – he’s definitely got the pace; and he’s an engineer, so understands the car.”
JA: “Steve was clearly taking a gamble on me, but we’re getting on really well and I think we’ll have a great year. The step up from GT4 to GT3 for me isn’t as great as it might seem, as the European Cup was so competitive that you learnt 10 times as much as racing in British GT4.”
How is testing going? Is this your car or are you still using M-Sport’s?
ST: “We haven’t taken delivery of our car yet – that’s due in the next two or three weeks – so we have been using M-Sport’s prototype.”
JA: “We’ll have our car by March 20th at the latest.”
ST: “We went down to Portimão to test four or five weeks ago, but I couldn’t fit in the car as the seat and rollcage were too tight! I think it had all been set up for Steven Kane. But M-Sport took it away and reworked it – there are quite a few Am drivers of my sort of size, don’t forget – and they did an excellent job; it now fits like a glove.
“So Snetterton was our first real test and I was very impressed – the car’s a beast!”
JA: “I didn’t get to drive in Portugal as the car was being used for a 30-hour test – I think M-Sport have completed two of those now – and Tuesday at Snetterton was frustrating as I only got a few laps. But I had a really good run on Wednesday and it went very well; no issues with the car at all.
“We always knew that the Continental would make a good GT3 – it’s a big, powerful four-wheel drive car and it was obvious that they’d be able to strip loads of weight out without any real problem. and it’s not as big as many people think; no bigger than an Audi R8 and probably smaller than a Nissan GT-R.”
ST: “The whole set-up at Generation Bentley makes for an environment that I feel very comfortable in.”
What is the set-up? Will you be getting much support from M-Sport?
JA: “We’ve assembled a great team – the #1 mechanic is Chris Whiteley, while the #2, Will, was my #1 on the Aston; so in effect we’ve got two #1s. We also discovered that another of our former technicians, Joe Nutter, works at M-Sport; he’ll be joining us to work on the sub-assembly. And, of course, we’ve got Peter Weston as our Technical Director, so both Steve and I are very happy.
“We won’t be getting any financial help from M-Sport, of course, but we had an engineer at the test and they’ll have a presence at the other planned tests; but essentially we’re on our own.”
Expectations for the year?
ST: “This is more than a one-year programme and that might mean that we won’t set the world alight in 2014, but I’m confident that we’ll be competitive.”
JA: “There’s no doubt that there’s going to be a very high level of quality and competition in this year’s British GT Championship, but I want to take the fight to the rest of the field straight away; I want the title in the first year!”
And will we see the Generation Bentley Continental elsewhere this year?
JA: “We’d still very much like to race it in the Blancpain Endurance Series and we’ll certainly do that if we can find drivers.”
MH
