June 26th 2014, Goodwood Festival of Speed. Walking around through the myriad of racing machines that lined the paddock, one marque stood out. Positioned next to GT cars that included a Corvette and a McLaren F1, the brand new kid on the block, Bentley, had brought along their GT3R that was competing in the Blancpain series. Big, bright and powerful, it instantly caught my attention. I just had to go and talk to some of the crew…

I wanted to get up close to see what had been done in order to make a car that, on the road, weighed more than twice that of a hot hatchback, and talk to the guys that helped prepare and run a car like the GT3R.

Whilst chatting about the European series (that would see the team win at Silverstone and Paul Ricard, two iconic race tracks), the question was asked if we might ever see them ‘down under’ to give the Bathurst 12 Hour a crack.

A gentle smile and the words, ‘Never say never, we’d love to get there,’ was all that I was able to manage to get out of them. But a few short months later in January, when teams were all but finalised, one surprise – to me at least – was that Bentley would be bringing two factory cars with the support of M-Sport to challenge Ferrari, Aston Martin, McLaren, Lamborghini, Porsche, Mercedes, Audi and Nissan – in the hope of bringing the trophy back home to Crewe.

The Bentley M-Sport team brought along the ‘Bentley Boys’ of Steven Kane, Guy Smith and newcomer Matt Bell in Car 10, together with Car 11 driven by Andy Soucek, Maximillian Buhk and Harold Primat, who raced with HTP in the 2014 12 Hour.

One of the Bentley Boys, Guy Smith (who was behind the wheel of the Bentley Speed 8 as it took the chequered flag at Le Mans in 2003), was able to give me a few minutes during his busy race weekend to answer a few questions on his experience at Bathurst and his career to date.

Jarrod Moore: With little to no data on the track, what were the first few laps like? Were you just exploring the track to see how it feels? 

Guy Smith: The setup we’ve come with is pretty much the standard setup that we run in Europe. We ran it at the Nürburgring and pretty much that’s what we came with from the start. It’s a new car and we’re new to the circuit so we are kind of finding our feet, but the setup we brought was pretty close from the off. We’ve been just tweaking it as the track’s changing as it was very green initially but it’s really rubbered up.

JM: Has it been a struggle to get to grips with the track? I assume it would be a little bit different to most of the European tracks with the elevation changes and drops in the track?

GS: Its definitely been tricky, and if I’m honest, I’m still learning it. Going into the race we will still keep learning it. It’s knowing things like where the cambers are and using where the cambers go. Also situations like when you’re in traffic, where you can overtake and where you can’t. Obviously it’s incredibly difficult here and quite technical and traffic will be a major issue, especially in the race.

GS: It’s just feeling it out, where to go and where not to go. That’s just experience and obviously this being our first time it’s a steep learning curve.

JM: Its a big, long track – albeit quite narrow in some sections – but as soon as you have 52 cars in front of you it becomes very tight very quickly.

GS: Thats right, and you can see that from practice. I dont think that any of us had a clean lap at all, there has always been some traffic somewhere or another. I’m sure the race is going to be the same. But that’s okay – that’s how it is. We’ll deal with it the same as everybody else.

JM: In the weeks leading up to the race have you spent much time in simulators to learn the layout? 

GS: Yeah, I’ve been on the simulator back in the UK which helps, but even if it’s on the PlayStation, it all helps when learning where it goes. Also with things like YouTube, you can go on and watch laps from there, which is a great benefit.

JM: As a driver you would have a fair idea of what someone on YouTube might be experiencing in their lap? Is it just a matter of watching it and seeing how their car behaves and what they are doing during a lap?

GS: It’s looking at it, checking braking points and references, where they are – brake here and there. So you’re looking at it and you’ve got an idea and you can start to pick up reference points and say well okay, it’s going to be somewhere around here that I need to brake.

GS: For example, going down into Turn 2 there’s a slip road on the left-hand side, and you need to be braking literally on, or just before that. You watch it on YouTube and everyone is doing the same thing and you say, ‘that’s going to be a decent marker, just past the 100 – that’s where I’m going to start.’

GS: Even once you’ve driven the circuit, you go back and watch it again and just compare previous laps and different lines and things that you’ve found, and compare it against other people. We also have videos in the car, so we can compare between drivers.

JM: So you can look at the video and the telemetry and compare what each driver is doing?

GS: Exactly.

JM: You know what it’s like to have won one of, if not the most, prestigious races – the 2003 Le Mans. Any other highlights in your racing career?

GS: Well, since then I’ve been primarily been racing in the United States in the American Le Mans series, where winning the Prototype championship was great with Dyson Racing. But also returning back to Bentley and driving this car. It has been a steep learning curve but I’m enjoying the challenge.

GS: To win a couple of races last year, in our first year was fantastic, again to do it in a GT car was a real achievement.

JM: It certainly made a lot of people stand up and pay attention.

GS: Yeah that’s right, which is really great. It’s nice to have a new challenge and we are looking forward to some more success this year.

JM: Even though you share the car with two very capable drivers, is there any apprehension when it’s time to swap drivers? As most drivers I know make for s**ty passengers, let alone watching someone else drive from the garage.

GS: Ha, I’m a terrible passenger. But I don’t find it too bad. I mean, I’ve got complete trust in my team mates. Literally, you step out when your stint is done and hand it over to them and it’s in their hands. They are all very capable drivers. I’ve got confidence that are going to do a good job too.

JM: In 2015 you’ll once again be running in the European Blancpain series with the other Bentley Boys, you are also going to do the Nürburgring 24 Hour and the Spa 24 Hour which is part of the Blancpain series. Are there any other races that you are really looking forward to?

GS: Well, not really. I mean, that’s a pretty full schedule. Obviously being here then you’ve got the Nürburgring and Spa which are both 24 hour races, it’s a fairly busy schedule. Maybe one or two races in America possibly. You know, right now we are just focusing on the Blancpain series and Nürburgring 24 hour.

JM: What was driving at night at places like Le Mans, back when you were racing in an LMP1 car with lots of other slower cars? These days some of the slower categories have a radar system to warn them of fast vehicles approaching them. When you were coming up on a slower car with the big closing speed was there any apprehension, or did you hope that they wouldn’t drive through your line?

GS: No, you just have to be decisive – especially if you are racing in a series. You start to learn about the cars and you learn who you can trust and who you can’t trust. You just need to be decisive, because if you think about it or hesitate, chances are you’re going to have contact. So as long as you’re decisive and make the moves that put yourself in a position where they can’t close the door then there’s not a problem.

JM: If you do have any close calls do you think, right, I’ll remember that.

GS: No, because you can’t really hold a grudge. Obviously you just remember, ‘okay, I really need to be cautious next time because they could do the same thing again.’ You just have to be wary.

JM: The evolution of endurance racing seems to be that it’s no longer nurse the car for most of the race, then sprint till the finish. They seem to be more 12 and 24 hour sprint races. Is it becoming more difficult as a driver to maintain the pace?

GS: Not really. I mean, certainly all the years I’ve been racing, even back to 2003, the cars have been so reliable with the brakes and things, so they were always pretty much always sprint races. If you kind of held back and waited, you can almost guarantee that someone else would send a hare out and chances are it would be reliable and win.

GS: In some respects it’s easier to drive flat out than not. But that is definitely the way things are going.

JM: You mentioned before racing with Dyson in the LMP cars. What was it like transitioning from a car with a fair bit of aero and downforce into a GT which obviously is bigger with less aero.

GS: It’s quite difficult. I think it’s easier going to more downforce than going away from downforce, personally. But I’m enjoying the challenge. I think I’m pretty close to where I need to be. I think I can always improve but I’m pretty happy with the way it has been going.

In the final laps of the Bathurst 12 Hour, it was all looking like it could be a fairy tale for the Bentley Boys.

With Matt Bell in the car, the Bentley had been able to successfully fend off the Phoenix Audi with Laurens Vanthoor at the wheel. With just 10 minutes left in the race, the safety car was once again called…

With the Bentley in front and the Audi and Nissan right behind, the restart saw the Nissan GT-R storm up Mountain Straight and take the lead into Turn 2. Chiyo sprinted away in the GT-R with astonishing speed leaving the Bentley, Audi and now Aston Martin from Bamboo Racing battle it out for the final two spots on the podium.

It was right at the last corner that saw Bell squeezed out of the podium back to 4th, as he was hit and forced into a near-spin by the Aston Martin, crossing the line behind it and the Audi from Phoenix.

In their first year since 1948, Bentley had brought two cars to a track with drivers that, for the most part, had never seen the track before, only to have victory plucked from their hands in the dying minutes.

Perhaps 2016 will see the return of the flying B and the result that they so nearly had and strongly fought for in 2015.

Jarrod Moore
Twitter: @JRMJarrodMoore
JRM Photography

A huge thanks to Guy Smith for taking the time to have a chat, also to the drivers and the guys from M-Sport for their patience throughout the weekend. Special thanks to Mike Sayer from Bentley for his assistance throughout the weekend and for facilitating access to the team and drivers.