Photo : Nicolas COUSSEAU - ACO/Nikon

Rain is said to be the great equaliser in motorsport and it nearly proved itself so for Drayson Racing today in qualifying for Sunday's 1000KM of Zhuhai (China). Rain has swept over each session leading up to China's first-ever Intercontinental Le Mans Cup (ILMC) race which has allowed the No.11 Drayson Racing Lola Coupé with Judd Power to put added pressure on the heavily-funded factory efforts which dominate the Le Mans Prototype One (LMP1) class. Cocker turned the fifth-quickest lap overall for tomorrow's six-hour race with a time of one-minute, 28.916 seconds.

A drying track just prior to the 20-minute qualifying session lulled many teams, including Drayson Racing, to switch to the quicker, slick racing tyres. The 2005 Porsche Carrera Cup Asia Champion made an impressive run on the puddling track but was not able to get closer than seven seconds to the pole-winning Peugeot. The pole-winning, diesel-powered entry turned its best times early in the session on an "intermediate", wet weather tyre.

Forecasts for tomorrow's 1000KM/six-hour race remain as cloudy as the sky but lean towards sunny. This leaves many questions as the team prepares for the Noon (local time) start, Sunday. Cocker will start the team’s 13th and final 2010 race before handing the closed-cockpit race car over to Paul Drayson.

Jonny Cocker (driver): "Unfortunately we missed out on the best of the conditions in the qualifying session today. I managed to get a reasonable lap together to place us P5 on the grid and bring the car home in one piece in the tricky conditions. Looking forward to dry warm-up session tomorrow morning in which we can, hopefully, quickly establish a good, dry-weather setup for the six hours."

Dale White (team manager): "After the morning session when we were able to break into the top-four and split the Audi factory cars we had high hopes for where we'd be in qualifying. But, we rolled the dice on the weather and we came up on the wrong side of it. Jonny did a great job of qualifying fifth and not damaging the car in the rain on the slicks (tyres). We are looking at having a smooth race tomorrow; running our race for six hours and seeing where we are at the end of the day."

Based upon Drayson Racing press release

Photo: ZHUHAI (PRC), 1000 KM OF ZHUHAI, 6th NOVEMBER 2010. Despite uncertain weather, Jonny Cocker secured the 5th position behind Peugeot and Audi in qualifying.