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Driver Feature: Barton Mawer - Part #1 - A New Challenge
by Stefan Bartholomaeus
April 2008
Season 2008 sees the full time return of Barton Mawer to Australian race tracks, as he begins a Carrera Cup campaign that he hopes will thrust his name into the domestic spotlight. Having spent much of his career racing Formula 3 cars in both Australia & the UK, his move to the local Porsche class represents a new direction for the 25 year old from Camden, New South Wales.
Whilst the more experienced Carrera Cup ‘young guns’, such as Dean Fiore and Aaron Caratti, have stolen much of the early season spotlight, Mawer has enjoyed a solid start, sitting seventh in the points chase, and top rookie, after three rounds.
“I new this year would be a steep learning curve for myself, having been in open wheelers my whole career,” he says. “Stepping into a sedan class was going to be different, and stepping into a championship as competitive as Carrera Cup was really going to be a challenge. I certainly wasn’t expecting to step in and blow them all away, and our progress has been pretty much on par with what I was hoping to do.”
Whilst racing tin-tops for the first time may sound like a daunting task, the stiff, agile Porsche’s make for a good transition category.
“It’s interesting actually. I was talking to one of the drivers in the [European Porsche] Supercup only the other day, and when I first hopped in the Porsche, I said to him, ‘oh, they’re just like an F3 car’. Of course, as I’ve gotten to know the cars more, and work out what it takes to drive them, the style is removed from a lot of open wheelers, but as far as a touring car goes, they’re probably as close to a quick open wheeler as you can get.”
Racing for the Fitzgerald Racing Services team means having Porsche masters Peter Fitzgerald and Craig Baird in your corner; a privilege not lost on Mawer.
“[It’s] absolutely invaluable having those guys there. I had a good look around at our options before we entered the series, and I was very comfortable to go with Fitzy. He’s had so much experience, and we’ve just gotten on really well from day one. His honest and up front approach has worked well with me, and then to get Craig Baird join the team was a real coup, and that’s no doubt helped me. Craig’s acted like a true professional throughout the year, and has really helped the process of getting up to the front”.
No matter which team you’re in though, understanding how to drive these unique German cars fast appears to be a long process. It is notable just how long it has taken many of the current pace setters to make the step from ‘nearly men’ to genuine contenders. Whilst Mawer is well aware of the difficulty of the task ahead, he certainly isn’t planning on waiting three years for his first race win.
“These guys are not fools, they know how to drive a car, and it has taken them that long to get up the front. I’d like to think, with the experience I’ve got, I’d be able to get there a little quicker, but you have to be realistic, and these guys have had lots and lots of miles in these cars now, so it will take time to get to the front. But that is definitely our goal, to get to the front.”
The importance of adapting a driving style to the requirements of the car is amplified in Carrera Cup, due to the limited amount of set up changes that can be made.
“There is no room to adjust dampers, spring rates, diff settings, which, with the openwheelers, it was probably one of my strengths, the technical ability to extract the most out of the cars. I’m not able to rely so much on working out what the car can do to maximise it, so it has been a case of just really getting my head around how to drive the cars. But having said that, there are a few little things you can change, and you’ve got to maximise those few things as well, so although there is a lot less to play with you still have to work at it.”
It is no surprise that car set up would be one of Mawer’s strengths, having grown up around the family business, Mawer Engineering. Having spent many years honing these skills, is Barton missing the technical challenge this year?
“I do to be honest. I didn’t realise how much of that side of it I enjoyed, and that kept me occupied. With the Carrera Cup there is only so many times you can change the position of the drink bottle before the mechanics get mad at you! So it’s a little frustrating in a way, but it’s probably been a good thing for me because it’s given me a chance to spend more time on servicing our sponsors, and keeping on top of that side of things, which at this level is very important.
“I think I’ve been quite strong on the PR side of things up till now, but we’ve had some pretty major sized companies join us this year, and it’s been a real need to spend time with them at the circuit, and organise things. As its been a new environment for me, it’s taken a lot of energy to make that happen.”
But ‘make that happen’ he must. The collapse of Opes Prime has, not surprisingly, left Mawer with a significant sponsorship shortfall. His diligent off-track work however has developed a platform that sees him confident of still completing the full season, despite the set back.
“What I’ve been able to structure with the Carrera Cup is a very strong group that’s called MaxLoc Motorsport, [consisting of] a couple of guys that are relatively new to motorsport, [but] have [a] very strong business pedigree. They’ve created a very stable business platform that will allow us to continue. We’re working hard to find the extra sponsorship, and with those sort of guys on board in MaxLoc, I’m pretty confident that we’ll get to the end of the year.”
Co-founded by Jonathon Doy and Stephen Murray, MaxLoc Motorsport is the entity that actually owns the car, having purchased it from David Wall at the end of last season.
“I’ve been working on this for a year,” Mawer continues. “I came back from overseas, [and] I’d realised I didn’t have the backing to pursue the international open wheeler career. With the support we had, we were looking at first the Fujitsu Development Series, but when a few things there fell through, and the Carrera Cup option came up, then that’s the direction we went.”
With a top five qualifying performance in only his third meeting at Wakefield Park, the #27 Mawer Porsche may just be the one to watch as the season works towards it’s conclusion on the Gold Coast in late October...
- Stefan Bartholomaeus
© 321 IGNITION Pty Ltd 2008
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