At The Chequered Flag ..

That was a good day’s racing for us endurance racing fans with a brilliant finale. During the last session McNish took over the #2 Audi had a brief spin and therefore needed a rapid pit stop for fresh tyres. He then set off in style after Treluyer in the #1 Audi. McNish got his head down with these fresh tyres and set about chipping ( hacking?) away at Treluyer’s 35 second lead. There were only around 30 mins to go and McNish set about the task with relish. The Team had told us that there were no team orders ( how refreshing !) and the McNish car was closing on the apparently slowing Treluyer car. Are Audi looking at a ‘Grandstand Finish’? With eight minutes to go McNish banged in the fastest lap of the race .. this was amazing.

Another great scrap shaped up in LM GTE Am between Rees in the #50 Chevrolet and the #81 Ferrari ! We had wondered why the ‘Vette seemed to off the pace but it may well have been straightforward tactics and things were unwinding rather well for them! But with five mins to go the #50 Corvette touched the #81 Ferrari and dented the back end and the tyre let go. Game over!

Back at the front McNish took the lead with 4:34 mins to go. The battle really came down to a very determined McNish with fresh tyres and Treluyer, no doubt just as determined, but suffering from ‘worn’ tyres.

So after 197 laps the provisional results are

1. #2 Audi Sport Team Joest
2. #1 Audi Sport Team Joest
3. #8 Toyota Racing
4. #7 Toyota Racing
5. #12 Rebellion Lola
6. #13 Rebellion Lola

LMP2

1. #24 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan
2. #25 Delta ADR Oreca
3. #41 Greaves M/sport Zytek Nissan
4. #49 Pecom Racing Oreca
5. #35 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan
6. #47 KCMG Morgan-Nissan
7. #26 G-Drive Oreca
8. #45 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan
9. #32 Lotus

LMGTE Pro

1. #97 Aston Martin Racing
2. #71 AF Corse Ferrari
3. #99 Aston Martin Racing
4. #92 Porsche Team Manthey
5. #51 AF Corse Ferrari
6. #91 Porsche Team Manthey

LMGT Am

1. #95 Aston Martin Racing
2. #50 Larbre Competition Corvette
3. #81 8 Star Ferrari
4. #96 Aston Martin Racing
5. #88 Proton Competition Porsche
6. #57 Krohn Racing Porsche
7. #76 IMSA Porsche
8. #61 AF Corse Ferrari

So to sum it all up.. There was fascinating racing all the way through but the lst 30 minutes were quite special! Audi did precisely what Audi do so well.. winning endurance races! In some ways Toyota may be a bit disappointed because they were using last year’s car up against Audi’s 2013 Model. While there is no chance of a car like the Rebellion Lola winning outright for the time being they put on a hugely professional show.

LMP2 As always gave the purists some excellent racing. While the LMP1 cars always steal the limelight on TV and commentary, but the LMP2 Class is now a serious force to be reckoned with.

LMGTPro… there was a time, not long ago, that it was a bit tricky taking the Aston Martin Racing efforts too seriously.. but how things have changed. This was a superb performance from the team in both Pro and Am. Ferrari must be concerned, not just because Astons are flying but because Porsche are back, albeit with last year’s engine but the two factory cars will have been pleased with their first serious outing in GT racing this year.

Roll on Spa .. we will hopefully be there so watch this space ..

Silverstone Six Hours Snippets !

Regarding ‘Full Course Yellow’ flags!

We have just spoken with one of senior UK based International Clerks of The Course about the ‘Full Course Yellow’ situation. We don’t see this in National UK Racing but it is common in the US and elsewhere. It is a quick and effective way of sorting out a minor problem, like on this occasion debris on the track, that in the Clerk’s point of view doesn't warrant deploying the safety car but achieving much the same result of slowing down the cars and protecting the marshals. The race leader controls the speed of the following pack. It is quicker to sort out than a safety car period. Clearly more complex or serious situations would involve the safety car.

Regarding the new and innovative (?) qualifying procedure.

It seems that the FIAWEC will be sticking with the idea for the next round at Spa.. but this time they will be easing the pressure by making the session 30 minutes instead of 20 minutes. There is also time between this and the next round to ‘fine tune’ the timing software.   

FIA WEC Silverstone - After Four Hours …

I know this may be hard to believe but not a great lot has happened during this middle section. However this is often the case with these longer races, they tend to unravel towards the end when the various tactics emerge. We have a suspicion this is possibly when some of the team managers find out as well.

There was a short sharp shower at the start of this part of the race. Interestingly we have hearing about Michelin’s crafty ‘Intermediate’ tyre. They refer to it as being a ‘Hybrid’. They call them ‘Treadless Intermediates’ and tell us that they allow the drivers to run in damp or wet conditions, and even on patches of dry asphalt, in the place of conventional ‘patterned’ intermediates . As far as we can tell it has a clever, pretty soft, compound that sort of squeegees the water away without the need for a tread pattern. If this sounds a bit unlikely it isn’t April 1^st so we think it is true.. Toyota used them for a brief period and came back in because they didn’t appear to work. Word is that Michelin don’t really have a ‘proper’ wet tyre that works on very wet tracks. Audi also used them during qualifying.

Back to the plot .. as we said not much has really changed. The Audis seem to be running like clockwork ahead of the two Toyotas. At the moment their lap times are much the same so one suspects that Audi are doing enough to control the race and maintain the right sort of buffer in case of a crisis. Then we have the two Rebellion cars doing what they do best.. we do wonder how they would fair with a hybrid since they are clearly a talented team with good set of drivers.

Strakka as we mentioned are out of it and retired.

In LMP2 the leader board has hardly changed during the race so far.

LMGTEPro is still led by the #97 Aston Martin which was 1’01.694 secs ahead of the #71 AF Corse Ferrari, who in turn is still ahead of the #92 Porsche.

In LMGTEAm Aston Martin’s impressive weekend continues with the #95 car a lap ahead of the #51 Ferrari ..

There have no more retirements.

LMP1

1. #1 Audi Sport Team Joest
2. #2 Audi Sport Team Joest
3. #8 Toyota Racing
4. #7 Toyota Racing
5. #12 Rebellion Lola
6. #13 Rebellion Lola

LMP2

1. #24 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan
2. #25 Delta ADR Oreca
3. #35 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan
4. #49 Pecom Racing Oreca
5. #47 KCMG Morgan-Nissan
6. #41 Greaves M/sport Zytek Nissan
7. #26 G-Drive Oreca
8. #49 Pecom Racing Oreca
9. #45 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan
10. #32 Lotus

LMGTE Pro

1. #97 Aston Martin Racing
2. #71 AF Corse Ferrari
3. #92 Porsche Team Manthey
4. #99 Aston Martin Racing
5. #51 AF Corse Ferrari
6. #91 Porsche Team Manthey

LMGT Am

1. #95 Aston Martin Racing
2. #81 8 Star Ferrari
3. #50 Labre Competition Corvette
4. #88 Proton Competition Porsche
5. #57 Krohn Racing Porsche
6. #76 IMSA Porsche
7. #96 Aston Martin Racing
8. #61 AF Corse Ferrari

There are a few cars/drivers that have had to visit the ‘naughty step’.. #96 Aston Martin earned itself a 30 sec ‘Stop Go’ penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

#49 Pecom Racing Oreca driven by Minassian won a straightforward ‘ Stop Go’ penalty having been deemed responsible for hitting #32 Lotus… a bit unlucky when you think how many laps the #32 Lotus has actually done!

#88 Proton Competition Porsche driven by Christian Ried also picked up a 30 sec

 ‘Stop Go’ penalty for speeding in the pitlane.

FIAWEC Silverstone: First 2 hours.

The first 120 minutes of WEC 2013.

Those of you who saw anything of yesterday’s racing would think we were on a different planet. The rain has held off apart from a few drips over the last couple of hours. There is ferocious wind which would have come in handy yesterday. There is healthy looking crowd and we look set for a cracking race. As we have seen before these ‘Endurance’ races seem to start with an all-out sprint and today was no exception !! However things did begin to settle down and it came as no huge surprise to see the two Audis looking fairly comfortably ahead of the Toyotas who were some way off the pace of the two ‘new’ Audis. As usual the Audi boys seem calmly in control as always.

However as I write at @14:13hrs heavy rain started and this caught out several teams.. more of that later.

The Toyotas seem to be off the pace for some reason and when Wurtz (#7 Toyota) was interviewed he was unhappy with the tyres and handling.. it kind of showed!

In LMP2 it was hard to pick up the action since the RLM team never seem to mention them unless they crash! The Lotus’ have not impressed today, they have spent quite a bit of time in the warmth and comfort of their pit garages. #31 car has subsequently retired hurt and the #32 car was still running at the two hour mark but a mere 56 laps behind the leaders

Strakka Racing have had a bad day all round something broke, possibly in the front suspension, and it assaulted the #61 Ferrari.( and came off worse!) They have retired the car and are probably on their way home as we speak !

The GT’s have been giving us some rather good racing. There were three Astons at the front of the Pro/Am grid but at some point soon after the start the #96 LM GTE Am car slipped back. After two hours the LM GTE Pro Class was led by the #97 Aston Martin that had led from the start. The new Porsches that showed all that promise in practice have not, so far, come up with the goods and were running 4^th and 6^th . This meant the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia was running 2^nd some 18 seconds behind the leading Aston. Then came the #71 AF Corse Ferrari. So Ferrari will be satisfied with the work so far. But they don’t currently have any answer to the #97 Aston.

In LMGT Am it was Aston in the lead again. This time it as the #95 car which at the two hour mark had a very healthy lead over the #88 Proton Porsche. This time the Ferraris were being outclassed by Aston, Porsche and the Corvette.

Life is not easy by the fact that all the Astons look the same , so confusion can arise !

LMP1

1. #2 Audi Sport Team Joest
2. #1 Audi Sport Team Joest
3. #8 Toyota Racing
4. #7 Toyota Racing
5. #12 Rebellion Lola
6. #13 Rebellion Lola
7. #21 Strakka Racing

LMP2

1. #26 G-Drive Racing Oreca
2. #25 Delta ADR Oreca
3. #24 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan
4. #35 OAK Racing Morgan-Nissan
5. #47 KCMG Morgan-Nissan
6. #41 Greaves M/sport Zytek Nissan
7. #45 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan
8. #49 Pecom Racing Oreca
9. #31 Lotus
10. #32 Lotus

LMGTE Pro

1. #97 Aston Martin Racing
2. #51 AF Corse Ferrari
3. #71 AF Corse Ferrari
4. #92 Porsche Team Manthey
5. #99 Aston Martin Racing
6. #91 Porsche Team Manthey

LMGT Am

1. #95 Aston Martin Racing
2. #88 Proton Competition Porsche
3. #96 Aston Martin Racing
4. #50 Labre Competition Corvette
5. #81 8 Star Ferrari
6. #57 Krohn Racing Porsche
7. #76 IMSA Porsche
8. #61 AF Corse Ferrari

So only two retirements the #31 Lotus T128 and the #21 Strakka Racing HPD ARX 03c Honda

ELMS SILVERSTONE 3 HOURS

The 'support' race for the WEC tomorrow was a soggy one. The 23 cars started in intermittent rain with one or two spinners, even on the parade lap.

The LMPC No 47 Oreca of Alex Loan was tipped into a spin and into the wall bringing out the safety car. One or two cars had already stopped for full wets (No 43 Morand Morgan , No 18 Murphy Oreca and No 4 Boutsen Oreca) and when the safety car came in the remainder of the field stopped for wets (the pit lane having been closed under the safety car).  This put these 3 cars over a minute ahead of the rest of the field.

After 25 minutes No 43 Morgan of Frank Mailleux led No 18 Murphy Oreca of Brendan Hartley by 1 second from No 36 Signatech Alpine of Nelson Panciatici.

Hartley took the lead from Mailleux on lap 11.

Nick Tandy led GTE in No 77 Proton Porsche from No 53 Frankie Montecalvo in his Ferrari.

No 79 BMW driven by Andy Smith led GTC.

At 15.38 Hartley spun at Stowe and Mailleux took the lead, No 55 AF Corse Ferrari of Federico Leo also involved and hit barriers.

No 18 Murphy Oreca rejoins after losing 4 laps.

At 15.48 the Ferrari No 53 of Montecalvo took lead in GTE after a minor off for Nick Tandy.

Black flag for No 49 LMPC Oreca of Paul Loup Chatlin for a missing headlight.

At 15.54 the leader Mailleux hit the wall very hard at Stowe and the No 38 Jota Zytek of Oliver Turvey took the lead by 43 seconds.

At one hour Oliver Turvey’s Zytek leads the race, Montecalvo’s Ferrari leads GTE, Sohail Ayari in No 48 Oreca leads LMPC and in GTC the No 62 Ferrari of Lorenzo Case led.

At 16.06 No 3 Greaves Zytek of Michael Marsal hit the wall at Stowe – there is a lot of standing water at Stowe!

At 16.12 Nick Tandy’s Proton Porsche 997 No 77 retook the lead in GTE from Montecalvo.

At 16.13 No 39 DKR Lola driven by Olivier Porta goes off into the gravel at Club Corner.

The Platinum or Gold drivers can only drive up to 90 minutes so will have to change to Silver or Bronze drivers by 16.30 if they have not already changed.

At 16.19 No 36 Signatech Alpine of Pierre Ragues goes into the gravel at Club Corner.

At 16.22 No 65 GTC Momo Megatron Audi R8 LMS of Dylan Derdaele into gravel at Stowe.

At 16.26 safety car deployed in order to move No 65. No 1 Thiriet by TDS Racing Oreca of Jonathan Hirschi leads the race as Simon Dolan in 2^nd place No 38 Jota Zytek had pitted.

Safety car will stay out until rain eases off a bit as there is a lot of standing water.

No 65 GTC Audi R8 driven by Derdaele off again and has hit barriers at Stowe.

At 17.00 rain continues and safety car still out, in LMP2 No 1 Thiriet Oreca still leads, No 77 Proton Porsche leads GTE, No 48 TEC Oreca leads LMPC and No 79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW Z4 leads GTC.

At 17.02 No 1 Thiriet Oreca pits and No 38 Jota Zytek then takes the lead behind the safety car, No 34 Race Performance Oreca now second.

Race could end at 5.15 when 75% of distance complete (but doesn't!).

At 17.19 Red Flag and race stopped.

Results:

LMP2 1^st No 38 Jota Zytek, 2^nd No 34 RP Oreca ,3^rd No 1 Thiriet Oreca

GTE 1^ST No 77 Proton Porsche, 2^nd No 52 Ram Ferrari, 3^rd No 53 Ram Ferrari

LMPC 1^ST No 48 Oreca, 2^nd No 49 Oreca

GTC 1^ST No 79 Ecurie Ecosse BMW , 2^ND No 62 AF Corse Ferrari

Fastest Lap No 18 Murphy Prototypes Oreca driven by Brendon Hartley 2.08.869.

FIA WEC Endurance Championship Qualifying … (part two)

Right.. the nice boffins who know all about these things have finally come up with some ‘Provisional’ times and a grid for tomorrow , these were eventually posted at 14:08.

1 #7 Toyota Racing (LMP1) Wurz/Lapierre Toyota TS030 Hybrid

2 #8 Toyota Racing (LMP1) Davidson/Buemi/Sarrazin Toyota TS030 Hybrid

3 #2 Audi Sport Team Joest(LMP1) Kristensen/Duval/McNish Audi R18 e-tron Quattro

4 #12 Rebellion Racing (LMP1) Prost/Jani/Heidfeld Lola B12/60 Toyota

5 #1 Audi Sport Team Joest (LMP1)Lotterer/Treluyer/Fassler Audi R18 e-tron Quattro

6 #13 Rebellion Racing (LMP1) Belicchi/Beche/Cheng Lola B12/60 Toyota

7 #25 Delta ADR (LMP2) Graves/Pizzonia/Walker Oreca 03 Nissan

8 #24 OAK Racing (LMP2) Pla/Hansson/Brundle Morgan-Nissan

9 #26 G-Drive Racing (LMP2) Rusinov/Martin/Conway Oreca 03 Nissan

10 #35 OAK Racing (LMP2) Baguette/Gonzalez/Plowmann Morgan-Nissan

11 #97 Aston Martin Racing (GTPro)Turner/Mucke?Senna Aston Martin Vantage V8

12 #99 Aston Martin Racing(GTAm) Dalla Lana/Makowiecki/Lamy Aston Martin Vantage V8

13 #96 Aston Martin Racing(GTAm) Goethe/Hall/Campbell-Walter Aston Martin Vantage V8

14 #91 Porsche Team Manthey(GTPro) Bergmeister/Pilet/Bernhrad Porsche 911 RSR

15 #92 Porsche Team Manthey(GTPro) Lieb/Lietz/Dumas Porsche 911 RSR

16 #51 AF Corse (GTPro) Bruni/Fisichella Ferrari 458 Italia

17 #95 Aston Martin Racing (GTAm) Nygaard/Poulson/Simonsen Aston Martin Vantage V8

18 #32 Lotus (LMP2) Holzer/Kraihamer/Charouz Lotus T128

19 #71 AF Corse (GTPro) Kobayashi/Vilander Ferrari 458 Italia

20 #31 Lotus(LMP2) Weeda/Liuzzi/Bouchut Lotus T128

21 #61 AF Corse (GTAm) Gerber/Griffin/Cioci Ferrari 458 Italia

22 #49 Pecom Racing(LMP2) Companc/Minassian/Kaffer Oreca 03 Nissan

23 #81 8 Star Racing (GTAm) Potolicchio/Aguas/Peter Ferrari 458 Italia

24 #50 Labre Competion (GTAm) Bornhauser/Canal/Rees Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1

25 #47 KCMG (LMP2) Imperatori/Howson/Ka Morgan Nissan

26 #76 IMSA Performance Matmut (GTAm)Narac/Bourret/Vernay Porsche 911 GT3 RSR

27 #41 Greaves M/sport (LMP2) Dyson/Marsal/Kimber-Smith Zytek Z11SN-Nissan

28 #57 Krohn Racing (GTAm) Krohn/Johnsson/Mediani Ferrari 458 Italia

29 #45 OAK Racing (LMP2) Nicolet/Merlin Morgan-Nissan

30 #21 Strakka Racing (LMP1) Leventis/Watts/Kane HPD ARX 03-Honda

OK then .. reasons to happy? Toyota will be happy to have seen off the Audis. Rebellion will be delighted to be on the 2^nd Row of the grid ahead of one of the Audis. LM P2 looks roughly as expected. Aston Martin have comprehensively dealt with both Porsche and Ferrari and will be cock-a-hoop with that.

Reasons to be unhappy? Probably #1 Audi who possibly got their tyre choice and/or timing wrong. Strakka and Danny Watts will be embarrassed by their extended stay in the kitty litter and only posting two laps. Ferrari will be scratching their heads worrying about what might happen when the Porsche’s get their new engines and possibly even more concerned about getting soundly trounced by the Astons.

The Larbre Competition Corvette would seem rather out of place back at 24^th on the grid but we don’t know why, if we find out we will let you know. Are the factory Porsches happy ?.. maybe .. they were quick in the dry but faded a bit in the moist. As we mentioned the Lotus is probably best regarded as being a 'work in progress'.

Did the ‘innovative’ new timing system work? In a word ‘Nope’ .. is it a good idea? Frankly the jury is still out on that one. In future the only way to appreciate what is going on in qualifying will be to make sure you can see a live timing screen…that actually works !! Great credit to Trusswell and Hindhaugh for at least trying to sort out the muddle while live on air. Not an easy task.

It is currently 15:41 and it is raining really rather hard. The forecast for tomorrow reckons it will be warm and sunny.. believe that and you will believe anything ..

Silverstone Six Hours FIA/WEC Qualifying

Confused? ... you will be.

Now.. this might be interesting! Are you sitting comfortably? Then I will begin …

Two nominated drivers from each car must set at least two timed laps during qualifying. The average of the four best lap times (the best two lap times of each driver) will then serve as the reference time for establishing the grid. Also you can only use one set of tyres…

To add to the excitement the qualifying session is just twenty minutes long, interesting if there are three drivers who need to do three laps to qualify! This might not work so we assume that the third driver will have qualified by taking part in free practice. Well that is the theory anyway .. let’s sit back and see if it works! One thing is certain there won’t be time to pussy foot about !

WEC qualifying is in two sessions, the first for LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am and the second for LMP1 and LMP2.

By the way LMPC is for those curious Le Mans specials that we have seen on an off over the last couple of years. Qualifying for LMGT is now over and it is far from clear what on earth happened… The teams, drivers and commentators are none the wiser either. Incidentally we hear that The ACO have chosen not to adapt this system for Le Mans, maybe a wise decision!

Now we are ready for LMP1 and LMP2 so let’s see what happens next..

They have all gone out and come straight back in for wet tyres so that is a precious ‘lost lap’. To be fair we have been told that the new timing system has not worked at least for the first session and the times etc will be worked out after the session when the data has been downloaded from the cars.

We are not sure if things are working any better for the second session, we have been told by the organisers it isn't to be relied on. This is even trickier with a wet/dry session, tyre changes, driver changes . But all is clearly not well since apparently Audi got credited with 12 laps but the team said there was only enough fuel for 10 !

So no results for the moment while they sort out 17 official protests ! Come back later and hopefully we will have some more info for you .. it could be a long night for the Race Stewards.

Jox Jottings Silverstone FIA/WEC Overture

The Overture..

So the 2013 Season is up and running and it all looks rather promising for us ‘Endurance’ racing fans.
Something strange has happened to GT racing over the winter. Suddenly most of the premier GT Championships have substantial, rather classy grids and it hard to explain quite why this is… various economies are still in deep and dire sticky stuff which seems at least as bad if not worse than last year so where has the money and confidence come from? Let us not complain because here we are at Silverstone for the opening round of the 2013 FIA World Endurance Championship with a healthy grid of 31 Cars. Also here at Silverstone are the ELMS cars at the last count there were 23 of them. It is definitely a ‘them and us’ sort of event with the WEC cars languishing in the Wing ( F1 Paddock) and the ELMS tucked away up in the ‘old’ F1 paddock. For open wheel aficionados the FIA European Championship are here as well so it is an impressive programme.
Back to the boom in Endurance Racing.. possibly even more amazing than the support the FIA and ELMS are getting is the burgeoning ‘Blancpain’ Endurance Series which currently boasts around 60 entries!

The home for LMP1 and LMP2 however remains with FIAWEC and ELMS. The big guns are here on the Six Hour grid in the shape of two Audi R18 e-tron quattros and two Toyota TS030 Hybrids. For ‘conventional ‘ fans the evergreen Rebellion Lolas are here alongside the Strakka Racing HPD 03c. As far as the ELMS grid is concerned there are no real surprises except maybe the arrival of the Alpine Nissan. This is basically an Oreca 03 under the skin but named ‘Alpine’ as part of the plan to build the brand’s motor sport credibility ahead of the Alpine-Caterham sports car’s arrival in 2016. It will be run by  the well established Signatech team.

Rather surprisingly Audi are here with new cars while Toyota are relying on their 2012 machines plus some serious development.  LMP2 looks pretty familiar except for the arrival of two Lotus Praga T128 cars from the Czech Republic. During free practice it did rather look as if their test programme was still ‘work in progress’. At the end of free practice they were languishing 25th and 29th out of 31 cars.

In LMGTE Pro ( catchy title eh?) the new Porsche 911 RSR has broken cover, sort of! It is new shape 991 body shell from the soon to be launched but the engine is from last year’s model because the road car has yet to be homologated. Still with me? As is often the case the car is not entered under the Porsche AG factory banner but by Manthey. However the true picture emerges when you see the driver line up. All six drivers are fully paid up Porsche works drivers! Bergmeister, Bernhard, Dumas, Leib, Lietz and Pilet! Now that is a serious team !
When we arrived the sun was out and the sky was blue.. might not stay that way .. but it is a start.