Van Merksteijn took the LMP2 title at the Nurburgring
Ferrari
Modena
Van Merksteijn
Horag
Saulnier Racing
Click a link to go directly to that story!
Ferrari
It’s been a weekend of great results for the F430, competing in the Le Mans Series, back on track after a long thirteen week break and in the seventh round of the British GT championship.
On the German Nûrburgring circuit, Robert Bell and Gimmi Bruni picked up a richly deserved win in the GT2 class, having fought their way through from last and with just one free practice session under their belts. The Virgo Motorsport crew ended the race having completed 169 laps, equivalent to 868.153 kilometres, ahead of the Porsche 997s of Alex Davison-Marc Lieb, whom they continue to head in the classification and Richard Lietz- Raymond Narac. There was also a fourth place for the F430 entered by the JMB team and driven by Ben Aucott and Stephane Daoudi.
Bruni and Bell consolidate their first place in the classification as does Ferrari, going into the final and decisive round of the season, scheduled for 14th September at Silverstone. That same English circuit hosted the seventh round of the British GP championship. There were six F430s entered, with two of them making it to the podium: victory went to the pairing of James Sutton and Michael Meadows, taking their first win of the season, while Luke Hines and Jeremy Metcalfe finished third. Thanks to this result, CR Scuderia moves into the lead of the team classification. This series also has just one more round to go and it takes place on 12th October at the Donington Park circuit.
Modena
Nurburgring Win Team Modena Highlight!
With Team Modena racing on two fronts this weekend, the highlight was a superb win in the Le Mans Series race at the Nurburgring in Germany, while the British GT race at Silverstone saw both cars out before the halfway mark.
"It's been a day when we have really showed we are an International team racing in two countries," said Team Principal Graham Schultz. "The Nurburgring LMS race was a good result and went to plan for us with everyone else having problems, while Silverstone was also going to plan and the cars ran well but went out due to a racing incident and oil on the track."
Nurburgring LMS Win for Team Modena
Tomas placed the Team Modena Aston Martin on LM GT1 class pole on Saturday afternoon, the Czech racer over a second clear of the nearest rival.
"We're delighted with pole," said Sporting Director Rik Bryan. "Tomas did his out lap, set the pole time, then came back in, it was very straightforward. It is a good day for us."
"We brought the car here with the basic set-up that the team used to good effect last year," said Tomas. "That has worked very well and has allowed us to concentrate on other things, particularly tyre selection. I was quite surprised at the gap to the Corvettes behind in qualifying but that was really more due to our tyre strategy than to me.
"It is always good to get pole position but in a race as long as this, with so much traffic and on a relatively narrow track it is much more important to stay out of trouble in the race. That's not easy when the straights are not so long, the prototypes are not much faster than us out of the corners and all of the overtaking is done under braking."
Race
Team Modena dominated the LM GT1 category at the Le Mans Series event at the Nurburgring today, Antonio Garcia bringing home the Aston Martin DBR9 he shares with Tomas Enge home 32-laps clear of the nearest class rival after 1000km of racing, and 20th overall in the 46-car field. At the circuit that saw the team's DBR9 take its maiden win in 2005, the squad recorded one of the category's most emphatic victories to claim their second LMS win of the season.
"It has been a great weekend for us," said Sporting Director Rik Bryan from the Nurburgring, "it is fair to say we dominated the race and the drivers were superb. >From about halfway through the second stint with the car we knew we could win the race, and we had a drama free run, which shows the quality of the work done by the crew in re-building the car after Le Mans."
Tomas was in the car for the start, and in a strong opening stint moved clear of the LM GT1 class field. Antonio carried on lapping quickly, and as the challenge of the class rivals wilted in the heat of competition, the Team Modena crew kept lapping quickly, completing 172-laps of the Nurburgring Grand Prix circuit, and setting a best lap over a second clear of the next quickest in class.
"It was a strange race," said Antonio, "it was tight at the beginning but after an hour and a half our rivals were already having problems, so we were only racing the traffic and trying to stay out of trouble."
Next Le Mans Series Race: Silverstone, September 14th.
Van Merksteijn
NURBURG - Van Merksteijn Motorsport by Equipe Verschuur enjoyed a tremendously successful weekend in the fourth round of the Le Mans Series at the Nurburgring. A dominant class victory for Jos Verstappen and Jeroen Bleekemolen with the Porsche RS Spyder in the 1000 kilometre race was enough for the team to win the championship title in the LMP2 category with one race to go. Jos Verstappen is the new drivers' champion in the LMP2 class. "I am really proud, this is a great success", said Verstappen after the 195 lap race. "We had a trouble-free race", commented Jeroen Bleekemolen, who drove the Porsche across the finish line after five hours and 45 minutes, applauded by all the team members and numerous fans standing on the pit wall. For the team, it was the third class win from four races in the Le Mans Series and yet another great success, two months and two days after the class win in the Le Mans 24 Hours.
The Dutch Porsche pairing showed a dominant performance in the 1000 kilometre race, a historic event in Germany that was first organised in 1953. Jos Verstappen, who had set the fastest time in class in qualifying, also drove the first stint in the race. "We really wanted to go for a quick lap time in qualifying, so we chose the soft tyre compound, which we also used for the fist stint I the race", he commented afterwards. In hindsight, this turned out to be a choice that wasn't 100 percent perfect. "In free practice, we had done 20 laps with these tyres without any problems, but in my first stint in the race, the tyres started to wear off quite quickly and I had a lot of oversteer. Once we had changed to the harder compound, it was perfect again."
In the opening hour, the Dutch Porsche had a fierce battle with the identical car of the Danish Essex team, at some points the cars less than one second apart. When the Essex Porsche lost some time, it was a clear run for the Dutch team. After 60 laps, Jeroen Bleekemolen got into the car and he had trouble-free stints, too. "The only thing we had to deal with was the dense traffic with so many cars on the track, and the tyres had a lot of pick-up, resulting into some oversteer during the last seven or eight laps of each stint", he reported.
In the second half of the race, Jos Verstappen drove another stint while Jeroen Bleekemolen was in the car for the remainder of the race, safely driving victory home. "It was a trouble-free race", he commented. "And a great success for the team, too." For Jos Verstappen, the LMP2 drivers' title in the Le Mans Series is his first championship title since he won the German Formula 3 championship back in 1993. "A great success which means a lot to me", he said. Team owner Peter van Merksteijn didn't race this weekend as he was taking part in the German round of the World Rally Championship, but once he had finished the rally he made his way to the Nurburgring to join in the team's post-race celebrations. "A great achievement, it is just unbelievable", he commented. "I am proud of them all!"
The fifth and final round of the Le Mans Series is the Autosport 1000 Kilometres at Silverstone, September 14th.
Horag
Horag Racing Sees Second Place in LMP2 Disappear in Late Stages of Sunday's 1,000 Kilometers of Nurburgring
NURBURG, Germany - S&S Power plans to build the fastest roller coaster in the world, the Racecoaster, on the grounds of the Nurburgring next year. On Sunday Horag Racing experienced a wild ride of its own there in the 1,000 Kilometers of Nurburgring, rising from sixth in the LMP2 class at the start to secure a strong hold on second place until the last 50 minutes of the five-hour Le Mans Series event. At that point the team experienced a rare mechanical problem with the car's brake reservoir and lost about 25 minutes to replace the part. The entry returned to finish the race, posting its fastest lap of the race in the process, but the delay caused it to plummet to 12th in class in the final rundown.
The trouble struck after the Swiss team had completed 155 laps of the 5.148-kilometer/3.2-mile, 16-turn road course with its beautiful Lista Office and Lista, Making Workspace Work Porsche RS Spyder No. 27. Jan Lammers of Katwyk, the Netherlands, was driving and securely in second place in class, as the No. 27 was in ninth overall and it had a one-lap advantage over the third-place LMP2 car, the Saulnier Racing Racing Pescarolo Judd of Pierre Ragues. No one could catch the Porsche RS Spyder that dominated the class on Sunday and went on to win it, the pole-winning Van Merksteijn No. 34, but Horag Racing was poised to finish second to it for the second race in a row.
Right before the five-hour mark, however, Lammers noticed that liquid was leaking onto his shoes. That liquid turned out to be brake fluid, as the car's brake reservoir had broken. Access to that part is limited, so the pitstop for repairs cost the team about 25 minutes and dropped it out of contention. Although disappointed, the team was also very glad that Lammers was able to bring the car into the pits for repairs and didn't lose his brakes unexpectedly at speed and crash.
Repairs complete, Lammers returned to the fray and the team finished with 170 laps completed to the class winner's 188. The Saulnier Racing No. 35 inherited Horag Racing's second-place class finish and ninth-place result overall, completing 184 laps in the 5-hour-and-45-minute race. The Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder ended up third in class and tenth overall. The event attracted a big field of 46, 14 of which were LMP2 entries.
Belgium's Didier Theys of Scottsdale, Ariz. qualified sixth in class and 19th overall for Horag Racing on Saturday. He tackled the course with his usual tenacity from the drop of the green, and aided by some good pit strategy he was already in second place in class by Hour 2. He ran in various positions from sixth to second during his time behind the wheel on Sunday, turning the car over to Fredy Lienhard firmly in second place in class and 11th overall.
Lienhard, of Niederteufen, Switzerland, kept the charge going. He fell back due to the driver change, but then advanced back up to third in class by the three-hour mark, turning the car over to Lammers two minutes later.
After the driver change Lammers moved back into the top 10 and third in class by passing Miguel Amaral's Quifel-ASM Team Lola about 38 minutes into his stint. He was the fastest LMP2 driver on the track approaching the four-hour mark. He moved into second with 3:55 gone when the Saulnier car pitted to let Ragues take over. He put Hour 4 in the books while second in class and ninth overall.
Then the problem struck, dropping him to ninth in the class standings at the end of Hour 5 and 12th at the finish, although he recorded the car's fastest lap, a 1:46.459, during the last 15 laps it ran Sunday. It was the fourth-fastest lap posted in the class during the race.
Horag Racing was third in the LMP2 point standings going into this event. Only the season finale Sept. 12-14 at Silverstone, England remains on the calendar.
"This hurts us in the point standings, as a lot of LMP2 cars finished," Theys noted afterwards. "The reservoir of the master brake cylinder broke, and we lost a half-hour to fix it because it was difficult to reach. Otherwise the car was doing very well.
"The car was quite good in qualifying, but we concentrated on our race set-up, which was perfect," Theys added. "Today the car was loose during my first stint, but then after the first pitstop we changed our Michelin tires and it was perfect afterwards.
"Fredy drove very well, as did Jan. None of us touched anybody, and the crew had perfect pitstops," Theys noted.
"We haven't had a mechanical problem during a race since 2005, so we're not happy," said team owner Markus Hotz. "However, it was not safe to let Jan drive with that problem. He could have lost all his brakes and crashed. So, things definitely could have been worse."
The race was broadcast on Eurosport 2 and Motors TV.
Saulnier Racing
Having finished third-in-class at the Le Mans 24 Hours, Saulnier Racing's young drivers in the #35 LMP2 car, further enhanced their reputation by reaching the second step of the podium at the Nurburgring 1000kms.
The Pescarolo-Judd managed to split the two leading Porsche RS Spyders at the German race and again highlighted the quality, reliability and outright pace of the new-for-2008 LMP2 chassis. The two drivers were disappointed after qualifying, where they were only on the 12th row, an indication of how all the teams have improved since Le Mans and leaving plenty to do in Sunday's race. Yet by the third hour a podium became possible despite a very intense race on the notoriously tight and technical circuit which doesn't hand a moment's rest to either driver or car.
"It was a real challenge on track," said Lahaye. "It was a restless battle with no opportunity to relax. We knew it would be difficult but I don't think we thought it would be quite this hard! We had to be very aggressive, even when lapping the GT cars, although most of them were quite respectful."
Ragues echoed his team-mate's thoughts: "We had the possibility to express ourselves out there because we were in a permanent fight and couldn't afford to lose a single second! Francois Sicard, our team manager, gave us the order not to surrender second place and we managed to follow his instructions!"
Both drivers meanwhile summed up the race in one word; `huge', not only for the them but for the entire team and a reward for the hard work and team spirit throughout the Saulnier Racing squad. "The entire team - drivers, engineers and mechanics, were mistake-free in the way they managed the race, pit stops and strategy," said Sicard. "This result proves that your qualifying lap time is just a small part of endurance racing. The crucial thing is to be able to maintain your performance throughout the race, and that comes from good team work and drivers with the qualities that Pierre and Matthieu possess. They drove an extraordinary race. They were under a huge amount of pressure, but didn't disappoint us. Both of them had already proved their strength and maturity at the Le Mans 24 Hours and here, on this very technical track, they maintained a sprint pace without making any mistakes. They gave each other 100% and know how to use their raw talent, while matching it with reliability. Now we're looking ahead to Silverstone and its podium, because we certainly enjoy standing there! The whole team will go into the final round with the aim of keeping our third position in the overall LMP2 standings. That would be the perfect way to end a superb season."
The superb podium finish saw Saulnier Racing achieve its objective and both LMP1 and LMP2 again finished the race. The #4 car, whose line-up for this race was comprised of just two of its gentleman drivers, Jacques Nicolet and Richard Hein, lost a lot of time in the pits with a gear change problem and finished 11th in class at the chequered flag. That didn't, however, prevent the drivers from enjoying themselves on track, which is, for the moment, the most essential thing for the pair.