Le Mans Series - Istanbul 715.292 Kms - Race Report

Even in a race reduced to four hours (715 km), and with reliability issues affecting two of the classes - the prototypes (but what did we expect with so much new machinery?) – there was much to enjoy in Istanbul, despite the weather letting us down.

You’ve seen the result – a win overall for Pescarolo, second for Barazi-Epsilon (and first in P2), third for Laurence Pearce (who loves Turkey now), and a third place in GT2 for the #82 car of Richard Dean and Lawrence Tomlinson.

There were stories galore throughout the field – and there was some very good racing, even if three classes looked set (for the win at least) with half of the revised time elapsed.

It wasn’t a classic 1000 (715.292) kilometre race, but it gave all of us more than enough to write about.

Qualifying was damp with a few spots of rain over the pit area, it was wetter over the far side of the circuit, wet enough for some to try intermediates.

Most people expected to see the Bell / Hughes Panoz going for pole: as it turned out it was Richard Dean in the other car going for it, although he and partner Lawrence Tomlinson have been very well matched (just like Bell and Hughes).

It was the weather that upset plans. Rob Bell: “We went for a fairly major set-up change at the back, for the second session (a different diff.), so we were a bit late out for that one, and then it was a bit wet – and we couldn’t be sure if it was an improvement. It wasn’t. We’ll probably go back to the set-up of the other car for the race. But the Pirellis have been extremely consistent. I did a 1:56.4 this morning, with tyres that had done an hour and a half. I was slower in qualifying.”

Tim Sugden had hoped to secure pole, but he was frustrated to sit second fastest for most of the session, behind Richard Dean, and third by the end. So the Orange Panoz’s would line up #82 Dean/Tomlinson second and #81 Hughes/Bell in the sixth slot on the grid.

By race day, it was hoped the damp weather would have passed. However, it was still damp at the start, and some cars started on wets, some on inters and some on slicks. By the time the track had dried, strategies changed – and then they changed again once the organisers announced that there had been a miscalculation with the fuel, and there wasn’t enough at the track for even a 36 car field to run to 1000 km. It was shambolic in one respect, but in another.. well, four hours was enough.

The opening hour was sparkling stuff.

Richard Dean had the opening drive in Team LNT’s Panoz Esperante in the GT2 class and took the lead. But the likes of Pedro Lamy (wets) and Dean (inters) would have been happier on slicks – or at least they would have been within a few laps.

Leaders changed in all except GT2 by lap ten – Dean still leading the class. There would be plenty of time, just not six hours in total.

Fabrizio de Simone then gobbled up the Panoz, as the Ferrari’s slicks came in. It had to be slicks now, Richard Dean admitting defeat and pitting the Panoz. Andre, on inters, stayed out, Primat and Berridge pitted, Minassian and Collard were second and third – and order was almost restored.

But it wasn’t really. Vergers was back up to fourth in the Barazi car while fifth was GT1 leader Jos Menten! The PSI Corvette, on slicks, maintained a 50 second lead over the Lamy Aston Martin, throughout a regular one hour stint. This was Spa weather, and Menten is a Spa specialist.

Similarly going well after starting on slicks were Rostan in the Pilbeam, de Simone and Bouchut.

Marc Lieb had taken over from Joel Camathias at an early tyre stop, but this GT2 ‘pace-setter’ was 29th.

Tim Sugden was even further down the order.

The Chamberlain-Synergy Lola B06/10 had lost time at its pit stop – and did so at every other tyre change – because “we lost an air jack when we changed tyres before the start,” said Dave Lampitt. We’d have to wait a while before Berridge and Evans appeared near the top of the listings.

Barbosa, what was he up to? He’d made it back to the pits after the throttle problem, but was way down. But on slicks, he was soon to become the fastest man on the track, a low 1:43 near the end of the hour his best, despite a gearshift problem.

Poor Harold Primat: he was finding grip a problem on cold slicks, and didn’t want to get off-line to pass one of the Cirtek Astons. The two came together, and his right front suspension was broken. “You have to be ready for changing conditions and adapt to it. It will probably be the same at Spa,” said a disappointed Primat

The Barazi Courage? Vergers set the fastest lap of the race on lap 20, slightly faster than even Minassian and Collard ahead of him. GT1 was Menten from Lamy, Kox, Policand and the two Cirtek Aston Martins, while GT2 was de Simone from… the two Spykers (which hadn’t stopped), the Dean Panoz and Marc Lieb. Allan Simonsen had been up to third at one point in the other Aurtorlando Porsche, “but the gear lever snapped off”.

Minassian and Collard were dicing away at the front – but the gaps in the other classes were huge: Vergers to Rostan 85 seconds Menten to Lamy 54 seconds de Simone to Bleekemolen 55 seconds.

Collard passed Minassian, in traffic on lap 26, by which time Barbosa was up to 17th overall. The Creation retook first, as Collard was blocked by the Seikel Porsche, Bergmeister struggling all meeting with a car that didn’t want to be set up.

12.24, 54 minutes into the race, and Tommy Erdos ventured back out, to complete his first lap. Frustrating, isn’t it? 2,700 km of testing, then effectively out before the season’s racing has started.

Slick boys (slick thinkers) Menten and Rostan pitted on the hour, so class leaders at this point were Minassian, Vergers, Lamy and de Simone. Vergers’ C65 and Lamy’s DBR9 were never headed, as class leaders, from this point on.

The one hour mark saw Warren Hughes stopped in the #81 Panoz. Rob Bell: “We think it was a driveshaft.” Rob’s 100% Le Mans Series record disappeared at that point.

And all the while there were rumours of a fuel shortage at the track…. “The first I knew of it was at an hour and three-quarters, when a note appeared on the timing screen to say that it would be a four hour race,” said one team member. We thought we knew well before that – but it seemed so bizarre we were inclined not to believe it, until Patrick Peter arrived in the media centre to confirm that it was true.

GT2 was the most competitive class by far. Potential winners were four; the GPC Ferrari, the Autorlando Porsche #76, the #82 LNT Panoz, and the IMSA Porsche. The pole-position Icer Brakes Ferrari was an early casualty, and with the #81 LNT Panoz and its drive-shaft problem, the only other casualty was Lars Erik Nielsen’s Porsche, which also broke a drive shaft, but was then hit by a prototype as it slowed.

Richard Dean overcame the IMSA Porsche for a first podium for Team LNT with its Esperantes taking third place, but he and Lawrence Tomlinson were “both pleased and frustrated. Shortening the race upset our strategy,” continued Dean, “and I ended up driving an hour-and-a-half at the start, and Lawrence drove the middle.”

The team owner was more than a little niggled to have the interviewer in the post-race press conference suggest that the Panoz looks rather like a TVR. “I think you need some glasses!” said a stern Mr Tomlinson.

So the race for the win in GT2 came down to Marc Lieb in the Porsche against De Simone in the GPC Ferrari.

Both had to stop about 20 minutes from the end, and try as he might, Lieb couldn’t match the new F430 GTC. The gap at the end was 7.5 seconds. Lieb was a little upset when Camathias finished his second stint fifteen minutes early, because he was suffering from a vibration, and making a final slash and dash necessary for the German.

“GT2 is certainly a bigger challenge now than in the previous two years,” summed up Marc Lieb He set his fastest lap on the final lap of the race, while the fastest lap in the class was set by the flying Tim Sugden, but he and Dan Eagling could only bring the Virgo Ferrari home in eighth place. They were beaten by both Spykers, and the #90 Farnbacher Porsche of Ehret and Dominik Farnbacher.

So, a long report to explain an action-packed four hours - but a win for Pescarolo that we always felt was on the cards. As always, there was the complete mix of emotions at the end, but Jan Lammers, ever the gentleman, summed it up by saying that “it’s great to see how the Chamberlain-Synergy team enjoyed their third place.” Heaven knows how we’d all have coped with a report covering six hours of similar excitement. We’re exhausted.

From www.DailySportscar.com