Le Man Series - Nurburgring - 16th July 2006

An overview

There could be a battle royal here this weekend, the three Ferraris, the LNT Panozes and the lead Autorlando Porsche all looking fast, with the Spykers fielding their usual silver and orange dark horses too.

The lights go green and the GT2 train is headed by the #83 and #97 Ferraris followed by Warren Hughes and Rob Bell’s #81 Panoz. Lap 3 and the lead pair have pulled away a little from the chasing pack, the top 6 though are all lapping in the 1:48s.

Lap 8 - the Ferrari pair leading the class are pulling away from the Panoz. Up from 12th to sixth in class meanwhile is Richard Dean, the #82 Panoz closing in on Camathias and Sugden ahead.

Warren Hughes pits after just 32 minutes from third in GT2 in the #81 Panoz. It’s a Ferrari 430 1,2,3 in GT2 Bellicchi, Drudi, Sugden (spot the Yorkshireman in that line-up!)

Dean spins away 5th in GT2 and is struggling to rejoin, both Panoz have hit trouble within 5 minutes of each other. Dean loses almost a full minute and 11 places before rejoining. He has reported to the team that he was hit by a Ferrari – the GT2 ones were in front of him, so it must have been his friend from qualifying – Peter Kox. Rob Bell tells us that his car has some kind of throttle cable problem.

At the end of the first hour, the Team LNT Panoz cars are in 11th (#82) and 17th (#81).

Come the pit-stops, Dean pits from fourth in class to hand over to Marc Hynes.

The end of hour 2, #82 is 8th and #81 is 16th.

Marc Hynes completes the latest GT2 pit sequence having brought the #82 Panoz back up as far as third in class before his routine stop 2 hours 45 minutes into the race.

Hour 3: 6th and 13th for #82 and #81 respectively.
The first safety car comes out with 2:13 to go. The reason appears to be the stranded Thierry Perrier Porsche.

Hour 4: #82 running in 8th with #81 13th.

Richard Dean has taken the Panoz to sixth overall with a move on Narac. The next five are all at least a lap ahead though, the lead duo of Cioci and Lieb are two. Hezemans and Crevels lead Eagling, so it’s Ferrari, Porsche, Spyker, Spyker, Ferrari, Panoz. Hughes’ pace is tagged back to the same 2:06 mark as it was when his tyres were shot at the end of his last stint.

After 5 hours, #82 is 5th and #81 in 11th.

Richard Dean is up to fourth in class after another fine run in the #82 Panoz. His pit stop then allows the #86 Spyker to take the slot with Sugden closing in fast to challenge too in the Virgo Ferrari. Marc Hynes is now aboard the Panoz to the finish and he signals his intent with the fastest lap in the car’s race so far on lap 151.

GT2 remains Ferrari / Porsche Spyker but Tim Sugden grabs fourth in class at the end in the Virgo Ferrari from the #85 Spyker. #82 Panoz finished 7th with the 2nd Team LNT car 10th.

“I’m actually pretty frustrated" said Dean. "On pace and over a full stint we were more competitive than we have ever been but we just had a series of little problems that took the edge off the attack. The most frustrating thing was that we found it really difficult to restart the car after each stop. That alone cost us at least 30 seconds for each stop so all in all that accounts for almost a full lap.”

A more comprehensive report will follow

from DailySportscar.com