LMS - Monza Preview

Think back to this time last year, and the first Le Mans Series race of 2006 had ran in Istanbul. It was a rather different race to usual; the circuit ran out of fuel so the race was reduced to four hours...

This year, the first round’s in Monza and running this weekend, 15th April. Monza had originally been on the calendar to be the final race last year, but was replaced by Jarama because of noise disputes. Obviously these have been settled.

The Team LNT truck (and its 7.5 tonne little sister) set off on an epic trip to the Italian circuit on Sunday and the rest of the team are going on Wednesday ready for the eagerly-anticipated official start to the season.

The usual two #81 and #82 Panoz Esperante cars will be there of course after another winter of testing and development. The last time out at Paul Ricard at the LMS test, laptimes didn’t tell the whole story as the Team were - well, still testing! As 2006 proved, it’s not always about individual lap times anyway, but the whole package.

This year, the package includes two new drivers: Danny Watts who has tested extensively with the team compared to fellow Team LNT newcomer Lucas Lasserre who did a day at Pembrey. As announced last week, Lasserre has joined the Team at the last minute to replace Tomlinson who is having to step out of LMS for this year.

So watch out for the Orange GT2 cars ploughing through the laps to an ideal 1 - 2 victory, but also look out for ex-LNT racer Rob Bell in the Virgo Motorsport Ferrari F430 car - this was a tough contender last year and will be sure to put up a good challenge this season too.

Not forgetting the third, white Panoz ran by Chad Peninsula who will be going out for wins of its own! And of course there’s the Porsche’s... Autorlando Sport won the Championship last year with their 911. IMSA Performance MATMUT will be looking to do the same with theirs.

Team LNT finished 2nd and 3rd in last year’s tables (out of 17!) - this year - 1st and 2nd? Fingers crossed.

You can watch the event LIVE on Motors TV (available through Sky TV and Virgin Media in selected areas). Coverage begins at 11.50 am this Sunday with highlights later that evening at 9.30pm.