Le
Mans Endurance Series 2005
Round 1. Spa 1000 Kilometers. March 31st, April 1st &
2nd 2005
Race Report
LMES
- Spa - RML Race - April 2nd
A
day of mixed emotions for the RML MG squad – the positive
highs of leading the class, and being one of the fastest
cars on track, mixed with the disappointing lows of being
thwarted by one of those irritating electrical gremlins
that can be so hard to trace.
Sunday
had started with a very questionable warm-up session – questionable
in as much as there were doubts about whether it should
have been staged at all. Spa has thrown just about everything
at the drivers this past weekend, save snow and hail, and
Sunday’s offering was a thick blanket of fog. Visibility
was reduced to less than 100 metres, with the stretch through
Les Combes and Rivage among the worst. It was, in Mike Newton’s
opinion, “unsafe”, and few would have disagreed with him.
“How
can you let 40-odd cars out onto the track when the drivers
can’t see fifty yards ahead of them?” asked Thomas Erdos.
“If anyone was to lose it on the straight, you’d just drive
straight into them.” Mike was equally concerned. “Visibility
was so poor you couldn’t see from one marshals’ post to
the next. Any accident could have been disastrous.”
Unsurprisingly,
all drivers were taking it gently, and times were rendered
meaningless. Thomas Erdos completed three laps in the RML
MG Lola before heading for the pitlane, where visibility
was at least good enough for the team to simulate a driver
change. “We addressed some issues with the belts,” explained
Erdos. “It went well, so I guess that was one useful thing
to come out of the warm-up.” Mike Newton completed the twenty-minute
session.
As
the day progressed the situation failed to improve. The
one-hour Belcar race went ahead as scheduled, but the safety
car was much in evidence. The British Formula 3 race was
cancelled – no headlights, no wheelarches and poor visibility
being cited as reasons. That left some doubt over how the
LMES race would be started, and ten laps under the safety
car was the original plan. It sounded sensible, and with
visibility at Les Combes down to 40 metres, wholly justified.
Strange, then, that conventional procedure was followed
to the letter, and racing began after a single parade lap
behind the pace car.
With
an eye to improving track conditions, Tommy had started
the race on intermediate tyres; one of only five drivers
to do so. “They took a very long time to come in,” he explained.
“I had to cope with massive understeer for the first few
laps, and that was made worse by the track being so cold,
but there was a dry line starting to show, and I was confident
the decision would work in my favour - eventually.” Initially,
however, it did not, and Vincent Vosse, starting the #36
Belmondo Courage, was able to nip ahead on the very first
lap. “He was on full wets,” continued Erdos, “so I knew
he’d be able to do that, but I was also confident that the
inters would pay off, and I’d soon catch him again.” True
to his word, twenty minutes into the race Erdos swept back
into the lead of LMP2. Moments later Vosse spun the Courage
at the entry to Les Combes, and Erdos had the breathing
space he needed.
It
had been a challenging half hour in other respects, with
observers noting that the MG Lola was just about the only
car not running with headlights ablaze. “Oh, the switch
was on!” insisted Erdos, “but they just weren’t working.
I had some problems early on, with no radio and no lights,
but they suddenly re-set themselves, and they were OK after
that.” What wasn’t OK, however, was another unrelated but
more significant electrical problem. “I had at least twelve
total cut-outs,” admitted the Brazilian. “Some lasted just
a fraction of a second, others were far longer, and they
were happening anywhere and everywhere – in the middle of
a corner, down a straight, wherever.”
This
was all to come to a head a little later on, but as the
race neared the end of its first hour Erdos and the distinctive
RML MG peaked at fourth overall, leading LMP2 by over half
a minute from the other Lola, the Chamberlain-Synergy AER-powered
machine. It all looked very promising as the MG Lola came
in for his first scheduled pitstop for fuel and tyres. “We
had a comfortable lead, and that was so encouraging,” said
Erdos, pleased to have been mixing it so strongly with the
LMP1 runners. He rejoined in tenth overall, just ahead of
the second Belmondo Courage.
The
second hour began much as the first had ended, but fifteen
minutes in there was a major incident at Les Combes, with
four cars involved in a serious accident. The safety car
was deployed, and with significant damage to the barriers
it would be nearly forty minutes before racing resumed.
Throughout
that time Erdos was stuck two cars back in the train of
vehicles, while the fog, which had started to clear, began
to thicken once again. Immediately ahead of him in the train
was the #73 Ice Pol Gordon Racing Porsche, one of the slowest
cars in the field. Our sympathies go out to the driver,
who must have been aware that, on the restart, he would
be heading the entire field down the hill towards Eau Rouge,
with nowhere to hide.
Racing
resumed at two o’clock, and Erdos was quickly up to racing
speed once more. He laid down a succession of quick laps,
including his best of the race so far, but on the very next
lap coasted to a halt near Blanchimont. “I had no power,
no electrics, nothing,” he said. “The car was totally dead!
The marshals pushed me onto the apron on the outside of
the corner, and I started looking for the problem. I knew
it must be electrical, so I just started banging all the
connections and the relay cover, and checking the wires.”
This was broadcast live on television, and his frustration
was evident. “I was about to give up, tried one more knock,
and suddenly it all came back on again! I couldn’t believe
it. I jumped back in and drove straight to the pits.”
He
sat in the car for some time as the mechanics delved into
the depths of the “passenger” side of the car. It looked
as though it would be a lengthy stop, and the car was rapidly
falling down the order. It was half past two. “The master
relay was cutting out,” explained Phil Barker. “Each time
it did that it was turning off the master switch, and all
the electrics. After Tommy stopped, we believe it cooled
down enough to allow the relay to reset, and then he was
able to drive back to the pits.” Elsewhere a second major
incident, this time involving the #98 Porsche, brought out
the safety car once again, and that probably saved the RML
MG a few laps, but it was another ten minutes before the
car rejoined the track.
In
the interim Mike Newton had swapped places with the Brazilian,
and when racing resumed once again at five to three, the
start of the fourth hour confirmed the CEO of Dedicated
Micros to be lying 30th overall.
The
car had lost eight laps during the enforced pitstop, but
now appeared to be behaving itself. For half an hour he
pressed on strongly, and then, with the track conditions
starting to improve, the decision was taken to bring Mike
in and make the swap to slick tyres. The change-over completed,
Newton attempted to restart the car, but the electrics were
having none of it. The crossed-hands signal from the driver
said it all. “The temporary fix we’d done when Tommy had
his earlier problem failed,” said Phil Barker. “When Mike
attempted to restart the car, it burnt out the fix we’d
made, so we had to refit another cable.”
The
fresh tyres were removed once more and returned to the warming
tent, while the engineers prodded and poked around with
the electrics. A new battery was fitted, and various other
tweaks were completed, before the thumbs up came from Newton,
and with the tyres re-fitted, he was away once more. For
the remainder of his stint the car behaved impeccably, although
Mike did have an encounter with a slower car on the run
down towards the Bus Stop. The commentators suggested it
was a Porsche, Mike insists it was a Ferrari. “He blocked
me very late through Blanchimont, and having backed off
I was out of position for the entry to the Bus Stop. I caught
a damp patch, and with slicks there wasn’t a lot I could
do. I slid gently into the side. It wasn’t a serious impact,
and there was no damage done, so no problem. If he’d not
baulked me I’d have been passed him already, so I guess
it was 50/50.”
Ten
minutes later, at just after half four, Newton pitted for
the last time. It was slightly ahead of schedule, thanks
to a slow puncture to the left rear. Although clearly unrelated
to the Bus Stop incident, with so many incidents elsewhere
around the circuit, debris was the likely cause. Newton
handed the MG Lola back to Thomas Erdos for the final period,
having completed a highly creditable stint. “Mike drove
really well,” said an impressed Phil Barker. “He was matching
or bettering the pace of all the other runners in the class,
and didn’t give away any time to them at all. It was an
excellent performance.” Mike was equally pleased. “With
that fresh set of slicks, the car felt fantastic, and the
tyres were wonderful! I was pleased to be lapping as quick
as anyone in LMP2, and not dissimilar to many of those in
LMP1. Great!”
Another
safety car period began almost as soon as Tommy Erdos emerged
from the pitlane, but he was able to make up places despite
this, as cars ahead of him took to the pitlane, and he rose
through the order to stand 24th overall and fifth in LMP2
as the race entered its final hour. When the safety car
pulled aside Erdos began to drive like something possessed.
“The track was very slippy. In fact, it felt very odd, and
there was no dry line any more. Ideally I would have preferred
intermediates, not slicks.”
The
surface had been made worse by one of the GT2 Porsches trailing
coolant fluid throughout most of its length, and visibility
had also deteriorated somewhat. Several drivers were caught
out by the conditions, including Gounon in the Oreca Audi,
but the RML MG was suddenly the fastest thing on the track.
Even the race leader, at that time Jamie Campbell-Walter
in the LMP1 Creation DBA, wasn’t immune, and had nothing
to give when the red, blue and now not-so-white MG flew
by him through Eau Rouge. “The team came through on the
radio to say I was running quicker than anyone else in the
race. I couldn’t believe it!” exclaimed an incredulous Erdos.
Fourth in class, at that stage held by the #46 Lucchini,
looked a certainty, with Erdos devouring the Alfa-engined
car’s advantage at the rate of over 30 seconds per lap.
“I just kept pushing, pushing,” he said. True enough, with
fifteen minutes of the race remaining, the MG swept through
to take the place. Was a podium possible? Pure mathematics
suggested it wasn’t, since the #20 Pilbeam was several laps
ahead, but the race had already seen nearly twenty retirements,
and under Spa conditions, almost anything was possible.
Erdos
pressed on relentlessly, taking more than 20 seconds out
of the margin with each lap completed, but with ten minutes
to go the fuel warning light started to blink. In the short
time since he’d passed the Lucchini, Erdos had already created
enough of a buffer for the team to be confident that, while
they now knew they couldn’t catch the Pilbeam, they could
safely call the Brazilian back in for a precautionary splash-and-dash.
“For the last half hour I was trying to conserve fuel,”
insisted Erdos. “There was no point in risking failing to
finish, and we had time in hand over fifth, and couldn’t
realistically catch P3.” Better safe than sorry, they quickly
added enough fuel on his penultimate lap to ensure a safe
run to the flag.
“Considering
all the time we lost to the electrical fault, to regain
fourth is very satisfying,” said Phil Barker, evidently
pleased by every other aspect of his car’s performance.
“It secures some valuable points to take forward into the
next round, when we’re confident we’ll have all these problems
resolved.” It transpired that the gremlin had first revealed
itself during the morning warm-up, but with no way of identifying
the source of such an irregular and intermittent fault,
the team had been given no alternative but to start the
race regardless. “We couldn’t hope to identify the source
until it did it again, unfortunately, in the race.”
Mike
Newton was beaming from ear to ear, having been assured
that he’d set the car’s fastest lap of the race. “I’m absolutely
delighted. Despite the electrical problem, we had the pace
to win today. Tommy established a good lead, and then I
was consistently amongst the quickest drivers in the class
for my session as well. I have every confidence that I would
have handed the car back in the same position had we not
encountered those problems. That’s enormously encouraging
for the rest of the season.”
That
season takes a sidestep in six week’s time, when the squad
heads over to Le Mans for the official test weekend, followed
a fortnight later by the 24 Hours.
Marcus Potts
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