Le
Mans Series 2006
Round 1. Istanbul 1000 Kilometers. April 7th-9th 2006
Race Report
RML
Fights Back from the Brink
Thomas
Erdos was first out onto the grid for the start of the Istanbul
1000 Kilometers. The car was in perfect shape, and he would
have been justified in feeling mildly confident of a good
race ahead. Morning warm-up had gone well. In typically
relaxed RML fashion, Erdos had done nothing more than reassure
everyone that the set-up was still spot-on, and then practiced
a few driver-changes with Mike Newton. As it had been on
Saturday, Sunday’s weather was dull and grey, but
the Brazilian had proven already that the MG, shod with
Michelins, was a match for the conditions. The organisers,
however, were in two minds. When the teams started to take
up their positions in front of the echoing vastness of the
main grandstand, the official verdict still insisted that
this was to be a “dry” race. A cursory glance
revealed a track distinctly mottled by damp patches, a reminder
of earlier showers, and with the clouds threatening more
of the same, the concept of a “dry” race was
starting to take on a new perspective. Undaunted, Thomas
Erdos sheltered under an umbrella and concentrated his mind.
Tyre
trolleys were much in evidence as the cars jostled for position
on the tarmac, many drivers not quite clear as to where
they were expected to stop. The grid girls were even more
confused, being directed hither and yon by officials who
didn’t appear to have paced out the grid before the
cars arrived. It was, for a time, chaotic. One car was seen
to be three rows out of position, two other pairs had been
switched to the wrong sides of the track, and at least one
row appeared to accommodate three cars in line abreast.
While all this was being sorted, and with less than ten
minutes to go until the start, the not unexpected announcement
filtered down the grid that the race would, after all, be
officially “wet”.
There
was a flurry of activity as tyre compounds and treads were
exchanged, with time running close to the wire as the grid
was cleared of girls, non-essential personnel and hangers-on.
At just before half eleven, perhaps a little later than
scheduled, the pace car set off to begin its lap of the
5.338 kilometer circuit. It was immediately apparent that
those who’d stayed on slicks would face a challenging
time, but it wasn’t exactly raining, so everyone settled
down to an orderly formation lap behind the pace car.
It
was still pretty orderly as the leading cars rounded the
final bend and began to take up their formation for the
rolling start. Tommy had moved over to the right, but as
soon as the pack was clear of the bend, he pulled back over
onto the pit wall side and tucked in behind Nic Minassian
in the Creation. At least a hundred yards remained before
they’d cross the line, and the lights were still red.
Marc Gounon was line-astern, directly behind the MG, followed
by the Swiss Spirit Courage. With fifty yards to go the
lights turned green, but Thomas Erdos never reached the
line. It was only the lightest of knocks, but it was enough
to send the MG spinning out of control. The Brazilian didn’t
stand a chance. Cool tyres on the dirty side of a slippery
track combined mercilessly with hard acceleration and that
unsettling tap from behind to send the car headlong into
the pit wall. The nose hit first, smacking the front left
wheel hard into the concrete. The arch above the left wheel
split away from the main body, flying high into the air,
as the rear of the car pivoted round to smash equally hard
into the wall behind, ripping the rear wing free of its
mountings. Trailing splintered carbon fibre, the front wing
continued its climb, arcing maybe twenty feet above the
stricken car before landing in the middle of the track.
Amid
the deafening noise of the remaining thirty-five cars as
they roared across the line there was a strange silence
as all eyes continued to stare at the MG. Thankfully, Thomas
was unhurt, and scrambled out of the cockpit as marshals
and RML mechanics rushed to the scene. Within seconds an
access panel in the pit wall had been opened, and all efforts
were being made to retrieve the car before the race came
round to complete its first lap. Out at the front, Marc
Gounon’s charge had continued, and he was challenging
for the overall lead as Emmanuel Collard took the pole-setting
Pescarolo through Turns One and Two. From the third row,
the works Courage had crossed the line in third place.
With
yellow flags throughout the section, it took two laps of
the race to clear away the remains of the MG and sweep the
track clean of debris. The car itself was back in the garage
almost as quickly as its driver – both were devastated.
In Tommy’s case, it was as much with bewilderment
as anything else, but the MG had sustained extensive damage
all the way down the left hand side. The entire front and
rear suspension assemblies had been twisted and bent; all
the exterior bodywork down the same side was beyond repair;
the rear wing and uprights had been ripped from the chassis,
and countless other ancillaries and components lay in heaps
around the floor. It was a disheartening sight, but nothing
that the resolute and determined team at RML weren’t
prepared to fix. After all, these were the same guys who’d
rebuilt the car last year at Le Mans to secure victory,
and here it was again, less than five minutes into a six-hour
race, with valuable Championship points in the balance.
In
a scene that could best be described as “controlled
chaos”, they set-to, dismantling what was broken,
seeking out the spares to fix it, and checking for the extent
of the damage. Luckily, the central tub itself appeared
to have survived intact, but just about everything attached
to it would need removing and replacing.
Thomas
remained suited and ready, shaking his head in disbelief.
“I just can’t understand it,” he said.
“The race hadn’t even started! I was driving
forward for the line, getting ready for the lights to change,
and this guy came out of nowhere and hit me – straight
into the wall. I mean, that was truly ridiculous! It’s
a six hour race, for Heaven’s sake!” There would
be more choice language before the day was over, but for
now all efforts were being concentrated on getting the car
back into the race, although there was a parting shot from
the Brazilian. “He’s a quick driver, but it
takes more than that to be a good driver.”
Half
an hour after the accident the MG was starting to take shape
once more. At a little after quarter-past twelve, while
various body panels were still being fitted around him,
Erdos climbed back into the car. At 12:21 the engine fired
up, on the button, first time. Three minutes later, with
a roar and a squeal of tyres, the #25 RML MG Lola EX264
sped off down the pitlane – not to resume its race,
but to start it. Where others might have given up, RML’s
engineers had worked under incredible pressure and at astonishing
speed to have the car repaired. What was more, everything
worked perfectly. A quick pitstop after an exploratory first
lap confirmed that the car was performing just as it should,
and less than an hour after everyone else had taken the
start, Thomas Erdos was playing catch-up.
His
lap-times were instantly on the pace, and a succession of
times in the low one-forty-threes confirmed that the team
still had a very quick car – one that might otherwise
have been challenging for the overall lead, and certainly
heading for a class win. Sadly, thre was to be no repeat
of last year’s Istanbul 1000 kilometers victory for
RML, and Erdos and Newton were now merely seeking points
– and from last place the task looked enormous.
Within
minutes the red, white and blue MG was picking up its first
position, moving ahead of Harald Primat’s Swiss Spirit
Courage at just gone one o’clock. Ten minutes later
and Tommy passed the stricken #85 GT2 Ferrari to move into
34th. By quarter-past he was 33rd, the Lucchini having fallen
by the wayside, and then soon afterwards he moved onto the
second timing screen – a huge psychological boost
for the team watching in the garage, but merely indicative
of 32nd place. Tommy made a first scheduled pitstop at twenty-past
one, but stayed aboard to continue the charge. He was now
chasing active runners, so moving ahead of the #80 GT2 Porsche
was a genuine on-track pass, and came just ten minutes before
he pitted for the second time, this time to hand over to
Mike Newton.
Despite
an hour and a half at the wheel, Erdos was still steaming
when he got out of the MG. If anything, the Brazilian was
probably even more furious about the start-line incident
than he had been before. He had good reason. He’d
just spent all that time driving a car he now knew for certain
had the potential to win, and that opportunity had been
taken away from them by a rash and completely pointless
move. “We have a really quick car,” he shrugged.
“It’s so frustrating, knowing that we’re
not going to be allowed to fulfil the potential today. The
tyres were beautiful, absolutely perfect, and the car was
handling like a dream. The effort these guys put in to get
the car back into the race was phenomenal. They deserve
some success, but they’ve lost any chance of that
through the recklessness of one man. It’s ridiculous.”
To rub salt into the wound, news then filtered down the
pitlane that the race had been shortened from six hours
to four, due to a shortage of fuel. “With six hours
we could have made some sort of a recovery,” added
the increasingly distraught Erdos, “but now, with
the race reduced to just four hours, it will be far more
difficult. We’ve got to salvage something from this
weekend, but it’s not proving easy!”
Meanwhile,
out on a track he’s starting to enjoy as much as any
other, Mike Newton was laying down a succession of fast
and consistent laps. Not only was there a need to make up
places, but having lost an hour, there was also the question
of whether or not the MG would complete enough laps –
as a proportion of the winner’s – to qualify
as a finisher. Losing another two hours was going to make
it touch and go. Newton’s first pitstop came just
before three o’clock, and went like clockwork. By
quarter-past he’d eased up into 27th place, and was
happily ticking off lap after lap in the one-forty-nines.
Then,
with only ten minutes remaining, the Rollcentre Radical
pulled off, Tim Greaves leaping from the smoke-filled cockpit.
An electrical fire had put paid to the debutants excellent
run, but as much as they might feel sympathy for the unfortunate
Martin Short, those at RML knew that this was also a lifeline
for their championship hopes. Despite being fresh out of
the box, the Radical has already thrown down the challenge
for the season, and with the Chamberlain LMP2 Lola yet to
race this year, the playing field was suddenly level once
again.
The
chequered flag fell at half-past three, victory going to
Collard and Bouillion in the Pescarolo, out to defend the
title they’d won in 2005, with the Barazi Epsilon
Courage an unexpected second overall, winner in LMP2. With
134 laps completed by the Pescarolo, the 70% breakpoint
on classification fell on 93 laps, and the MG had successfully
completed 102 in a little over three hours. It doesn’t
take an Einstein to work out that the MG could, in theory,
have clocked up 136 laps if given free rein and a clean
start. Now that would have been a finish!
Mike
Newton looked fresh and eager as he bounced up into the
truck for the post-race de-brief. He’d hardly even
broken into a sweat. “Top man!” came the welcome
from Erdos, moving forward to congratulate his team-mate
on another solid drive. “Excellent lap times.”
It had been good, and Newton had clearly enjoyed himself.
“I’ve overtaken people today and in places I’d
never have dreamed of passing them before,” he admitted.
“The engine was brilliant, and the car just felt so
good. Considering the mess it was in when we got it back
to the garage at the beginning, that’s amazing. There’s
no doubt about it, we could have been P2 overall, and we’ve
proven that we have the pace now against all the other teams.
Maybe this result is the best we could have hoped for today,
but we’ve put down a marker that the others will have
to match. To be honest, I believe we have the measure of
anyone out there.”
Ray
Mallock, team owner at RML, was resigned, but positive.
“We’re hugely disappointed to have something
so totally out of our control ruin the first race,”
he said. “We’d have had LMP2 sewn up, and perhaps
had a good position overall as well. Mike and Tommy did
an excellent job, and they were the pace of the class. It
was a great effort by the whole team to get the car back
on track in under an hour, and to pick up three points may
prove crucial at the end of the year.” Adam Wiseberg
was also keen to emphasis the positive aspects of a race
that, at first glance, had little to commend it. “We’re
obviously very disappointed with what happened, but I can’t
heap enough praise on the guys for what they did in putting
the car back together again. I doubt anyone could have done
better. There are so many positives to take away to the
next round at Spa. We had a comfortable class pole and ran
a pace that would have given us the class win without question.
Both drivers were exceptional, and everything about the
car was spot on.”
The
team manager, Phil Barker, was all too aware of an opportunity
missed. “We were totally gutted to see the car going
into the wall even before the race had started. The impact
nearly destroyed the car, but we were relieved to see that
the central tub had not been punctured, and the pick-up
points for the suspension were all in place. That allowed
us to contemplate a rebuild, but I’m so impressed
with the way the team pulled together, and to have the car
fixed in under an hour is a credit to them all. In fact,
I’m chuffed to bits. They did us proud today –
not just the pilots, but the whole crew. Fantastic job.”
Indeed, his view of the drivers was glowing. “They
were simply mega. Tommy was the fastest on track when he
was out there – and that’s fastest overall.
It takes something special to do that after your car’s
been all but destroyed.” As for Martin Short and the
Radical, Barker couldn’t – and wouldn’t
– hide his sympathy. “Martin was so very unlucky.
To have come here with a new car, to have got so far, and
then to fail just ten minutes from the end, that’s
cruel. I know they’re obviously competitors of ours,
but I felt very sorry when I saw Tim Greaves leaping out.
I have to be grateful for the points, but I would have preferred
to beat them fair and square. As this season develops I
can see the Radical being one of our main rivals, so we’ll
be keeping an eye on them.” That’s not the only
eye Phil Barker will be keeping peeled. “We won’t
be lodging an official complaint about Gounon’s driving,
as such, not at this stage,” he said, “but we’ll
be watching him very closely from now on.”
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