Le
Mans Series 2006
Round 4. Donington Park 1000 Kilometers. August 26th-27th
2006
Race
Report
Warm-up
The
morning started early for Mike and Tommy, who needed to
be into the circuit in plenty of time for the day’s
first duty; the official warm-up session at nine o’clock.
At just twenty minutes, it’s not really long enough
for any serious testing, but gives the teams a vital opportunity
to ensure that the cars are running properly and that any
last-minute adjustments or repairs following qualifying
are working satisfactorily. At Donington it also offered
drivers a chance to get a feel for what it would be like
when all thirty-nine cars were pounding round the circuit
at the same time. “It gives us an indication of what
the race itself may be like,” said Mike Newton. “There’s
lots of traffic out there, and lap times may vary by as
much as four seconds a lap, just because of the density
of traffic. The narrowness of the track means that just
getting past the slower cars is going to be difficult.”
RML
sent out both drivers, with Tommy starting the session,
completing an out-lap and three flyers, before returning
to the pitlane for a swift driver-change. Mike then followed
suit, finding time for one more lap than Tommy before the
end of the session, when the team carried out a simulated
refuel and driver change before hauling the car backwards
into the garage. As well as making all the usual pre-race
checks, the team was also examining a new tyre compound.
“We tried one of the softer compounds to see if we
could find something that might work well in slightly wet
conditions, instead of the intermediates,” explained
Mike. “They were fine, but with the forecast, it may
not get wet enough today for us to come off the slicks anyway.”
Tyres play a big role here at Donington, as Ray Mallock
explained. “The track has some pretty unique characteristics,
and these vary tremendously with track temperature and rain.
The grip can be very variable, which some people attribute
to being under the flight path for East Midlands Airport,
but whether or not that’s true, the surface can become
very slippery, especially if the temperature is low and
there’s drizzle. If the weather does turn wet, expect
to see a lot of cars off the track.”
The new pitlane has also caused a few headaches, especially
for the prototype teams. The apron is stepped immediately
outside each garage, so the refueling rigs have to be staged
about eight to ten feet out into the pitlane. In addition,
the garages are not wide enough for each car to be able
to stop within its own boundary, so pitlane “boxes”
overlap. This is expected to prove especially taxing if
neighbouring cars arrive for pitstops at the same time,
or a safety car brings in a whole stream simultaneously.
Much as the new complex is a vast improvement over what
went before, one can’t help but wonder if this hasn’t
been a little shortsighted. “The pit lane has posed
a few problems in practice,” admitted Mike Newton,
“but hopefully it won’t turn dangerous in the
race.”
The only surprise to come out of
warm-up was the pace of Sam Hancock in the Binnie Motorsports
Lola, who managed a best of 1:22.447, an improvement over
his qualifying best of three-tenths. It would have made
no difference to his position on the grid, but it was still
indicative of the Lola’s pace. Tommy was second quickest
in LMP2, with Michael Vergers raising the Barazi Courage
into the top three for the first time at Donington.
Afterwards
the drivers met up with Adam Wiseberg and some of the team’s
many guests in the hospitality facility in the paddock for
a brief question-and-answer session. The activities of warm-up
were discussed, and so were a number of other factors arising
out of the previous day’s practice and qualifying.
Mike commented on the pace of the MG through Donington’s
sweeping curves. “Down the Craner Curves and towards
the Old Hairpin the corners can generate up to 2½
G,” he explained, adding that he sometimes holds his
breath to counteract the effects of high G-loadings, and
is thankful that the corners here at Donington aren’t
any longer! Tommy was looking forward to the first few moments
of the race. “The rolling start here is easier than
some,” he suggested. “Redgate is very wide,
and it’s not uncommon to see three, four or even five
cars trying to go through together. Unfortunately, they
don’t always come out the other side!” They
were asked about plans for the race. “We may adopt
a more conservative strategy here,” said Erdos. “If
we lose one or two positions right at the start, it’s
not a big deal. We can usually make them up again later
when things settle down. We’ll be double stinting,
with Mike doing the middle pair, and then I’ll complete
the race.”
The
last time Mike and Tommy were at Donington they were sharing
the RML Saleen S7R in the 2004 FIA GT Championship. That
season they ran parallel campaigns, also racing the MG EX257
in the LMES. “It’s nice to be back here again,
especially in a sportscar,” declared Erdos, grinning
at the thought. “Donington is all short straights
and flowing bends, which makes it delightful to drive in
a car with the kind of downforce we get from the MG. I’ve
thoroughly enjoyed it so far.” Mike was also looking
forward to the race itself, although still had concerns.
“Traffic is going to be the big problem here,”
he said. “I thought I coped well in the warm-up this
morning, so now I’m feeling more comfortable about
the race.”
Back to Top
Race
Start
The
cars were lining up on the grid well before twelve o’clock,
with the start not scheduled until half-past. Engineers
and mechanics with tyre trolleys and tools milled around
their cars as grid girls, photographers and invited guests
added colour, movement and a sense of anticipation to the
scene. For the first time this year the Le Mans Series had
attracted a sizeable crowd, and the grandstands and grass
banking around the circuit held a generous smattering of
spectators. They were about to be entertained to six hours
of some of the best sportscar and GT racing seen in the
UK all year . . .
The
pace car moved off at just before half-past, followed by
the train of prototypes and supercars, all weaving from
side to side, holding back, accelerating, and generally
trying whatever tricks they could to generate some warmth
in their tyres and brakes. Rounding Goddards, the pace car
pulled off into the pitlane. Hideki Noda in the #2 Zytek,
starting from second on the front row, managed to lead the
pack onto the main straight (left), and out-gunned Gounon
across the line and cut across the Frenchman on the run
down into Redgate to take the lead.
The
front row of LMP2, however, was more circumspect. Erdos,
correctly aligned half a car’s length in front of
Moseley, controlled the start perfectly (above), and enjoyed
a generous advantage over the rest of the class as he nosed
through Redgate, still in eighth overall (below).
Whether Noda realised his error and
compensated isn’t clear, but by the end of the lap
he was second again, and Gounon had taken over the outright
lead. In LMP2, Moseley had tried to catch Erdos in the MG
on the run down towards the Old Hairpin, but learned early-on
that the Bruichladdich Radical wasn’t running to form.
A fluid leak was already causing him some personal discomfort
in the cockpit, and by the end of the lap he’d dropped
back behind Hancock, who’d moved rapidly ahead of
the #19 Chamberlain Lola, and was through to second in LMP2.
Almost
immediately, a gap developed between Erdos, Hancock and
the rest of the LMP2 class, with the #40 ASM Lola third
and Joao Barbosa, taking first stint in the Rollcentre Radical,
easing past Moseley on lap three to move fourth.
For
a while it also looked as if Erdos might manage to get Kurosawa
in the #13 Courage as a buffer between himself and Hancock,
with the Japanese driver taking some very unconventional
lines around Donington’s tighter turns (left). By
lap five, however, the P1 car had started to pull away a
little, and the MG headed LMP2 in comfortable isolation.
A little further back, Barbosa was
making up ground, overtaking de Castro in the #40 Lola,
but Moseley had endured enough. On lap six he headed for
the pitlane to have the water leak fixed. It would take
the team just over a quarter hour to remedy, by which time
the whisky-sponsored Radical would be effectively out of
contention.
Thomas
Erdos had pulled clear of Hancock in the Binnie Lola by
this stage, but the fast-moving prototypes were now starting
to encounter the tail-enders in GT2. Smooth through traffic,
and perhaps with greater knowledge of the circuit, Erdos
closed back down on Kurosawa, but had to contend first with
Hideki Noda in the #2 Zytek. On lap nine he tucked though
into Fogarty’s just ahead of the white car, and came
out in seventh place. There was no evident problem with
the Zytek, although his co-driver, the legendary Stefan
Johansson, later suggested Hideki had “lost the mojo”.
Whatever, the net result was a comfort-zone for Erdos, who
now had the Japanese between himself and the ultra-determined
Hancock.
Bouillion, driving first stint in
the #17 Pescarolo, was perhaps unfortunate to be the first
to clip one of the corner markers, and by doing so, incur
a penalty. Do doubt, with the marker gone, others took liberties,
but he would pay the price with a stop-go drive-through,
and rejoin just behind Erdos. To compound matters, he was
then black-flagged for not halting exactly in the prescribed
box, and called in again. Erdos now found himself sixth
overall.
The
situation by the end of lap fifteen was Gounon leading outright
in the #12 LMP1 Courage by two-tenths from Jamie Campbell-Walter
in the #9 Creation, four seconds clear of Minassian in the
second Creation. Fourth, by two-and-a-half seconds, was
Fassler in the #5 Swiss Spirit LMP1, with Kurosawa a distant
fifth some 11 seconds behind him. After closing right down
onto the black and red tail of the #13 Courage, Erdos had
been forced to drop back through traffic and was sixth,
some three seconds adrift. Noda held seventh, narrowly ahead
of Hancock, with de Castro and Barbosa rounding off the
top ten. It was pretty evident that Noda was holding back
Hancock, who’d be out like a cork from a bottle, if
only the chance arose.
That
popping moment came as the race neared the end of its first
half hour, and once the blue Lola was through, Hancock was
able to bear down rapidly onto the MG (above). Tommy had
encountered his own mobile chicane in the form of Haruki
Kurosawa in the #13, who appeared to be having serious problems
with either the Courage or the circuit, or both. It turned
out to be the engine, and as the cars streamed down the
back straight next time around, the Mugen let go. As the
Courage stuttered through Fogarty’s, Erdos had to
negotiate a way around the ailing car, allowing Hancock
to arrive right on his tail. They powered away towards the
Melbourne Loop, tight as a drum, and there wasn’t
a hair’s breadth between them for the rest of that
lap – and half-way round the next as well. Under the
Dunlop Bridge and along the back straight Erdos just had
the edge, but as he prepared for the left-right flick-flack
that’s Fogarty’s Esses, he caught sight of Hancock’s
Lola in his rear-view mirror. There was no realistic chance
of a clean overtaking maneuver, none at all, but the Briton
was obviously going for it anyway. “It was a really
stupid move, to be honest,” said a still-fuming Erdos
some while later. “Luckily I saw him coming, and was
able to move wide to avoid him hitting me, but if I hadn’t
moved off line, we’d probably have both been out of
the race.” As it was, Erdos had to take to the gravel,
skipping wildly across the undulating surface before reaching
the track the other side. Once there the MG was unceremoniously
thumped up the rear by the Team Modena Aston Martin, a car
Erdos had only recently lapped, and then Hideki Noda slipped
by in the Zytek once again before Erdos could recover his
pace. None of it was dignified, but at least the car was
still in one piece, and he’d only lost one position
in class, for the time being at least.
Erdos
set off in hot pursuit of Hancock, but it rapidly became
evident that all was not well with the MG. Over the radio
the team confirmed what Erdos suspected. The telemetry showed
that the rear left tyre was low on pressure, and a puncture
was suspected. Thankfully it was leaking only slowly, but
Tommy had lost two more places, the first to de Castro in
the #40 ASM Lola (visible behind Bouillion's Pescarolo in
the train above), and then the second to Joao Barbosa in
the Rollcentre Radical, before he could head for the pitlane
and a fresh set of tyres. “All because of a ludicrous
and unnecessary move so near the beginning of a six-hour
race,” he said afterwards, still shaking his head
in disbelief. To his credit, Sam Hancock did come up to
Erdos after the race and offer his profuse apologies, but
at the time the memories of Spa, when a similar puncture
had robbed RML of a certain win, were all too vivid.
While
the MG was in the pits having the tyres changed and the
tanks refueled, Barbosa passed de Castro for 2nd in P2,
and then began closing the gap on Hancock at a rate of almost
a second a lap. That task became considerably easier when
Hancock tangled with one of the GT2 Porsches and had a gravelly
moment all his own, and at that moment Barbosa swept through
and into the lead of LMP2. Hancock languished long enough
for de Castro and even the #36 Belmondo (having started
from the pitlane) to pass him by. Moments later, as the
leading LMP1 cars started to encounter their first series
of scheduled pitstops, Barbosa even found himself briefly
leading the race outright, but by then Erdos was back out
and on a charge. Back to Top
Hour
2
The
RML machine was now out of sequence with everyone else,
having made a first pitstop on the hour, while most P2 runners
were looking at the half-hour for their regular stops. The
first to do so was Barbosa, for fuel only, and that gave
de Castro the class lead, until he also pitted on the following
lap. The gap between these two, occupying the positions
Erdos believed, quite rightly, to be his, and the MG was
about fifty seconds, but it was narrowing rapidly. By ten-to-two
the MG was back up to 8th overall, third in LMP2 behind
Barbosa and de Castro, but gaining steadily. In fact, he
was demolishing the Portuguese driver’s advantage
by more than three seconds each lap.
Back
in the RML garage Mike Newton was getting gloved up and
helmeted, ready for his double-stint. “Most of the
cars will probably have to do an extra pitstop anyway,”
he mused, “so being out of sequence with the rest
may not matter, and could even be an advantage.” As
two o’clock ticked over on the clock beside RML’s
timing screens, de Castro closed right down on Barbosa until
they were nose-to-tail – a fact indicative of Barbosa’s
first encounter with a gearshift problem that would trouble
the Rollcentre Radical for the rest of the race. On the
next lap, struggling to find the right gear to pass one
of the GT1 Corvettes, Barbosa was sufficiently unbalanced
to offer de Castro the opportunity he needed, and as they
descended on Fogarty’s, the yellow Lola nipped through
and into the lead. Almost simultaneously, and as if from
nowhere (bearing in mind that massive gap he’d faced
previously) Erdos arrived behind the Radical. It would be
the penultimate lap of his opening stint, and as they swept
through Redgate, Erdos tucked through on the inside and
into second place. That brought him within sight of de Castro,
but the ASM Lola was a good twenty yards to the fore. It
wasn’t enough though. Cresting the rise before the
Melbourne Loop, Erdos drew up alongside, and as the two
cars raced in tandem down the hill, Erdos laid claim to
the corner. He was back into the lead of the class, and
he’d enjoy that honour for one more lap. It had taken
him almost exactly an hour to erode a lead of almost a minute,
but it had been a masterly performance.
A
little further back – well, a long way further back,
to be truthful, since Erdos was coming round to complete
his next lap at the time – Sam Hancock was running
at full tilt towards Fogarty’s when the right rear
tyre erupted in a swathe of shredding rubber and canvas.
Pieces flew high above the track as the Binnie Lola fishtailed
into the gravel. “I saw the tyre coming off,”
said Erdos. “It flew high up into the air, and I thought
it was going to come back down on top of me, so I swerved
to avoid it.” Perhaps understandably, he didn’t
seem unduly sympathetic to Hancock’s plight, and at
the end of the lap, he pitted from 6th overall and leading
P2.
The
pitstop was scheduled, and the MG was running low on fuel.
Had that not been the case, it’s unlikely the team
would have brought the car in at that point. The Binnie
Lola was stranded in the gravel at Fogarty’s with
a tyre missing, and it wasn’t about to be extracted
easily. A safety car was almost inevitable, and as Erdos
stuttered along the pitlane, his finger on the rev limiter,
the pace car was preparing to leave at the other end. Barbosa
and de Castro, meanwhile, had swept by along the main straight,
one and two in class.
While
Tommy was clambering out of the car to exchange places with
Mike, the team refueled the MG and the pace car prepared
to head out. Both Barbosa and de Castro, at race pace, were
told of the situation by their teams, and both came into
the pitlane at the end of their next laps, perhaps only
seconds after the pace car's departure. RML, meanwhile,
had completed their tyre swap (above) and Newton was back
out on track, joining the queue of traffic behind the safety
car.
Still
in the pitlane, the ASM Lola wouldn’t be going anywhere.
Smoke was billowing from under the rear cover and betraying
the engine failure beneath, and the car was soon being wheeled
backwards into the garage. Barbosa, however, was able to
complete his swap with Martin Short while Rollcentre’s
pit crew refueled the #22 Radical and fitted fresh rubber.
Martin then powered out of the pitlane to catch up with
the train, tagging on at the end and finding himself with
a lead of almost a complete lap on Mike Newton, a few cars
in front of him in the queue. During all the excitement
of the pitstop, however, one of the TV cameras fitted to
the Radical had become dislodged, and was now loose in the
cockpit. As the cars trailed past, still at safety car pace,
Short dived into the pitlane to have the offending item
removed, rejoining moments later no worse off than he’d
been before.
Once again the Binnie Lola, perhaps
innocently this time, had indirectly thrown a spanner into
RML’s race strategy. Hancock himself had been beached
all this while in the gravel at Fogarty’s, but was
finally hauled free, and then began the slow crawl back
to the pits on the rims of his rear-right wheel. He didn’t
have very far to go. A 2:12 the SC boards were withdrawn
and racing resumed, although not for the #5 Swiss Spirit
LMP1 Courage LC70, which retired around this time with gearbox
woes, elevating Mike Newton to 7th overall.
Once
inside the relative calm of the RML transporter, Erdos was
able to catch his breath and review his opening stint. “I
had a few little problems with the downshift, and was sometimes
finding it hard to get first gear, but it wasn’t a
huge problem. There was also a touch of understeer, and
after we pitted to replace the punctured tyre, the car felt
a little odd then too, but as the fuel load came down it
was possible to push harder again. The traffic around here
certainly offers plenty of potential for accidents, but
once you get a good rhythm going, it’s not too difficult.”
Back to Top
Hours
3, 4 & 5
As
the race entered its third hour, Mike stood 7th overall,
almost a complete lap down on Martin Short, fifth in the
Rollcentre Radical but leading LMP2. Ten minutes later,
as they came round to complete another lap, first Stefan
Johansson (now in the #2 Zytek, mojo intact) and then Short
in the Radical both came through to pass the MG at the Melbourne
Loop hairpin, but in the grand scheme of things, it was
of little consequence. Third in class by this time was the
Belmondo Courage (now back to AER power after a dalliance
with Ford Mecachrome earlier in the year), but several laps
in arrears. Fourth was the Kruse C65, but that car’s
run was about to be spoiled by a GT2 Porsche, which nurfed
the prototype neatly into the wall beside Fogarty’s.
Tony Burgess recovered the track after a short delay and
resumed racing, but the Courage was trailing bits of bodywork
and cable for several laps. The largest part, a rear light
pod, then fell off just after the Dunlop Bridge on the back
straight, right in the middle of the track, and was promptly
driven over by a group of cars. Shards of carbon fibre were
sent high into the air and across the track, and the car
was subsequently black-flagged.
All
was not lost for the Binnie Lola, however, which emerged
from its extended pitstop just ahead of Mike on track. All
these incidents were bringing out yellow flags all around
the circuit, and several drivers fell foul of the “no
overtaking” rule, including Martin Short in the Rollcentre
Radical. Each was given a straightforward stop-and-go penalty.
It’s a quick enough process, but it was enough for
Mike to unlap himself and start narrowing the gap. “Overtaking
is such a problem here,” said Mike later. “You
have to commit to a move so far in advance that, if you
get somewhere and there’s a yellow flag waving, you
can’t always change your mind. It’s not like
you can shrug your shoulders and say, oh well, I won’t
overtake now, I’ll try again later, because it’s
too late by then and you’re committed. You have to
go through with it, or risk an accident. It’s that
simple.” Another to suffer the same fate was the #36
Belmondo, brought in for the same reason but then reluctant
to restart. It would eventually retire with terminal gearbox
problems.
At
ten past three Mike made his mid-stint scheduled pitstop
from 7th overall, allowing the Radical to regain its full
lap advantage, fourth overall. The situation was largely
unchanged as the race passed mid-distance, and at ten past
four, Mike came back down the pitlane to return the MG to
Thomas Erdos. He’d taken the car out in second, and
he’d brought it back in exactly the same place, in
fine fettle for the last two-and-a-half hours. It had been
another exemplary run from AD’s CEO, and he’d
evidently enjoyed himself.
“Towards
the end I was getting mentally quite tired, and feeling
more and more fed up every time I had to overtake another
sodding Porsche!” he said, the trademark grin was
still broadly evident. “It only went wrong twice.
The first time I was side-swiped deep into one of the corners,
early in my first stint, by the GT1 Ferrari, and then in
the second stint I had a Porsche cut across me at the Old
Hairpin. I managed to get out of the way, but the car was
launched over the kerbs. I was also getting understeer towards
the end of the first stint, so we changed the front left
wheel, and while that cost a bit of time, it did solve the
problem. There were no dramas after that, but forty laps
seems a very, very long time on a short circuit like this
one!”
At
just after half-four Alexander Frei pitted the #13 Courage.
Smoke was billowing from the rear and oil was leaking generously
as the car was coaxed back into the garage. It would rejoin,
but so many laps down on the leader that it would finish
the race unclassified, but its demise now elevated Tommy
to 6th place overall. At about the same time the Rollcentre
Radical made its next scheduled pitstop and driver change,
with Martin Short handing over to Rob Barff, who emerged
still well clear of the MG, and regaining 4th soon afterwards.
Tommy’s
next pitstop was scheduled for ten-past five. He was two
minutes early, but had reached 5th overall. The gap between
the MG and the Radical when he rejoined was nearly two complete
laps, but that would be slashed by Barff’s next pitstop
just before the half hour. It wasn’t a straightforward
affair. In fact, Martin Short was distinctly unhappy as
his crew prepared for Barff’s arrival. The Labre Competition
Aston Martin had run into front suspension problems, but
the team had decided to carry out repairs in the pitlane,
right next to the Rollcentre box, instead of drawing the
car back into the garage. They were restricting Barff’s
access, and the car had to be hauled backwards into position.
“Muppets!” declared Short to the radio commentator.
“They can’t move their rig to get the car back
into the garage, so they’re doing the repair in an
already busy pitlane.” It wasn’t very bright.
Back to Top
Hour
6
Barff
came out on track right in front of Erdos, who took great
delight in unlapping himself almost straight away (below,
on the exit of the Melbourne Loop).
There
was an hour to go and the gap was just over 80 seconds,
so Tommy needed to better the Radical by an average of two
seconds every lap to have any chance of catching him. It
was something well within his capabilities, and he set about
the task with some enthusiasm, but the density of traffic
wouldn’t make it easy for either of them. There was
also the niggling question of whether or not the Radical
needed to make another stop, since the MG undoubtedly did.
“I charged as hard as I could,” he said, “but
I knew that there was still an hour or more to go, and with
the #40 car in the garage, we could be going to Jarama with
an advantage. That spurred me on.”
By
5:45 the gap had dropped to 70 seconds. The two cars were
trading lap times through the traffic, although Erdos clearly
had the edge, but was there enough time left? “Phil’s
radio work today was excellent,” said an appreciative
Erdos. “I always knew exactly where I was, all the
time, and that was an enormous help.” The Radical’s
downshift problem was making Barff’s progress through
traffic harder than it might have been, but he was still
maintaining a good pace and the doubts were starting to
creep in. Behind Erdos Jean-Marc Gounon, running sixth in
the #12 Courage, had just set the car’s fastest lap
of the race, but it was no match for Tommy’s more
consistent lappery, and the MG had a four-lap lead anyway.
Confirmation came through that the race would go to exactly
six hours, since 249 laps, the equivalent of 1000 kilometers,
couldn’t be completed in the time remaining.
Back
on schedule, Erdos came down the pitlane at 5:51 for his
last fuel stop – roughly half a tank would be enough.
He was out again in well under a minute with no problems,
but the gap to Barff had grown accordingly.
Hot
in pursuit, Erdos was going full tilt down the Craner Curves
two laps later, his tyres just up to temperature, when the
rear end suddenly gave way. “I had a huge moment,”
said the Brazilian. “That’s one of the fastest
parts of the circuit, and I was flat out doing almost 170.
At first I suspected it was a puncture, or perhaps a driveshaft,
and I thought, oh no, here we go again!” It was neither
of these. “We have sensors on all the tyres that monitor
the pressure,” explained Adam Wiseberg. “When
Tommy radioed to say he had a puncture, we were able to
say, oh no, you haven’t!” At the end of the
lap Tommy brought the MG back down the pitlane, where a
loose rear left wheelnut was diagnosed. It had become lodged
onto the retaining pegs and proved very difficult to remove,
and it wasn’t until the team resorted to a hammer
and cold chisel that the thing surrendered to brute force.
Refitting the wheel took only seconds, but the extra stop
had cost valuable time, and any realistic chance of catching
the Radical had now disappeared.
There
was disbelief in the RML garage. All through the season
the team had been plagued by bad luck – innocent victims
of a start-line shunt at Istanbul, a puncture at Spa, a
faulty brake pad disintegrating at the Nurburgring, and
now a series of minor problems that once again looked set
to deny the team victory. Back out on track, Erdos was now
complaining of a vibration. “It was probably just
rubber pick-up,” suggested Phil Barker, “but
we told him to back off and nurse it home just in case.”
The gap back to the Pilbeam, a surprise third in class,
was almost 12 laps, so there was no pressure, and the RML
team was resigned to finishing second. Back
to Top
Finish
Amid
the long faces in the RML garage there was also apprehension
as the crew watched the car’s progress on the monitors.
In order to be classified as a finisher, the car must cross
the line and take the flag. Just then there was a shout
from the pitlane. Barff had come in for his final splash-and-dash
for fuel, but the Radical’s Judd engine wouldn’t
fire up. The headlights flashed as Barff tried time and
again the coax the thing into life, but the only noise was
the harsh grating of the starter on the ring gear. If Martin
Short had much hair, he’d have been tearing it out
in frantic desperation as he instructed the crew to rock
the car back and forth, gesticulating hints at Barff on
how best to stab at the starter button. It was all to no
avail. Finally, at 6:18, they pushed the car backwards into
the garage. “I hadn’t left the pits very long,
and was thinking I had a lot of ground to make up, when
I was told over the radio that the Radical had a problem.
I could hardly believe it,” said Erdos.
The
Radical’s lead had grown to three laps, but that disappeared
in five minutes, and at 6:22 Thomas Erdos swept under the
gantry and passed the end of the pitlane to take the lead,
fourth overall. There were five laps to go, maybe less,
and the Radical was still immobile in the garage. “This
is even worse than Le Mans” declared one of the RML
mechanics, finding the tension hard to bear.
“We were able to tell Tommy to finish off the last
ten minutes or so as slowly as he liked,” said Phil
Barker. “We knew he couldn’t be caught.”
So Erdos eased right back, and deftly got out of the way
as the hard-charging Team Modena Aston Martin bellowed by,
Garcia chasing down a 10 second deficit for the GT1 lead.
He’d make it on the last lap, clinching a debut win
for the British squad, and while he was doing so the RML
team clambered precariously onto the pit wall to welcome
Tommy Erdos home, finally a winner in the 2006 Le Mans Series.
It
was a hugely emotional moment for a team that, ten minutes
previously, had been contemplating another race that “got
away”. Their delight was palpable, and richly deserved.
Many of AD’s and Dedicated Micros’ guests had
crowded into the garage to watch the closing minutes, and
they now spilled out into the pitlane to greet the MG as
it returned to Parc Fermé, a swathe of red, white
and blue-shirted supporters clapping and cheering their
car all the way to the end. “It’s like Christmas!”
beamed Phil Barker. “What an amazing finish, and what
an eventful last twenty minutes. For once, everything fell
our way.” Back to Top
Press
Conference
Following
the podium ceremony Mike and Tommy were just a little late
for their official press conference, which was staged in
an out-of-the-way room behind the podium, part of the new
block overlooking the scrutineering bay. Judging by the
poor attendance, nobody else knew it was happening either!
The question and answer session had already started, and
continued with the second-placed Pilbeam squad of Marc Rostan
and Pierre Bruneau before turning to the victors. Tommy
was complimented on having achieved pole in every round,
and then quizzed on the season so far. “It’s
almost been a carbon copy of last year,” he shrugged.
“We’ve had so much bad luck this year. At Istanbul
we had a start-line incident, at Spa - it was Spa next wasn’t
it? – we had a tyre blow-out, and then a brake pad
failure at Nurburgring, and each time we were leading. It’s
so frustrating, but that makes today a very special day
for us.”
What thoughts for the Radical team?
“Radical have shown how competitive they were going
to be right from the start of the season,” suggested
Erdos. “It’s a horrible way to go out of a race,
and we can sympathise. We’ve been there.” Turning
to Mike, what had been his thoughts with an hour to go?
“At the one hour mark it was all down to whether or
not the Radical needed to make one more stop or two,”
responded Mike. “Mathematically, we knew we could
get there if they did another stop, but then we had a problem
with the rear left wheelnut, which was jammed. That was
secured, but we still had a vibration, but now we needed
to make up more than three seconds a lap, and that was going
to be more difficult.”
“We
saw the Radical come in, and thought, we’ve been there
so many times before. We do feel desperately sorry for the
team, but we’ve been on the wrong end of [luck] so
many times, and it has to come our way once in a while.
We’re delighted to have won, of course, but it was
a cruel twist of fate each way, but we’ll enjoy this
one.”
After
a troubled race, it was perhaps a surprise to see Bill Binnie
alongside Sam Hancock and Allen Timpany sitting there in
the conference, third in LMP2. Bill Binnie credited his
team’s improved fortunes mid-race to the fact he’d
changed his new boots for an old pair that he’d last
worn when winning LMP2 at Le Mans in 2004. Whether he believed
these had brought good luck to his squad, or deluged Rollcentre
with bad, wasn’t clear, but Mike was heard to say
that he preferred the idea of Bill Binnie’s boots
over Bob Berridge’s lucky underpants any day!
With their official duties over the
RML duo walked back to the team hospitality, wafting champagne
fumes and toting impressive silverware, where they were
met by a cheering mob . . . and another inquisition from
Adam Wiseberg. It was a pleasant and light-hearted way to
round off the day. “We benefited from Radical’s
misfortune,” said a philosophical Wiseberg. “It’s
our first win in the Le Mans Series this season, and we’re
now leading the championship, both drivers’ and team,
and we go on to the last round at Jarama with a points advantage.
That’s enormously pleasing.”
Ray Mallock was just as delighted.
“I’m very proud of the team once again. We didn’t
have a large amount of good luck today, but others had worse
luck. We know all about starter-motor problems from our
2004 season, so we can sympathise with Rollcentre, but it’s
nice to secure our first Le Mans Series victory of the year.”
Everyone appeared to have Martin Short’s Rollcentre
team on their minds, especially Phil Barker. “I feel
like I’ve just mugged Martin,” he said. “They
did everything right, and they deserved a result, but the
fickle lady said no.” Adam Wiseberg agreed. “We’ve
been there, and we do honestly feel for them. We seem to
have had so much bad luck in the past, but today was when
it all happened to everybody else. It was a similar race
for Martin at Istanbul, where they could also have won,
but perhaps we just needed the ten points this weekend more
than they did. I’m relieved that we can go to Jarama
with a lead in the championship.”
That
lead is just three points, and with eight other drivers
in with a shout, there’s still everything to race
for when they arrive in Spain for the last round of the
Le Mans Series year.
Photographs
this page courtesy Marcus Potts and David Lord © dailysportscar.com
View high-resolution Gallery
for additional images from Sunday.
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