Le
Mans Series 2009
Round 2. Spa-Francorchamps 1000 Kilometres. May 8th-10th
2009
Friday Review
Friday
The
subject of the weather is never far from anyone's mind when
racing comes to Spa, and this Friday has been no exception.
Looming clouds, darkened to a sooty grey, constantly threatened
rain but never quite managed to fulfil the promise . . .
until a few minutes before the drivers preparing for the
first Le Mans Series free-practice session fired up their
engines. As they headed out onto the track at half-four
in the afternoon, the first hesitant drops started to fall
at La Source.
Elsewhere
around the circuit the sun was still battling to break through.
Tommy didn't head out until ten minutes into the session,
but had not even managed a single flyer before the red flags
were out for the first stoppage of the afternoon - the #009
Aston Martin off the track on the exit of Rivage, reputedly
with a wheel missing. Darren Turner had just set a fastest
lap for the Gulf-liveried car of 2:07.936.
The
session officially resumed at 14:53, with the Aston still
stranded trackside and a cloudburst soaking the pitlane.
Not surprisingly, only a small handful of cars elected to
tackle the conditions, even though the downpour cleared
within minutes.
With
an erratic wiper motor on the Lola Mazda, Tommy waited in
the garage while a replacement was fitted, and the rain
started to ease.
The
fastest time in LMP2 at that stage was a pre-wet lap of
2:13.644 set by Fernando Rees in the prodigal Barazi Zytek.
As a point of reference, pole for the Van Merksteijn Porsche
in last year's Spa 1000 Kilometres was a 2:05.841, while
RML's target for the Mazda Lola must be the 2:07.539 set
by Tommy in last year's EX265.
Just
gone ten-past five and Tommy headed back out again, only
to get a mere half-way round the track before another red
flag brought further interruption to the session. The good
news was, Tommy reported excellent vision from within the
Lola cockpit, despite the spray being kicked up by the damp
track.
Five
twenty-three and the session got under way again, with Tommy
heading out for "four timed laps". With conditions
still poor, making sense of lap times would became increasingly
difficult. Best times from Tommy in the 2:33 to 2:35 bracket
were indicative of the inhospitable state of the track.
Tommy
ended up clocking ten timed laps in total before pitting
for a change of tyres. His best of 2:26.254 couldn't compare
with the dry-set times, but was very competitive within
the context of those other being set at the time. Re-shod,
he was back out again a few minutes later, and able to improve
yet again, posting 2:24.204 with less than ten minutes of
the session remaining. His next lap was building up to being
faster still, and when he crossed the line in 2:20.108 he
became effectively the fastest LMP2 runner on track after
the downpour.
With
the track starting to dry, some cars were beginning to show
genuine improvements, including Tommy Erdos. His next lap
was a 2:16.920 and took the Lola Mazda to third in LMP2,
but he followed that with a hugely impressive 2:12.544 to
move fastest in LMP2. "Under such changeable conditions,
it was all a bit of a lottery out there on track. I saw
it drying, and I wanted to put in a good time. The fact
I was able to put together a string of quick laps allowed
me to set up for a final flyer at the end."
The
chequered flag fell with Tommy still on a flyer, and he
neatly rounded off the ninety minutes (much interrupted
by red flags and delays) with a new quickest lap of 2:11.920.
The rush of improvements continued right to the end, with
Olivier Pla moving into third in LMP2 with a 2:13.912. To
place all these times in context, however, Rees's pre-shower
time in the Barazi (set just a few minutes into the session)
remained second-quickest in the class. "It’s
good for the team to get a morale boost like this,"
suggested Erdos, pleased to have ended the day top of the
timing screens. "The car was good and strong –
it all felt really good."
LMP2
Times - Session 1
Pos |
No. |
Overall |
Team |
Driver |
Car |
Time |
1 |
25 |
9 |
RML
AD Group |
Erdos/Newton |
Lola
B08/86 Coupé |
2:11.920 |
2 |
32 |
13 |
Barazi
Epsilon |
Rees/Barazi |
Ginetta
Zytek GZ07S |
2:13.644 |
3 |
40 |
14 |
Quifel
ASM |
Amaral/Pla |
Ginetta
Zytek GZ09S |
2:13.912 |
4 |
30 |
16 |
Racing
Box |
Biagi/Bobbi/Piccini |
Lola
B08/86 Coupé |
2:14.748 |
5 |
41 |
17 |
GAC
Racing Team |
Ojeh/Gosselin/Peter |
Ginetta
Zytek GZ07S |
2:17.246 |
6 |
26 |
18 |
Bruichladdich |
Bruneau/Greaves/Coleman |
Radical
SR9 AER |
2:19.188 |
7 |
29 |
20 |
Racing
Box |
Ceccato/Francioni/Piccini |
Lola
B08/86 Coupé |
2:19.788 |
8 |
31 |
21 |
Team
Essex |
Collard/Elgaard/Poulsen |
Porsche
RS Spyder |
2:20.180 |
9 |
24 |
24 |
Oak
Racing |
Nicolet/Hein |
Pescarolo
Mazda |
2:21.990 |
10 |
37 |
26 |
WR
Salini |
Salini/Salini/Gommendy |
WR
Zytek |
2:24.124 |
11 |
35 |
28 |
Oak
Racing |
Ajlani/Lahaye |
Pescarolo
Mazda |
2:24.598 |
12 |
43 |
34 |
Q8
Oils Hache |
Moncado/Combot |
Lucchini
Judd |
2:27.480 |
13 |
38 |
37 |
Pegasus |
Schell/Thirion |
Courage
AER |
2:29.656 |
14 |
42 |
40 |
Ranieri
Randaccio |
Randaccio/Solieri |
Lucchini
McLaren |
2:31.974 |
15 |
33 |
42 |
Speedy
Sebah |
Pompidou/Luenberger/Kane |
Lola
B08/80 Coupé |
2:34.000 |
16 |
39 |
46 |
Kruse
Schiller |
Marsh/Noda
/Sini |
Lola
B05/40 |
2:39.226 |
14 |
28 |
43 |
Ibanez
Racing |
Ibanez/da
Rocha/Cavailhes |
Courage
AER |
2:46.300 |
In
a concession to the teams running turbocharged engines,
and in attempt to achieve performance equalisation within
LMP2, the ACO has introduced a modest increase in restrictor
aperture for those cars fitted with such engines, although
they have also imposed a new, lower limit on available turbo
boost. The net result is that the engines should, in theory,
be able to achieve similar or even improved power output
to previously, but with less associated stress on the engine.
Hopefully this will improve reliability, although it is
unlikely to reinstate complete parity of horsepower between
the turbocharged engines and their normally-aspirated rivals.
Neither does it address what appears to be an inherent incompatibility
of the fuel with turbocharger technology. However, having
now driven the car at racing speed, what did Tommy feel
the change had achieved?
"The
engine’s top-end breathing does seem better now, but
we still don’t have the outright speed of the normally-aspirated
cars. In fact, we were quicker last year, but that’s
because the new restrictor is still smaller than we were
using in 2008. The rear wing is also smaller, and to make
up for the reduced downforce we’re getting from that
we’ve ended up with more drag, so that isn’t
helping with our top speed either."
The
engine certainly seems to be breathing better. "Now
we’re on a better footing in relation to the normally-aspirated
cars. However, we’re still left with the issue of
reliability, and while we can now generate a little more
horsepower, we can’t be sure that the engine isn’t
going to go bang. We won’t know the answer to that
until we’ve run the engine over a longer timescale,
but we still have to be very careful."
The
second Free Practice session is scheduled for 09:45 am tomorrow.
High
resolution images can be found in the
Spa Gallery
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