Le
Mans Series 2009
Round 2. Spa-Francorchamps 1000 Kilometres. May 8th-10th
2009
Saturday Review
Saturday
The
second day of the Spa 1000 Kilometres meeting could not
have got off to a worse start for RML AD Group, and driver
Mike Newton in particular.
Mike
has had a frustrating season. In Barcelona, he completed
less than one racing lap before the car was forced into
retirement following a total engine failure. At Paul Ricard
in March, for the official ACO Le Mans test, he and Chris
Dyson spent most of their time working on seat fittings,
and managed just a handful of laps on track. Even in testing,
the emphasis has tended to be on establishing appropriate
set-ups for the team’s Lola Mazda, and Tommy Erdos
has carried out most of that work.
As
a result Mike’s track-time has been severely restricted,
and after such a successful run on Friday (with Tommy emerging
fastest in LMP2), Saturday’s second free-practice
session offered the first real opportunity for Mike to get
some “quality time” in the new car. So, it was
the CEO of AD Group who was suited up at half-nine and ready
for the start of the 60-minute session when the pitlane
opened at 09:45.
Conditions
were good, with the track dry and the sky already clear
and sunny when Mike headed off on his out-lap to tackle
the likes of Eau Rouge, Les Combes (above)
and Blanchimont. Mike knows the track well, and
has raced and won here, many times in the past. The lap
went well, and he worked hard to get temperature into the
brakes and tyres. “Coming into the Bus Stop the brakes
felt good and gave me the confidence to go for a quick lap.”
It’s a long lap at Spa, and that makes it easier to
have the car up to temperature perhaps earlier than on other
circuits. “Normally, if it feels OK for the Bus Stop,
I know it’s OK to go for the lap.”
So
Mike exited the final element of the “new” Bus
Stop and picked up speed rapidly as he blatted down the
pit straight to begin his first flying lap. Using the data
collected from recent races at Spa, Mike headed for his
usual braking point, and was bearing down on La Source with
a clear track ahead when he went for the brakes. “The
car has felt even better under braking this year,”
he said, “but when I pushed on the pedal, the rears
just locked up straight away. The right gripped first, and
that pitched me into a spin.” The car pulled to the
right, slewed sideways across the track, and then caught
the concrete wall just thirty feet from the corner. The
front-left hit first, hard, and then the rear snapped round,
slapping the unrelenting wall side-on with the rear left
wheel.
There
was a moment’s silence, and then Mike’s voice
crackled over the radio. “The brakes just locked up!”
he stated. At least he was OK, but the car was not. The
entire left-hand side of the Lola had sustained heavy damage.
The front suspension was badly distorted, but it was the
back that had taken the brunt of the impact. Hitting the
wall perpendicular to the wheel had forced the driveshaft
inwards, towards the gearbox, and the casting had fractured.
It would not be a straightforward repair.
The
session was red flagged straight away, and while the team
sent engineers and mechanics to recover the car, Mike was
checked over for serious injuries. He was found to have
sustained some bruising to his right leg and knee, and the
sudden jolt had given him a mild headache. “Otherwise
I feel fine,” he insisted.
Mike
and Tommy spent the best part of two hours examining the
data and on-board video footage to establish the cause of
the accident. “The brakes felt good, the speed was
OK, but the rear brakes locked. Everything in my head said
I was good to go, but basically, I wasn’t,”
Mike admitted. What had possibly given him the misapprehension
that the conditions were OK for him to begin a flying lap
was the early hour of the day and the bright sunshine, which
gave the false impression that conditions were warmer than
they truly were. The ambient temperature was actually unusually
chilly, and whereas most laps at Spa will be enough to get
critical brake and tyre temperatures to suitable levels,
a cold morning in May made this less likely.
Even
before the car was back in the garage the team knew that
they faced a major rebuild. “All the suspension, dampers,
floor and many of the other major components down the left
of the car will need to be replaced,” explained Phil
Barker. “It will all have to be rebuilt and double-checked.
The gearbox has sustained a crack to the casing and that
will have to be replaced as well. Thankfully, the engine,
intercooler and oil cooler all appear to be OK. These things
happen, and it’s our job to fix them, but it has left
us with a very big shopping list.”
With
qualifying scheduled for early afternoon, the first task
was to decide if it would be feasible for the team to have
the car back together again and race-ready in just two-and-a-half
hours. “The amount of work required is not a million
miles away from the level of damage we had to repair when
the car flipped at Le Mans last year,” said Phil Barker.
“Under race conditions, we might attempt it, but this
is a major rebuild, so we won’t be ready for qualifying
today.”
Adding
weight to this conclusion was the letter received by the
team from the ACO that confirmed the team’s fears
about the engine failure at Barcelona. Not only would RML
have to take on board a “DNF” and no points
from Round 1, but the fact that the engine had to be rebuilt
and replaced would also incur a ten-position penalty in
qualifying, as well as the loss of two championship points
. . . which the team hasn’t got. In that light, even
class pole from Tommy would have been knocked back to the
rear of the LMP2 grid.
So
the team would take the rebuild at a more leisurely pace,
and ensure that everything was put back together again perfectly,
piece by piece. The crew set to work almost immediately,
firstly by dismantling the severely damaged Lola, and then
by beginning the painstaking restoration. It would take
them until almost eleven on Saturday evening.
Fortunately,
the race officials did concede that they had no “issue”
with Mike’s not having completed the expected number
of laps in practice, and would be happy for him to take
part in the race. Having finished on the podium here at
Spa twice in the last three years, including third overall
in 2007, his knowledge of the track is not in question.
There will also be opportunity for him to clock up some
track time during warm-up, and then also in the twenty-minute
“window” on Sunday before the race when the
pitlane will be open to traffic.
LMP2
Times - Session 2
Pos |
No. |
Overall |
Team |
Driver |
Car |
Time |
1 |
31 |
21 |
Team
Essex |
Collard/Elgaard/Poulsen |
Porsche
RS Spyder |
2:07.557 |
2 |
29 |
20 |
Racing
Box |
Ceccato/Francioni/Piccini |
Lola
B08/86 Coupé |
2:08.590 |
3 |
40 |
14 |
Quifel
ASM |
Amaral/Pla |
Ginetta
Zytek GZ09S |
2:09.437 |
4 |
33 |
42 |
Speedy
Sebah |
Pompidou/Luenberger/Kane |
Lola
B08/80 Coupé |
2:10.106 |
5 |
30 |
16 |
Racing
Box |
Biagi/Bobbi/Piccini |
Lola
B08/86 Coupé |
2:10.227 |
6 |
41 |
17 |
GAC
Racing Team |
Ojeh/Gosselin/Peter |
Ginetta
Zytek GZ07S |
2:10.639 |
7 |
35 |
28 |
Oak
Racing |
Ajlani/Lahaye |
Pescarolo
Mazda |
2:11.317 |
8 |
32 |
13 |
Barazi
Epsilon |
Rees/Barazi |
Ginetta
Zytek GZ07S |
2:11.560 |
9 |
37 |
26 |
WR
Salini |
Salini/Salini/Gommendy |
WR
Zytek |
2:13.631 |
10 |
39 |
46 |
Kruse
Schiller |
Marsh/Noda
/Sini |
Lola
B05/40 |
2:14.574 |
11 |
43 |
34 |
Q8
Oils Hache |
Moncado/Combot |
Lucchini
Judd |
2:15.314 |
12 |
24 |
24 |
Oak
Racing |
Nicolet/Hein |
Pescarolo
Mazda |
2:16.434 |
13 |
26 |
18 |
Bruichladdich |
Bruneau/Greaves/Coleman |
Radical
SR9 AER |
2:16.532 |
14 |
38 |
37 |
Pegasus |
Schell/Thirion |
Courage
AER |
2:17.819 |
15 |
28 |
43 |
Ibanez
Racing |
Ibanez/da
Rocha/Cavailhes |
Courage
AER |
2:26.512 |
16 |
42 |
40 |
Ranieri
Randaccio |
Randaccio/Solieri |
Lucchini
McLaren |
2:27.215 |
17 |
25 |
51 |
RML
AD Group |
Erdos/Newton |
Lola
B08/86 Coupé |
no
time |
Qualifying
Sadly,
the RML AD Group's #25 Lola Mazda was unable to take part
in qualifying. However, after an eventful and red-flag interrupted
GT session, the remaining prototypes took to the track at
just before two o'clock.
High
resolution images will be posted in the
Spa Gallery later today
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