FIA WEC, 6 Hours of Fuji - Race Preview - Part 2 LMP2

23 SIGNATECH NISSAN D Oreca 03 – Nissan Jordan Tresson/ Franck Mailleux/ Olivier Lombard
24 OAK RACING D Morgan – Nissan Jacques Nicolet/ Matthieu Lahaye/ Olivier Pla
25 ADR-DELTA  D Oreca 03 – Nissan John Martin/ Tor Graves/ Shinji Nakano
26 SIGNATECH NISSAN D Oreca 03 – Nissan Pierre Ragues/ Nelson Panciatici/ Roman Rusinov
29 GULF RACING MIDDLE EAST D Lola B12/80 Coupé – Nissan Fabien Giroix/ Keiko Ihara/ Jean-Denis Deletraz
31 LOTUS D Lola B12/80 Coupé – Lotus Thomas Holzer/ Mirco Schultis/ Luca Moro
32 LOTUS D Lola B12/80 Coupé – Lotus Kevin Weeda/ James Rossiter/ Vitantonio Liuzzi
41 GREAVES MOTORSPORT D Zytek Z11SN – Nissan Christian Zugel / Ricardo Gonzalez/ Elton Julian
44 STARWORKS MOTORSPORTS D HPD ARX 03b – Honda Enzo Potolicchio/ Ryan Dalziel/ Stéphane Sarrazin
49 PECOM RACING D Oreca 03 – Nissan Luis Perez Companc/ Pierre Kaffer/ Nic Minassian

We’re down to 10 cars in the junior LMP class for the last two rounds as Oak re-deploys its -*LMP1 squad and parks the #35 LMP2 entry.

Just three of the ten have a mathematical chance of winning the class title now and the momentum, very firmly, is with the Championship leading #44 Starworks HPD.

#44 is back to its full season crew as Ryan Dalziel returns from Grand Am duty.  He finds the team in reach of the title – A win here would do it but failing that, 29 points from the final 52 available would guarantee Peter Baron’s team the title, though rather fewer may be required if either the Pecom and/ or ADR Delta Oreca Nissans falter!

Pecom, and even more so ADR Delta are rather left to hope for misfortune to befall the HPD to have a realistic shot here.

Pecom had their pest run of the year in Bahrain and took the win as Starworks hit starter motor issues.  The AF Corse run squad’s drafting in of Nic Minassian has proven to be a real fillip, the team are scoring well, running well up the order and ruing the fact that they didn’t make the switch earlier in the season no doubt!

ADR Delta have all the pace but little of the luck – They’ll be joined in Fuji by the experienced, quick, but sometimes erratic Shinji Nakano.  They’ll need all the positive influence that he can deploy to give them any hope of taking this one to the wire.

Signatech finally had a good race run last time out after a really challenging opening phase of the Championship which saw too many issues on track and in the pits, and not enough points on the board.  Both the #23 and #26 cars got good points in the darkness of Bahrain – The team will be looking for speed and consistency to recover up the points order to a respectable season’s finish.

So too will Lotus LMP2, their Judds are coming on song now and the team are finding their feet rapidly, if their plans come to fruition their Lolas have only two races left to run – Could a podium be possible for the Kodewa-run squad?  

Credit where credit is due too for the Gulf Racing Middle East squad, they are looking less and less out of their depth every time the car hits the track, Keiko Ihara will be looking for a good finish on home ground, they won’t do it on overall speed, but they might now be capable of a steady reliability run!

The Greaves Motorsport squad will feel rightly aggrieved at the manner of their major delay in Bahrain, Ricardo Gonzalez punted into the wall by a wayward (and later excluded) Olivier Beretta.

They wouldn’t have troubled the podium, but they were lapping steadily – As they have for much of the season – More of the same could see them sustain a challenge for the top three by the end of the season.

Finally Oak Racing, their LMP2 effort back down to a single car once again – They’ve been one of the fastest all season in this hotly contested class – Sadly though they’ve been one of the least reliable too!  Too many delays have cost them too many points – They’ll be looking for race winning glory to blow away some of those cobwebs!