ELMS, 6 Hours of Le Castellet – Wrapping That One Up

Rumour, counter rumour and precious little by way of official word has plagued the run in to the first round of the 2012 European Le Mans Series.

For the teams it must have been a relief to finally go racing, less so perhaps for Boutsen Ginion and Murphy Prototypes who both took early baths with their Orecas.

Up front there was a fine three way battle in the opening hours with the Thiriet by TDS and Status GP outfits reeled in by a charging Tom Kimber Smith in the #1 Greaves Zytek.

The Murphy Oreca flew too in Warren Hughes’s hands and so too did the Jota Zytek, too many delays though put paid to any real hope of a podium slot for the #38 car.

Sebastien Loeb Racing were a pre race favourite but that assessment didn’t take in to account the newness of the car, or the team, they’d come into play later.

Extreme Limite’s Norma lapped steadily but pitted too often whilst the Pecom Oreca lost time tangling with the Ferraris from sister team AF Corse and JMB.

The Oak racing Morgan showed flashes of real speed but used its tyres less efficiently than the remainder of the leading group.

Through all of it the #46 TDS Oreca Nissan came through undelayed with excellent pit work, consistency from Pierre Thiriet and some very fast lappery from Matthias Beche bringing them home convincing winners.

The Seb Loeb Racing team came home second, learning more and more about a very different challenge and allowing their excellent driver line up to start to show the difference they might make.

Behind that car came a fine battle, the very new Status GP Lola Judd (BMW) holding off a late charge from the Greaves Zytek Nissan for the final podium slot, an excellent display from the team with the brand new Lola, a car that had only shaken down at the start of race week!

Yelmer Buurman had an excellent opening stint for Status in his first LMP race, keeping Beche honest and showing that the Nissan V8 powered teams can expect real competition this season.

Alexander Sims was another man in his first LMP race and his race ending stint was successful in holding off the ever closer attentions of a charging Alex Brundle, a late pit stop to replace damaged bodywork and a subsequent 2 minute stop go penalty for incorrect refuelling routine leaving the defending champions feeling somewhat robbed.

In LMPC it was a pretty simple affair, the Curtis Race Technologies car  leading the Boutsen Ginion car convincingly until the Belgian car expired.  A class win for the British debutant team is still something to celebrate though.

In the GT classes there was another fine early tussle, the Pro and Am classes interwoven with the JMB Ferrari leading the pair of Am Porsches, James Walker following at a distance.

The AM battle was settled in Prospeed’s favour despite the car losing its power steering in the middle period of the race after the IMSA Performance challenge faded and the Gulf Aston was just too far back to challenge - But it was the Pro battle that kept up the interest levels in the final stages.

JMW had had a relatively quiet race but the strategy unwound in the final stages, Jonny Cocker had been on fuel saving duty but kept the #66 car in touch with Melo, the locally based 458 had to pit for a splash and emerged just as Cocker powered by.

The young Englishman soaked up all the pressure that Melo could dish up and brought the Dunlop shod car home for a second consecutive win at Paul Ricard, an excellent strategic race from the men in yellow – Sometimes it truly only does take two car to make a race!

It was then a good race but with the future of the Series uncertain here’s hoping it wasn’t a swansong!

GG