LMS - Paul Ricard Test Days - Second Sunday Report

Into The Darkness – Rollcentre Fastest At Midnight

You’ll have seen the times from the midday to 18.00 session – which simply carried on, without a pause, towards midnight and beyond.

23.00 here as this text is started, and in some ways a lot has happened, in other ways it’s ‘just’ a test session.

Barazi-Epsilon Zytek

One major story of the late afternoon, perhaps the story of the day, surrounded the Barazi-Epsilon Zytek. It ran for the first time in the late afternoon, but after darkness, Michael Vergers called the Ed. over as he sat in the car, having the lights adjusted.

“The car is awesome. I did a 1:49.5 on my fifth lap in the car, having never driven around Ricard before in my life. I don’t really know the circuit, but this car drives so well, it handles, the brakes are very, very good, it’s nimble – it’s the whole package.”

So Verge liked it then.

So did Juan Barazi and Karim Ojjeh.

Ojjeh: “It’s very nice. I’ve only driven P2s in 2005 and 2006, in the Belmondo cars, in 2005 with the AER engine and 2006 with the Mecachrome. The AER had a huge amount of torque, while the n/a Mecachrome didn’t have any torque below 5,000 revs.

“With the Zytek, I’ve got a huge amount of torque again. It’s got the paddle shift, power steering – all of which I have to get used to. I’ve never driven such a nice car.”

Barazi: “Yes, I suppose in the end, I chose the Zytek.” The car owner admitted that he was considering buying an RS Spyder, and suggested that the Zytek and Porsche “have a lot in common, but it looks as though Zytek has done a better job than Porsche.”

Juan Barazi is acutely aware that this is day 1 of the programme and that “there’s a long way to go, but I’m not surprised by how well the car is going.”

He was then in full flow… “You’ve got huge corporations with enormous budgets that are less rewarding to work with than a small team of guys like Zytek. I like their spirit and the way they dealt with me, the way the factory is set up.

“I’ve only driven a few laps (in this car) but it’s been enough to get an impression of it. We did it the hard way last year and were maybe lucky to get a good result in the championship (they won). This car is so much easier to drive. In the Courage, through T1 at Sebring, my arms felt as though they were going to fall off at the end of a stint, and at Istanbul, I hated T8 and was praying for rain. But this car is so nimble that you can focus entirely on feeling the car and finding the limit of adhesion.”

So all happy at Zytek then.

Bruichladdich Radical

We didn’t find the Radical drivers, but chief engineer Paul Thomas, whose sole job this year is overseeing the Bruichladdich SR9, is really starting to enjoy himself as this still young programme comes together. The SR9 had completed 116 laps by 20.00, and there will be plenty more laps on Monday, in some long stints, plus Dunlop tyre testing.

“Tim (Greaves) has invested to improve and develop the car, and is very positive and trusting in what I’m doing, which is to make the car as successful as it can be.”

Chamberlain-Synergy

At Chamberlain-Synergy, the team had backed off on going for straightline speed during the afternoon, and were adding downforce - to produce a quicker lap time. Hugh Chamberlain admitted to being surprised at the improvement in the Lola AER this year. What he actually said was “I’m surprised at how much betterer it is.” The late evening was spent on a planned engine change, the engine coming out to be rebuilt, as per the programme, for Monza.

Rollcentre

22.20: Martin Short hopped out of the Rollcentre Pescarolo, the only problem today, of any sort, being a solitary puncture. “It’s like Graham Goodwin’s mouth: it doesn’t stop. It’s an amazing car.” The Pescarolo was actually slightly damaged as it was loaded onto the lowloader for return to the pits (after the puncture)), but was up and running again within minutes.

“Henri’s car got twatted by someone, and had a damaged rear corner. We loaned him some spares – because he’s been so good at looking after his customers, he hasn’t got any left!”

Shorty commented that “we haven’t really played with the set-up today. We’ve kept it the same for Dunlop and the tyre testing. Phil Keen has done a 1:47.1 in the dark, Joao did a 1:46.1 a few minutes ago, while Stuart Hall has done a 1:48.0 in the dark after just 15 laps in total, only five in daylight.”

Martin Short could not be happier – with 177 laps completed as midnight approaches.. and, suddenly, the best time of the tests so far, a 1:44.540.. faster than the Peugeot!

Simonsen / Virgo

Allan Simonsen spoke at length to DSC about his busy race programme in 2007 and about the Virgo Motorsports otfit and the new Ferrari F430 GTC .

Simonsen was approached by Chris Warne of Virgo Motorsports over the closed season, about driving the Ferrari alongside Rob Bell. Allan and Rob have known one another for some years, having competed together at the beginning of their careers, in karts. The chance to work with engineer Steve Bunkhall was also a plus point, as he and Allan had both been involved in the Veloqx team back in 2002.

Team owner, Jim McWhirter is determined to win the series this year, despite strong competition from the new Porsche 997. “By sheer co-incidence,” said Allan, “I have always seemed to end up driving Ferraris.” No bad thing. “We are also the development team for Dunlop – so we are working hard with them to help put together a really strong race-winning package.”

Whom does Allan see as Virgo’s main rivals for the series this year? “For sure, Lieb and Pompidou in the Felbermayr 997. Of all the teams, this is the one which has the similar combination - of competitive engineers, drivers, pit crews, tyres and car - to our own. It promises to be quite a battle but we are determined to beat them.” The signs are already good for a real tussle between the two teams with the Ferrari having set fastest time this morning, and the Porsche this afternoon.

Allan, 28, originally from Odense in Denmark but now living in Melbourne, Australia, is already enjoying a successful and varied year across the motorsport spectrum. Currently leading both the Australian Rally Championship and the Australian GT championship (in a Ferrari 360 GT), he is also due to compete in British GTs with Hector Lester in a 430 GT3.

“I’ll only race in the British Championship when it does not clash with my other commitments, which Hector is quite happy with. As for rallying, I will compete in one more race but after that I will have to concentrate on my sports car career. It is so very different from what I’d been used to before – with some of the short stages lasting as little as 4 minutes, a complete contrast to a 1000 kilometre race. It’s also much more dangerous than you appreciate before you try it. It has been good fun but I need to commit to one discipline to give of my best.

“I’ll also do a couple more rounds of the Australian GT series. So far we have competed in 6 rounds (2 per meeting) and have won 5 of them. I’ll do the next couple of rounds at Bathurst (a circuit which he describes as being more like a rally stage!) before coming back to Monza and concentrating on my European campaign.”

We asked Allan if there were any prospects of him getting a drive in the 24 hours this year. “I did a test for Aston and did some really competitive times. However, George Howard-Chappell decided to go with drivers who have experience of the race and the circuit, but I’m happy with the work I did and so was the team.” Is he talking to anybody else? “I’ve been chatting to one or two teams which I can’t name but I’m hopeful there’ll be a seat for me somewhere.”

Judging by his success this year, does Allan regret not getting into Formula 1 like his old karting rivals Raikonnen and Button? “Not really. I’m pleased for those guys but you need to bring a lot of money to a team to get a seat in F1. Sports car racing has always been the goal for me and I’m privileged to be paid for doing the job I love and not having to seek funding all the time.” All he needs to bring to the party is a load of talent, and judging by the Simonsen story so far, he certainly has plenty of that.

Courage Competition

In the Courage pit, the eponymous Yves looked much more frayed around the edges than the car, with its new AER engine. “We are running here to test reliability above all, and will fine tune the car once we know it will put in the hours. We have been running since this morning, only stopping for a lunch break. The plan is to continue on throughout the night and tomorrow morning, with just an hour off once again before the test session closes. So far the car has performed very well, with only a few minor hitches and by 23.00 had put in 270 laps of the circuit – more than any other prototype.

“We do have a problem with the intercooler which is running too hot, giving us a 45 horsepower drop on the power we should expect from the engine. However, this is something which we aim to sort out once we’ve satisfied ourselves that the car is reliable. That is our only aim this weekend.”

‘Big Steve’ at AER reckoned that a revised installation would sort out the high intercooler temps.

Lots and lots of laps for the LC70 AER then, (almost) matched only by the two ORECA Saleens, which we’ll chase up on Monday.

Nic Minassian on the Peugeot

”We’re driving it flat out, because that’s the only way to make sure the car is reliable. We’re really pushing the car.”

So is this as fast as the Peugeot will go (1:44.6)?

“It’s not quicker because we still need to work on the speed.”

That led to some probing regarding the top speed of the 908, which never seemed quite capable of cracking 300 kph, which seemed a little odd / slow.

“The torque is very good out of the corners,” admitted Minassian (confirming what other drivers had said of the 908), “but we can have the top end speed or the torque, not both.”

Was the car running a lot of downforce – which might explain the top speed?

“Look at the front: we’re not running dive planes as many of the other cars are. No, it’s definitely not running high downforce. It’s a medium downforce set-up.”

He described both the engine and the chassis as “really good, from the beginning of the programme. But we’re mainly working on reliability.”

Pedro Lamy and Sebastien Bourdais have been doing most of the running today.

Of the Peugeot Sport programme, Nic Minassian suggested that “they have the human, technical and financial resources to develop the car to the max.” That is naturally a contrast with Creation Autosportif, his team for the last three years, and one he clearly has a great deal of affection for. “Creation always had such potential, but for a small team it is always hard to exploit it: you do the best you can with what you have.”

An example of the potential of that team’s car here a year ago was the 1:44.2 that Minassian set – on that car’s first test of 2006. No one has yet matched that time today…. Minassian had a soft spot for that Creation, in whatever form it took during the last three seasons.

Right, that’s almost midnight, and despite the 24 hour cars still running, the media center is about to close…. Apologies for the lack of images: it’s been bloody frustrating here in some ways.