LMS - Paul Ricard Test Days - Monday Round Up
Missing The LMP2 Fun

Pit lane, Paul Ricard, lunch break Monday: Michael Vergers, Stuart Moseley, Robin Liddell and the editor – ‘chewing the fat’.

Michael Vergers couldn’t take a smile off his face – the reason being of course that the brand new Barazi-Epsilon Zytek 07S had been going so well, ever since it first ran on Sunday afternoon. That 1:49.5 lap, Vergers’ fifth in the car, his fifth around Paul Ricard, ever, had set the tone for this new car’s prospects, and the comments from Juan Barazi, Karim Ojjeh, Tom Oliver and everyone else from Zytek revealed pure delight at what they had revealed here.

Vergers was naturally reticent to suggest what time he might be able to set with some new rubber on the car in the final, afternoon session. He smiled, he evaded the question – but eventually he was forced into suggesting “a 46”. Stuart Moseley was quite content to take a back seat amidst all the banter…. while Robin Liddell was as forceful as ever as he gave his off the record views on some of the ups and downs in LMP2 here.

Thus far the Bruichladdich Radical had been second quickest in class, with a 1:47.550, less than three-tenths slower than the Quifel-ASM Lola, a couple of tenths faster than the RML MG Lola.

Back to the media centre, and a final struggle to forward at least some text to cover the morning’s activities – then a rush to pack up and clear out, to catch an afternoon flight back to Gatwick.

“Have you seen what Bob’s just done,” said Peter Owen, as we were about to descend the stairs for the last time. “Come and look at the screen.”

And there was Bob Berridge’s 1:44.414 – a time that ended up fourth quickest on the time sheets, and right in touch with Rollcentre’s 1:44.025 and Charouz’s 1:44.348. Only the Peugeot lapped faster, with a 1:43.705.

Hugh Chamberlain had already said that he was “surprised at how much betterer” the Chamberlain-Synergy Lola is this year – and there was the proof, with that 1:44.4.

Joao Barbosa had earlier said that there was “more to come” from the Rollcentre Pescarolo (than his late Sunday evening 1:44.540), and there was his proof with a 1:44.0.

Zhuhai winner Stefan Mucke must have set the time in the Charouz Lola Judd, because he was the only Charouz man present.

Henri Pescarolo’s team ended up fifth quickest, but their programme, with new parts yet to be fitted to the factory car, had been focusing on getting drivers plenty of seat time. The 1:44.4 that Romain Dumas set on Sunday evening, without a transponder and therefore not officially registering on the time sheets, was the team’s best of the two days.

Sixth quickest was the brand new Racing for Holland Dome, and, typical of this team, they’d worked all hours to have the Dome ready for Jan Lammers and David Hart to drive. The team finally ‘turned in’ at 04.00 on Monday morning – which explains why the garage was empty of personnel five hours later. But Lammers was pounding round by mid-morning, and Hart was getting used to the first prototype that he’d ever driven. He had soon got down into the 49s, but was a little frustrated once his partner at Ricard got down in to the 45s. Lammers didn’t improve on his morning 1:45.7 in the afternoon, but that lap included passing a Pescarolo, and would have been a 1:45.3.

David Hart (above) revealed that he might well have been an LMP2 driver this year, in the Barazi-Epsilon Zytek (thanks to a connection in the antiques business between himself and Michael Vergers’ father), but once Jan Lammers suggested an all Dutch Lammers / Jeroen Bleekemolen / Hart line-up in the LMP1 Dome, the deal was done.

So that Vergers’ connection neatly leads us back to LMP2 – would Vergers Jnr. set a 1:46?

Oh yes he did – and sent a text message on Monday evening to confirm it. “We did a 1:46.3 – but Radical did a 1:46.1. But more time to come!”

So it was the calm, laid-back Stuart Moseley who set the fastest LMP2 time. “It’s been good to try a low drag set-up and we’ve been working on different aerodynamics options for Le Mans,” he remarked on the team’s press release. “I feel that we’ve made a step forward with the traction and that will help us for Monza’s chicanes too.”

“The car was very reliable and the new team is coming together well,” added Tim Greaves. “Robin’s fitting in well and his technical input is proving a bonus, as well as his speed.”

Radical speed was never an issue in 2006, but the signs are that there’s speed with reliability on show now.

One interesting comparison with this test a year ago: Nic Minassian set a 1:44.2 ‘out of the box’ in last year’s Creation, and only two cars went quicker this time – but in LMP2, with the smaller restrictors for 2007, RML’s 2006 best of 1;48.335 was soundly beaten by the best of this year’s crop (Bruichladdich, Barazi-Epsilon and Quifel-ASM) – and by RML themselves, with a 1:47.814.

Our early departure on Monday means no real follow-up in the GT classes, although Rob Bell was very happy to be down in the 1:58s in the Virgo Ferrari, three tenths slower than the faster IMSA Porsche (was this running on Michelins again on day 2, or on Pirellis?).

GT1 and GT2 times were either similar to (GT2) or slower than (GT1) last year’s best – in contrast with LMP2, where all the action seemed to be.

It was the most frustrating event to cover from our point of view – with problems sending / posting material that took their toll throughout the two days. Apologies for hiccups in providing the service – in particular, photographs of the event.
MC