LMS – Silverstone 1000kms – Race Preview Part One
GT Classes

GT1

The end is nigh for the current GT1 class  - sort of!

With the GT1 class in 2010 featuring more grandfathers than a broken family Corvette and Aston lovers will have more chances to watch their favourite beasts in action for a little while to come – But, in relatively unfettered form, and crucially in a real endurance race, this might well be the end of the road in Europe for the big daddies of GT racing.

The Silverstone entry numbers three – one each from the houses of Prodrive (Aston Martin), Pratt and Miller (Corvette) and Steve Saleen (Take a guess!)

And there are three high quality teams running the trio.

Gigawave Motorsport make their LMS debut right at the last – dsc believes that an LMS run was always on the cards this season and Silverstone gives the UK squad an opportunity to impress on home ground and with a high quality driver line up.

Ryan Sharp is a two time RAC Tourist Trophy winner at Silverstone, once aboard the Jetalliance Aston (narrowly edging out Gigawave’s DBR9) and this season aboard the KplusK Saleen.

He’s ideally placed then to judge the strengths of both machines.  This weekend though he’ll be without his regular driving partner, Karl Wendlinger, the Austrian presiding at the inaugural round of his new Austrian Drift Racing Championship..  No matter, when in doubt call 555 Kox – Yes, he’s back again, the evergreen Dutchman has enormous GT1 racing experience, not least as a factory Aston driver and as a GT1 class winner in the lMS (with the Reiter Lamborghini).  This pair will be tough to beat if the Aston is in good shape after a season in the garage.

It’s been a very tough few weeks for Luc Alphand Aventures but the team will be on the grid at Silverstone to blow away the dark clouds of the past few weeks by cementing the drivers and teams titles in GT1 that are now assured thanks to the no-show at Siolverstone from the IPB Spartak Lamborghini. 

The Corvettes always run strongly in the hands of the popular French squad and with Julien Jousse, Patrice Goueslard and Yann Clairay on the driving strength they should be right there on pace too.  We’d expect a close run thing at times – Qualifying could give us something to cheer too!

Finally there’s the Saleen of Larbre Competition, one of THE most successful privateer teams of the current GT1 era, Jack Leconte’s team have had success with the Viper GTSR, Ferrari 550 Maranello and Aston Martin DBR9. they’ll finish the current GT1 era with the Saleen that they won the class with last time out.

Roland Berville, Sebastien Dumez and Laurent Groppiwil give the squad a mix of pace and experience.  Perhaos not the race long speed available to their competitors but the car is capable of both pace and reliability – On occasion though it has shown neither!  Let’s hope this isn’t one of those races. 

In summary – It could be a fine three car battle – Our money would be on the Aston, but this could be anyone’s class win.

GT2   

14 cars line up for the ever-competitive GT2 class

Could this be Spyker’s race?  A fine second place at the Nurburgring showed some real promise from the Dutch squad – Whisper it – reliability – was on display as well as pace – it would be a popular addition to the podium in the UK.

Not as popular though (or as unexpected) as the Drayson Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT2 – the car making its final appearance for the team before they take delivery of their new Lola Judd LMP1 machine.

Paul Drayson and Jonny Cocker will be trying very hard indeed to squeeze some of the pace out of the car that has been lacking this year but either way it will have plenty of local support, the bellowing V8 and prominent Union Flag will see to that!

Beyond this pair it’s a Ferrari vs Porsche battle once again

Porsche honour will be upheld with four cars on the grid.

James Watt Automotive make a very welcome return to the LMS after their attempt to bring a full pro- Aston Martin GT2 attack to Le mans failed when the team failed to gain an invitation from the ACO.

They’ll field the familiar Paul Daniels owned Porsche at Silverstone for the car owner, quick gent Martin Rich and very quick Finn Markus Palttala.

Felbermayr Proton field their usual pair of Porkers, the #88 car for Horst Felbermayr Jr, Christian Ried and Francisco Cruz Martin has had plenty of luck this season, almost all of it bad!  They’ll struggle to match the pace of the best here.

The lead #77 997 RSR though will be in the thick of the action, Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz are as good a GT racing crew as exist anywhere on the planet.  Their Nurburgring result (and trouble for the JMW Ferrari there) has put them in pole position for the GT2 titles, 8 points to the good thanks to three wins and a pair of pole position starts this season.

They could indeed start the race from an almost unassailable position.  If the #77 car posts pole position it will leave the Ferrari needing to win, and hoping for the Porsche to dnf, to take the title.

Let’s not forget though that there’s another quick 997 out there too, the IMSA Performance Matmut team are another squad that seems to have attracted more than their fair share of ill fortune in 2009 but their Narac/ Pilet combo is well capable of taking the fight to the rest here – The best they can hope for in the title race though is third place after a very trying season.

And so to the Ferrari runners.

Eight 430s feature on the entry from six teams.

All eight feature drivers capable of real speed.

Johan Boris Scheier returns to the scene of his FIA GT3 race triumph for Morgan earlier this season aboard the #99 JMB 430 – He joins gentlemen drivers John Hartshorne and Peter Kutemann in the well run squad.

The very Italian, Pirelli shod, bright yellow, #81 Easyrace Ferrari squad will be looking to finish their season on a high after just a single points scoring finish thus far.

Matt Griffin is another man with race winning experience at Silverstone this season, albeit in a GT3 (Mtech) Ferrari and on the international, rather than this weekend’s Grand Prix, circuit configuration.  The quick Irishman though will be keen to show just what he’s capable of aboard the #78 Advanced engineering (AF Corse) Ferrari he shares this weekend with regular driving partner Peter Bamford.

Farnbacher Racing field a trio of Ferraris once again, the first, the #78 car, under the Hankook – Team Farnbacher banner has shown some real pace this season and could still, mathematically at least, grab second place in the team championship.  Pierre Kaffer and Christian Montanari are the chosen squad this weekend, both capable of squeezing the best from the much improved Korean rubber.

The #91 FBR car brings Andrea Montermini to the fray to bolster Giacomo Ricci and Gabrio Rosa’s efforts.

It’s the #90 FBR car though that stands to create waves in the final Championship order – consistent finishing from Pierre Ehret and his team mates has put Ehret, and the team, within shooting distance of second place in both Championships – It needs the front runners to have problems for the #90 car to achieve that  - but far, far stranger things have happened in endurance racing!  Dominik Farnbacher and
Anthony Beltoise will be adding their not inconsiderable talents to the cause – Expect this car to be racing right up at the front of the GT2 battle at times.

Finally it’s a pair of home ground hero teams.

Team Modena have done well in their first season in GT2, the #84 car is another that can still clinch second place in class if things go the way of Antonio Garcia, Leo Mansell and Jaime Melo.

That’s a mighty impressive driving squad and it marks the future intent of the team in this class.  Leo Mansell has, at times, struggled to find ultimate pace but he has certainly not disgraced himself in a debut GT racing season – He’ll only improve with experience – and he could well find himself higher up the final finishing order than his dad and brother this weekend!

Finally it’s the two-time defending GT2 champions, Bell and Bruni aboard the, new for 2009 JMW Motorsport entered #92 430.  This the only team and driver crew capable of grabbing team and driver titles from the #77 boys.

It will need good fortune though, a points-free 9th place finish at the Nurburgring spolit a solid season thus far but firmly placed the advantage in the hands of the Porsche boys – The pace of the Porsches means that pole may be a struggle for the Ferrari.  Nothing less than a win will do either way for the JMW boys – but who would bet against that?  If they win, they still have to hope that Lieb and Lietz struggle – and who would bet on that either?

Either way this should be a titanic struggle – Rob Bell and Gimmi Bruni won’t let go of that trophy without a fight – This could be very good indeed!