Le Mans Test - Team By Team - Part Two

LMP2

Extreme Limite AM Paris

The latest addition to the full entry after the withdrawal by Signatech of their second car, the Norma had a quiet test with a newly confirmed driver line up of Fabien Rosier, Philippe Haezebrouck and Jean Rene de Fournoux

Rosier put in a 3:50.134 in the second session but more importantly the car got plenty of track time and few dramas.

Greaves Racing

Despite winning his class last time out at Le Mans (in the Team LNT Panoz in LMGT2) Tom Kimber-Smith is another man whose absence since 2006 at Le Sarthe meant that he had to complete his 10 ‘Rookie laps’.  In doing so he set the fastest time in class for the first session, an impressive 3:43.601 that was only bettered by the Oreca Nissans in the generally faster afternoon running.  It’s little surprise that Kimber-Smith has now been confirmed for the big race alongside Gary Chalandon and Karim Ojjeh.

The only drama for the team came with a puncture for Ojjeh that meant some time in the garage – No major drama though and certainly nothing that got in the way of a 10 lap run for young Alex Brundle whose pace was mightily impressive – only traffic in the final sector of his fastest lap preventing him from braking into the 3:44s.  The plan for the young man seems clear – We’d expect to see him aboard an LMP2 car before the end of the season ahead of a much trailed opportunity face with his father at Le Mans in 2012.

Level 5 Motorsport

Scott Tucker and his merry band rocked up with two very shiny Lola HPD Coupes, one of which was running in public for the first time (the other having already raced at Sebring) and both featuring the same declared driver line-up (Tucker/ Barbosa/ Bouchut) and only one entered for the race proper, the second car on site principally to allow Tucker the maximum possible seat time.

The #33 car though sat out much of the first session after a turbo failure necessitated a change.  That must have hurt after the 50,000 euros per car reportedly required to accommodate the recent restrictor break.

The #34 car finished the day with a Barbosa driven 3:48.174, 6th fastest of the LMP2s and ahead of the RML HPD.

Oak Racing

Only one of the two Pescarolo Judd BMWs was at the test, the team still looking to finalise the driver line-up on the absent #49 car.

Oak are working with DAMS on their 4 car effort, the well established squad assisting with race support and logistics – Certainly the cars were presented beautifully but on track the #35 car was well short of the prevailing class pace.

Oreca Team Matmut

It was the first public appearance of what, rather incongruously, is a factory entry in a privateer class!

No David Hallyday for this weekend but new signing Alex Premat joined FLM graduate (and 2011 Boutsen Energy LMP2 Oreca Nissan man) Dominik Kraihamer.

This was another car with a busy programme but the pace was good, a 3:45 in the first session topped midway through the second with a Premat pedalled 3:43.055, second fastest LMP2 car of the day.

The #48 car did though cause the red flag period during the second session, a trip into the barriers at Arnage giving the team work to do in the garage when they’d have preferred to be out on track!

Pecom Racing

No Luis Perez Companc at the test so Mathias Russo and Pierre Kaffer shared plenty of seat time in the #39 Lola Judd.

It would finish the day as the fastest non Nissan powered LMP2, into the low 3:46s in both sessions, both times in the hands of Kaffer.

That’s encouraging stuff from the team with both the Argentinians enjoying their LMP racing thoroughly a balanced approach to the race – plus Lola, Judd and BMW reliability – might just keep them in the mix!

Race Performance

Marc Rostan joins the Race Performance team for Le Mans and he was getting his first seat time in the #40 Oreca Judd at the test – It was another quiet affair as the team pounded around going through a reasonable programme of fuel economy and tyre testing – Not the slowest in the class – but far from the quickest either at present!

RML

It was a frustrating start to the day for RML, the gearset proving to be entirely unsuited for the new restrictor break dealt to the HPD teams.

Once out on track though the RML programme got moving – as usual a methodical approach held sway – no heroics!

Aside from the restrictor break the other major change here (and elsewhere in LMP2) is the Le Mans only low downforce kit, the team opining that it was the aero rather than the engine that was making the bigger difference in relative pace (though still not enough!)

One major plus for the #36 car though was that the aero did enable them to get a tow from and pass the GTE cars, something they found all but impossible at Paul Ricard.

With the timing and scoring screens often failing to correctly identify drivers we couldn’t be absolutely sure but it seemed that Thomas Erdos did the majority of the afternoon running, the car getting palpably quicker towards the end of the day, though a 3:48.8 was still almost 6 seconds away from the fastest of the Oreca Nissans.

Signatech Racing

With one car withdrawn from the entry Signatech have just a single Oreca Nissan to concern themselves with, the #26 car.

Much is expected of this effort with prominent marketing backing from Nissan and a pair of quick Pro Drivers aboard – Soheil Ayari and Franck Mailleux add real bite to this effort and it was Mailleux that set the fastest time of the day in class, a 3:42.992 making him the only man to go under 3:43.

They’re supported by the PlayStation Challenge graduate Lucas Ordonez, a man that can barely believe his luck – riding the crest of an astoundingly successful marketing wave and rewarding his backers with increasing confidence and speed.

This effort will be a real contender, but will the niggles that have plagued the Oreca Nissans in the early races this season be solved by June?

TDS Racing

Not named either on the full entry list or even as a reserve (together with fellow Oreca Nissan outfit Boutsen Energy) TDS Racing arrived at Le Mans with a class pole and a strong raced run at Paul Ricard to their name, the Spanish team with their #46 Oreca Nissan looking to prove a point and to gain experience at the biggest track of them all!

Their Paul Ricard driver line up came with them and at least one of them might just be back in June with another team.

As for the action on track the car was quick and reliable, this is no pace for unnecessary heroics and a 3:46.435 from Jody Firth in the second session was good enough for 5th fastest and good enough too to turn heads amongst the ACO selection committee no doubt.

We’d expect them to be back in 2012 as part of the entry proper.