Le Mans Test Day - Team By Team - Part Three GTE Pro AF Corse The factory blessed team brought both of their 458s to the test, the lead #51 car adding Toni Vilander to the Paul Ricard duo of Gimmi Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella – A high quality driver line-up to savour.
Perhaps unsurprisingly the car was in the mix all day and was the first to threaten the 4 minute barrier, Vilander we believe was the man to set a 4:00.750 before the time was bettered by Simonsen’s Hankook Farnbacher 458. There’s little doubt though that the #51 will be a major contender in June. The #71 car meanwhile had a very different looking driver line-up to the Paul Ricard car - Michael Waltrip, rather surprisingly rated as a ‘Platinum’ driver, aboard for the first time, the (very!) tall NASCAR man teamed with his business partner Robert Kauffmann and Rui Aguas, the latter pair having shared a GTE Am 430 for AF Corse in Southern France. It was another team requiring a fair amount of rookie lappery before getting down to serious business but the #71 car ran well, Aguas popping in a lap in the 4:06s that Waltrip and Kaufman need to get rather closer to by June. BMW Motorsport As the days tick down to BMW’s entry into the DTM the factory team will be looking to score big successes for its current flagship motorsport programme. 2011 started well with an impressively dominant display at Sebring for a 1,2 finish against very strong opposition and the Le Mans Test Day too started well with Andy Priaulx topping the times in the early running in the #56 M3 and Jorg Muller getting the sister #55 car in amongst the leading GTE runners at the end of the day, a 4:01.930 good enough for third fastest in class. Both cars will be major contenders in June it seems, but don’t forget what happened last year – The BMWs were fast at Spa and were dealt a post race weight penalty that left them nowhere for the big one – They are unlikely to make the same mistake twice! Felbermayer Proton The reigning GT2 / GTE Champions brought two of the tree Porsches they are due to campaign in June to the test. Absent was the GTE Am car (racing under the Proton racing banner). The #77 car had the ‘Usual Suspects’ pair of Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz aboard, Lietz producing the best time of the day between the pair in the second session – (4:02.830). There was no sign though that the team were aiming to impress, typically instead they were quietly going through the programme – Lieb the engineer holding sway over Lieb the racing driver! Wolf Henzler will again join this squad for the race, the same names on the same numbered car looking for the same result – a GTE win! The #88 car though had a most unfamiliar looking squad for the team – A commercial deal putting Bryce Miller, Nick Tandy and Abdulaziz bin Turki al Faisal aboard for the test and the race with Spencer Pumpely also getting his 10 laps in as a rookie ahead of an expected announcement of his placement aboard a Flying Lizards 997 in June. Supercup standout Tandy’s best effort (4:04.507) put the car right in the mix and things will only improve from there. An interesting line-up for the race that could see topsy turvy progress!
Hankook Team Farnbacher It was little short of a spectacularly successful test for the #89 Ferrari squad though only Allan Simonsen got much in the way of track time in the Hankook shod 458. The Dane would finish atop the GTE timing screens in both sessions, breaking the 4 minute barrier in the second (3:59.966), the only man to do so all day. With Dominik Farnbacher on ADAC GT Masters duty it was left to Leh Keen to play back-up, the quick young American though got not a lot in terms of lappery. The test though shows that the pace we saw from the car at Paul Ricard can be replicated here too – Great news for the depth of the potential GTE battle and a massive positive boost for the increasingly serious Hankook GT programme. IMSA Performance Another team undertaking a solid day’s work with Patrick Pilet joined by the team’s regular GTE Am squad Raymond Narac and Nicolas Armindo. They would finish the day as fastest Porsche, and fifth fastest in GTE courtesy of a 4:02.087 from Pilet midway through the afternoon session in the #76 car. JetAlliance Lotus We’ve written plenty already about the public debut of the pair of Lotus Evoras but let’s just repeat the fact that this was a very good starting point for the programme. The car looks the part and whilst its ultimate pace here was some 10 seconds off the fastest GTE Pro runners (the best time a 4:09.692) this is early days yet for Lotus. There was a seemingly late decision to run a pair of Lotus factory drivers in the #65 car, James Rossiter had been due to join the Hope Racing team at the test but was recalled for Evora duty instead with Johnny Mowlem getting time in both cars during the day. Trackside observers reported that the cars were able to carry plenty of speed through the corners but the straight line speed capabilities of the cars at present are the major concern – Will the ACO give Lotus a leg up? Or will they let the team find out what the car is capable of at Le Mans itself before doing so? Both cars ran in both sessions, a total of 40+ laps was useful mileage for the teams and the drivers – Martin Rich and Oscar Slingerland completed their rookie laps in the brand new #64 car after a heat exchanger problem during the morning session was sorted during the interval. A late session issue involving the loss of part of the engine cover on #64 has been diagnosed and fixed by the development team. Jota AMR Chris Buncombe was a welcome addition to the Jota crew and, despite his last appearance at Le Mans resulting in a class win (2007 LMP2 – Binnie Motorsport Lola Zytek) he had to join Simon Dolan on the rookie lap list. The Jota Aston Vantage ran strongly all day, Sam Hancock finding the opportunity to have a crack late in the first session for a faster run and popping up 5th fastest with a 4:04.594. Very encouraging indeed from the team and a highlight for Aston Martin followers on a day when there were precious few! Luxury Racing Luxury Racing were running their second Ferrari 458 for the first time in public and brought along Jaime Melo to help! We believe Melo ran in both the #58 and #59 cars helping out as regular lead pro Stephane Ortelli was not at the test. Melo certainly set the fastest time in the #59 car, a 4:01.968 in the afternoon session good enough for fourth quickest car of the day, highly encouraging stuff from the new team. There were signs too that the technical effort behind the team will be substantially bolstered for the big race too – several familiar faces from Risi Competizione were at the test with paddock chatter that Risi’s full crew will be supporting one of the two 458s in June! Robertson Racing It’s a nervous wait now for the Robertson Racing crew after investing hugely in their two car effort with the very lovely looking and sounding Doran Ford GTs they now have to keep everything crossed that it goes badly wrong for someone else in GTE land. The #69 ‘Pro’ car is first reserve and that’s a mightily frustrating place to be, especially for a US based team. It’s a huge credit to the team then that they chose to bring both cars to the test complete with a serious driver line-up too. Whilst their pace wasn’t worrying the leading Ferraris a 4:06.748 from David Murry in the morning session was far from poor. More significantly all three aboard the #69 car are their required laps and now, with the cars under their dust covers at Oak Racing the nail biting begins! Young Driver The Young Driver AMR Vantage was on track in the morning displaying the team’s readiness and ability to take up a place on the grid for the race if called upon to do so. Their second place on the reserve list though is getting more depressing for the team by the day and GT1 commitments mean that we won’t see this team at Spa. After setting a 4:10 in the morning session the car completed only an out lap in the second session (reason unknown). | 
