2009 Le Mans 24 Hours Preview – GT2 – Part 1

Now – How do we split this class up for easy consumption?

Let’s do it the easy way – by marque

First up, alphabetically at least, is Aston Martin, the Drayson Racing V8 Vantage gives the car, and the marque, its GT2 debut at Le Mans; the car joining its siblings in GT1 and LMP1 in a celebration of the half century since their overall win with the DBR1.

The ‘baby’ Aston has come on somewhat since a disappointing 2008 ALMS campaign - there’s still pace to be found but, crucially for this test of endurance, reliability has been dramatically improved this season.

The driving squad is a proud all-British affair, with the pace being provided by Jonny Cocker and Marino Franchitti. Both are focussed and experienced, and neither should make mistakes.      

Neither lack racing passion either, but there’s plenty more of that on display from Paul Drayson. This entry marks the culmination of a dream for the businessman turned politician turned racing driver; and with Dale White i/c in the garage this is a team with resource in place to work around both strategic and mechanical issues.  On pace they can’t win it – but they can finish, and finish well.

Spyker are the other marque represented by a solo entry. The Dutch racers are becoming the perennial underachievers; never quite there on pace and seemingly too often suffering mechanical woes of the terminal (and sometimes visually dramatic) sort. 

The driving squad is potentially very strong indeed, Tom Coronel knows the car, knows Le Mans, and knows how to pedal quickly when required.  Jeroen Bleekemolen is all of the above and more so - truly a pair of (cliché alert!) Flying Dutchmen.

Joining them on the list is Jarek Janis, truly quick but clearly still struggling to shake off the effects of a back injury suffered two years ago at Spa aboard a Spyker.  Jarek was forced to step back from the race seat at Barcelona after suffering further back pain, and we earnestly hope he’s seen the last of that. 

In summary – the driving squad is a quality line-up, but the team now has to produce a car capable of unlocking the potential. Has it done so? We’re about to find out!

Porsche is next up and before the initial entry was credit crunched we only had a trio of 997 RSRs.

That has now risen to five, three of which have potential for real pace.

First though, the two late additions:

Endurance Racing China was an enigma at first, but it emerged that Perspective Racing boss Thierry Perrier and his regular pilote Philippe Hesnault were the men behind the mystery.

The team has now evolved into Endurance Racing Asia and Hesnault has been joined on the driving strength by ex- LMS racer and 2009 FIA GT contender Darryl O Young and ex FIA GT3 man Plamen Kralev; adding some interest for Bulgarian Le Mans fans.

The team will be seen later this season in the Asian Le Mans Series races too and, whilst there are some that say the ACO were somewhat duped by this entry’s background, perhaps the reality is that Thierry Perrier et al might have given themselves a big leg-up in a potentially valuable new market.

Will they shine at Le Mans? Unlikely; but the team knows how to get a car home at the big one and they might just find themselves in a group where a well paced and reliable run could yield results.

Another car that could be in the same group is the second Porsche to be elevated to the full entry list.  The second IMSA Performance 997 RSR though is something of a hybrid entry, the team having reached an accommodation with the Felbermayr Proton squad; so the regular trio from the #88 car in the Le Mans Series transfer to the #70 car here. 

Horst Felbermayr Jr, Christian Ried and Francisco Cruz Martins are a crew unlikely to worry the ultimate pace-setters; but, once again, a policy of keeping up momentum, keeping it on the black stuff and out of the pits could (possibly!) bring dividends.

Three more 997s to go and all three have quality driving squads and quality teams behind them.

Let’s deal with the other IMSA Performance car first. The #76 car was the class winner a couple of years ago and matches gentleman/pro crossover man Raymond Narac to a pair of Porsche factory Patricks - Long and Pilet. No shortage of potential pace there and in a 997 that, by all accounts, should be much, much faster in a straight line than the 430 hordes.  This is a car that should certainly be a contender.

That was the case last year too though and what happened? A clash between the IMSA Performance car and another major contender from Planet Stuttgart - the Flying Lizard 997.  The 2007 class winners were out very, very early and the Lizards lost a bit of the car that needed a long repair, and certainly didn’t grow back.

The stateside favourites are back too this year for the fifth consecutive year and this year’s Lizard hatchlings are the tall and lightning fast Jorg Bergmeister, the less tall but still quick Darren Law - a Le Mans virgin, but a man on for a 24 hour double after taking the overall win at Daytona - and the not at all tall but reliably steady and super keen Seth Neiman. Always a focussed team, but almost always, it seems, suffering stupendously poor luck at Le Mans. Perhaps this year will be different?  If it is, then a very, very strong run beckons.

To take the ultimate laurels, though, they’ll have to beat not only the Ferrari competition and the IMSA Performance car, but also the last of our Porsche runners, Le Mans Series frontrunners Felbermayr Proton.

Their familiar two tone blue livery once again welcomes a top class line up; the second 997 to feature an all-factory squad, with LMS regulars Richard Lietz and Marc Lieb joined by Wolf Henzler.  Perhaps just as significantly they have the enormous brain power of Norbert Singer leading their backroom boys. If Ferrari are going to win this one, they’ll have to beat the #77 car to do it. 

GG