Spa Preview

LMP1

After the first two Le Mans Series races of the 2008 season Peugeot have all of the momentum. The 2008 spec 908 HDI FAP has shown a clean pair of heels to the Audi R10 and, with much of the 2007 reliability woes for the Peugeot now a distant memory, the R10s have a real fight on their hands for the remainder of the season.

Peugeot have added to their squad for the last race before Le Mans, giving two of their ex F1 men due to contest the 24 Hours a race run aboard the 908s.

Alexander Wurz joins the #8 squad whilst 2007 Peugeot Le Mans poster boy Jacques Villeneuve joins the #7 car.

Audi meanwhile stick with the two driver model but have been testing away from the race meetings.  A successful 30 hour test will give them encouragement for Le Mans but will it help the R10 TDI to close the now yawning gap in the LMS?

Amongst the petrol-fuelled racers the new Lola Aston Martin Coupe of Charouz racing Systems has been the revelation of the season thus far but reliability woes hit its progress at Monza.

Next fastest in Italy were the Courage Orecas but the two car attack from Hugues de Chaunac’s team will be down to just a solo runner in Belgium after Ortelli’s monster accident all but destroyed the #5 car.  Olivier Panis and Nicolas Lapierre will though be looking to restore the shine to Oreca’s season.

Another squad reduced to a single car after Monza is of course Creation AIM.  Jamie Campbell Walter is now in recovery mode after his big shunt and out of the driving seat until well after Le Mans.

The car’s breakage has now been fully diagnosed and a fix effected. Stuart Hall and a returning Felipe Ortiz are slated to drive, the young Englishman well pumped up for the task ahead.

The Epsilon Euskadi went much, much better at Monza, the simply beautiful Coupe’s sister car is again entered, again without nominated drivers as we go to press. The team will want to field their second car as soon as possible to push along the development of what looks like a potential filled project.

Amongst the four LMP1 Pescarolos there are some very different expectations.  The #16 factory car will once again be looking to grab the petrol-fuelled laurels with the #17 car, fresh from its hard fought Monza podium, hoping to be closer than ever to the Collard/ Bouillon car.

At Rollcentre Racing, Joao Barbosa returns after his Grand-Am clash last time out.  The Portuguese war horse knows Spa well and his team-mate, Vanina Ickx, could barely know it better!  Could we see one of those fabled fairy stories here?  Shorty will be hoping so.

Saulnier Racing will meanwhile be looking to improve on the so far not too impressive form of their driver squad. Le Mans now beckons for this car after Tafel’s withdrawal and they will be looking to get a lot closer to the class pace if that run is to avoid also-ran status.

The final LMP1 here is the Lavaggi AER, this the race that Giovanni and co were due to start their season with before a late opportunity arose to contest Barcelona.

They’ve had some time to prepare the Monagesque racer since then and lovers of the dog named ‘under' will hope that we can finally see some real pace from Lavaggi and Kaufmann aboard the unconventional #3 car.   

All of that means no Spa entry for the Lolas of Chamberlain Synergy or Cytosport / Team Jota.

LMP2

It’s been a pair of Porsche dominated races thus far with the Dunlop-shod Team Essex car taking the top step at Monza with the so far fastest van Merksteijn Motorsport RS Spyder battling back after contact with a Spyker cost the Verstappan/ van Merksteijn car too much time to recover.

The Horag Racing car hasn’t matched the pace of the other RS Spyders yet but, in Lammers and Theys hands, they are making great progress and both will find Spa very familiar territory.

Amongst the other new for 2008 LMP2s both of the Judd engined cars look strong.  The Saulnier Racing Pescarolo showed massively improved pace at Monza, again thoroughly outpacing its LMNP1 stablemate and the Speedy Garage, Sebah Racing Lola Coupe was mighty too, until a long, long delay cost it any chance of a significant result.  Hugh Hayden’s boys will be keen to put that right this coming weekend.

The Embassy Racing WF01s look set to make further progress at Spa after a hugely encouraging run for the #46 car at Monza which for long periods looked set to reward Jonathan France’s squad with a podium finish.

From the 2007 pace setters the Barazi Epsilon Zytek still looks to have excellent pace, particularly with the addition of Fernando Rees to the driving squad whilst RML will be looking to put their early season woes firmly behind them and the Quifel ASM squad will hope for better things too, Olivier Pla though has been very, very quick in the #40 car.

Kai Kruse was a happy man with the trouble-free Monza form of the Kruse Schiller Lola Mazda and the second Zytek, the #41 Trading Performance car, was another car showing massively improved pace and form in Italy.

The Team Bruichladdich Radical squad will be hoping for better reliability after a very early retirement last time out whilst amongst the minnows the WR Salini squad are learning fast, but have a lot still to learn and the Racing Box Lucchini squad, whilst on the entry list, are understood to be likely to miss the Belgian race.

GT1

An entry down to four cars at Monza with the withdrawal of the Larbre Saleen is given a timely boost with the addition of a second Aston Martin to the grid.

The Strakka Racing car will be looking to follow in the footsteps of the so far dominant Team Modena entry but the Nick Leventis / Peter Hardman driven DBR9 is likely to find the pair of Luc Alphand Aventures Corvette C6.Rs in its way, the #72 car in particular.  With Olivier Beretta once more on the driving squad alongside Gouselard and Moreau, this car is likely to push the Modena crew of Enge and Garcia very hard indeed.

The Kox/ Rusinov Lamborghini makes up the five and is still struggling to match the ultimate class pace thus far but the big GT1 cars are still popular with racegoers and, around Spa they look, and more importantly sound, right at home.

GT2

Monza winners Farnbacher Racing have been pushing hard for that result for season after season but the reality is that the luck finally turned their way in Italy whilst for the perhaps more fancied runners the bad tidings came in a rush. It’s a set of circumstances that is unlikely to be repeated but that won’t be for the want of Simonsen, Westbrook and Nielsen trying.

Virgo Motorsport’s speed has dominated the season thus far and that looked set to be the pattern again at Monza before a triple dose of bad luck of the rubber variety doomed their run to failure.  They will come back fighting in Belgium.

Felbermayr Proton’s lead #77 car had even earlier bad luck in Italy.  After a weekend which had seen the blue Porsche at or even ahead of the Virgo curve.  A very early suspension breakage robbed us of the opportunity to see whether Lieb and Davison could sustain that pace over 1000kms.  Development Michelin rubber or not, Lieb very firmly says not, this race is getting closer.

IMSA Performance are another squad that field a 2 car entry, one of them of course, the Lietz/ Narac #76 car, won on the road at Monza, only to be excluded after failing the stall test post-race.  They will surely rue missing the opportunity to hit Virgo and the #77 boys as hard as possible whilst the sister #75 car seemed to spend an unfeasible amount of its weekend being towed out of gravel traps.

The Farnbacher Racing team’s second car, the Ehret/ Kaffer Ferrari 430 showed a remarkable upturn in form at Monza, second place eventually the reward for a race long battle with the team’s Porsche.  This will be Kaffer’s first run sportscar run at Spa since his infamous run down the pitlane aboard a wrecked, ruined and fiery Audi R8 – Expect the 2008 version to be a good deal less dramatic, and a good deal more successful!

Spyker will be hoping for a further improvement on as close to a home race as they will get this season, both Laviolettes finished at Monza but again the ultimate pace was to be found elsewhere, the 2008 spec engine is needed badly but wasn’t looking likely to be aboard the little Dutch coupes as this item went to press.

Two more two car efforts to go and the first of them is James Watt Automotive – Monza saw an enormous step forward for the team, truly in contention for a podium finish until a blow-out cost them a long pit stop.

Tim Sugden added considerable weight to their efforts in the temporary absence of Mikael Forsten but the Finn is back in Belgium.  Can he provide such solid back-up to Palttala?

The team’s Aston Martin V8 Vantage is another car on the entry without any certainty of it appearing at Spa.  This is a programme which desperately needs a sprinkling of GH-C and co’s magic dust and soon.  There are customers keen to take advantage of the magic that an Aston Martin entry in GT2 would bring, but they won’t readily do so if the raw pace isn’t there.

Finally JMB Racing, their pair of blue Ferrari 430s looked anything but likely to shine this season but the early race woes for Virgo and Felbermayr Proton and the post race drama for IMSA Performance elevated the Daoudi/ Aucott car to a podium finish.  Again the form book suggests that it’s a scenario unlikely to be repeated but this is Spa and if anything is certain it’s the unexpected!