Scrutineering Conversations – Part 1
LMP2 Porsche People

Casper Elgaard and Kristian Poulsen had plenty of time on their hands as they waited for their Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder to make the slow – and delayed – journey through scrutineering; and Elgaard began by answering two questions – did the car now have the direct-injection engine; and why Michelins?

“Yes, we do now have the new engine, he began. “We ran at the Paul Ricard (LMS) test days with an old-engine, but we fitted the new one in time for the Le Mans 1000kms. It didn’t make a huge difference to the performance, but there was an improvement.

“As far as the tyres are concerned; last year Dunlop did a good job, but Michelin have been working very closely with Porsche – the car has been developed on Michelins over the last 3-4 years and works perfectly on them – so I guess that’s the reason why.”

Kristian Poulsen arrives at La Sarthe with a race win under his belt in his only previous sportscar race – the Spa LMS race from last month – in which he played an important role in holding off the Racing Box Lola to the finish; so how important was it for him to get that under his belt?

“Really important,” he asserted. “I had only had seven laps in the car before the race, and Casper had built up a good gap which I had to defend; but it got better with every lap that I was in the car. It was a lot of fun, really; a great track and a great car.”

So who do they see as the main class opposition? “Well, there’s NAVI Team Goh,” said Elgaard, “and the Lola Coupes will be stronger this year – they were quick last year, but had issues with reliability; they seem to have been sorted now. The new Ginetta-Zytek is also strong, but Team Goh is probably the toughest.”

Seiji Ara was glad to be back in La Sarthe.
 
“I tried several times since the win in 2004 to come back to Le Mans but couldn’t make it.
 
“Of course I’m very happy to be back this year, and particularly happy that it is a return for Team Goh with the NAVI Team Goh Porsche RS Spyder.”
 
The team have tested three times since taking delivery of the car from van Merksteijn Motorsport (once in Japan and twice at Paul Ricard), this the chassis that won both the LMP2 class in the 2008 Le Mans Series and the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours.
 
“The tests all went very well,” said Ara, “We started though with an oversteer problem, directly caused by the introduction of the narrower 2009 spec rear wing.  The team though worked very hard on the problem and we now have a stable and well balanced car.”
 
So what can you tell us about your team-mate Keisuke Kunimoto?
 
“He is young and very, very quick.  He took the win at the Macau F3 masters race and the Porsche suits him very well.”
 
And how is Ara himself adapting to his role as a mentor to the younger driver?
 
(Laughing) “I think there is plenty we can teach him about endurance racing, perhaps not so much about going quickly.”
 
So what level of Porsche support is the team getting here?
 
“Porsche have engine and chassis engineers with us this week but there are plenty of Team Goh mechanics and engineers here too.”
 
The team is also due to contest the pair of late season Asian Le Mans Series races. Ara though was not able to confirm whether he would get a race seat.
 
So what have the core Team Goh personnel been up to in recent seasons?
 
“Several of our key people have been working in Super GT, but perhaps less well known is that many of the mechanics and engineers working with the Dome (S102) project here last year were our people.
 
All of that, the Dome support, the surprise Porsche Spyder entry and the general demeanour of the Le Mans effort from the team seem to point to a plan beyond a Le Mans class win for the team.
 
“You’d better ask Mr Goh about that,” said a smiling Seiji Ara. We will Seiji, we will!      

MH & GG