LMS Nurburgring - Friday Morning Notes

An incident-free hour was just the ticket for the opening free practice session at the Nurburgring.

All 46 remaining cars were out and running though the Lavaggi completed only a couple of out-in laps, the car had performed perfectly in a test earlier this week but now was suffering a mystery gearbox / electronics glitch..

Another car not running well was the #33 Speedy Garage / Sebah Racing Lola Coupe, a mystery electronic problem having (very frustratingly for all concerned) reappeared after a Donington test had apparently traced it and a fix had been applied.  The #33 car has had a heap of development lavished upon it since Le Mans.  The lost track time this morning not good news as the team work to gather data.

At the other end of the timing sheets were, predictably, the diesels, Mike Rockenfeller the early pacesetter in the #2 Audi R10 before Marc Gene put the #7 car under 1:42, the first car in that territory so far (1:41.994).  All three of the other diesels ended the session in the 1:42s

The best of the petrol car rest was Christophe Tinseau for much of the session in the #17 Pescarolo but he was pipped by Nicolas Lapierre’s #6 Courage Oreca (1:43.507)

Down at Creation AIM Jamie Campbell Walter was back in the saddle, back up to speed and in high spirits.  Less happy was LMP1 debutant Liz Halliday “We just had a load of small problems, I got a huge clump of pick-up just as I left the pits and then spent quite a while having to adjust the brake bias as I was locking up everywhere.  All the while I was trying to learn the circuit, I’ve never raced here before and apart from testing I’ve been out of the cockpit for around a year.”

LMP2 saw the #31 Essex Racing Porsche take top time in the session, John Nielsen doing the honours with a lap in 1:46.833, 12th fastest overall.

Next up was Olivier Pla in the #40 Quifel ASM Lola, just three tenths shy of the Porsche with another Porsche , Jos Verstappen in the #34 van Merkteijn car, next ahead of Verger’s Barazi Epsilon Zytek and Erdos in the RML MG Lola.

The Embassy Racing WF01s were further down the order than the team had hoped, the pitcrew though were showing once again that the sportscar racing community is just that, passing on their best wished to de Ferran Racing fueller Keith Jones.  Rumours of the Yorkshire squad making their way to PLM are by the way unfounded.

GT1 had three of the four runners in the 1:55s, Peter Kox topping the order in the #55 Lamborghini ahead of Antonio Garcia in the Team Modena Aston Martin.

And last but very much not least in GT2, the Virgo boys were atop the tree once again, Rob Bell putting the #96 car into the 1:58s, the only GT2 car to break that barrier, his time being bettered only by his own team-mate late in the session, a 1:58.697 from Gimmy Bruni extending the gap to Pierre Kaffer in the #90 Farnbacher Ferrari with the sister #91 Porsche of Richard Westbrook posting third best time.

Virgo’s crew are still smarting from the car’s retirement from the Le Mans 24 hours “The first mechanical failure the car has ever suffered,” their mission for the weekend is simple – “Our job is to go out there and win this race, pure and simple,” said Rob Bell, fresh from a topsy turvy race for the #61 Risi Competizione car at Road America.