FIA WEC, 6 Hours of Sao Paulo - Pre-Race Snippets

It seems that Peter Dumbreck’s gloomy outlook after yesterday’s qualifying session was well founded – the team discovered a front left damper failure:

Nigel Stepney: After the qualifying session we looked at the car very closely as we couldn’t understand how we could lose so much time compared to the morning session. When we checked we found we had had a front left damper failure. This now explains why we had a problem getting the peak out of the tyres. It cost us a lot of time through the twisty section at the back of the circuit, which goes some way into understanding the relative time loss. Now we have a clear picture we’ll fix for tomorrow and be on top form for the race.

Gulf Racing Middle East have confirmed that their second Lola Nissan will remain as a spare for the rest of the 2012 WEC – Fabien Giroix cited spares supply issues for the withdrawal of the second car but was clear that they are looking to return in 2013 with both cars.

There’s a reasonable crowd here with the lunchtime autograph session a packed affair.

Tracy Krohn’s Porsche Cup adventure was a disjointed affair, a multi car shunt on Lap One saw him spin in avoidance and then pit to replace a flatspotted rear – After that he recovered up the field to finish just outside the top 30 – All too few laps at racing speed whilst the marshals swept up the scattered remains of several very bent Cup 997s though made the effort in getting additional track time less useful than planned.