Le Mans Series Nurburgring - Saturday Morning Notes

Saturday morning dawns with church bells outside the dsc guest house window at 6am – That was one Lord waking up another as we came blinking once more into a beautiful morning at the Nurburgring.

Yesterday evening’s planned entertainment included a bit of Nordschleife entertainment with Wolfgang Kaufmann aboard something monstrously powerful – sadly though we missed our slot whilst attempting to assist Virgo with their sourcing of replacement bits of Ferrari so the only dscer to get out on track was Janos Wimpffen, the wheels might not have been all that impressive, a new Peugeot 308, but the pilot was, one Stephane Sarrazin!

Dr Wimpffen described the experience to the ex WRC and F1 man immediately as having been the “best fun he’d had with his clothes on”.  Happily the Peugeot ace saw this as the compliment it was intended rather than as a challenge to do better!

Down at Virgo Motorsport this morning the #96 car, after it’s impromptu barbecue yesterday, was looking in very much better shape, the engine bay entirely stripped, rear suspension changed, spare engine prepped and the team generally busying themselves cleaning salvaged parts as they wait for the arrival later today of a parts delivery from Michelotto, Franco, the loyal storesman making his way back to the factory to open up and despatch a driver overnight from Italy despite having to leave his wife at a restaurant table in order to do so – What sainted women surround the business of motorsport!

“We’re going to give it a good shot.  We aim to be out for warm-up tomorrow and we’ll be starting from pit lane.” Said a determined but slightly weary Chris Warne this morning.  Kudos too to the other teams in the paddock, particularly Team Modena and Farnbacher Racing, who have offered limitless assistance to the luckless Brits. 

Good news for Lavaggi followers everywhere as the eponymous team owner/ designer/ builder is out and lapping quite strongly this morning, stronger initially than both of the Creation AIMs, the #15 car hobbled yesterday with a broken gear.  The warm-up lap completed though JCW proved he was back on form, getting in amongst the leading petrol cars in the 1:44s.

The Peugeots were getting down to some very quick times almost immediately, Marc Gene the first man into the 1:40s in the #7 car.

Stefan Mucke meanwhile had finally found some speed from the #10 Lola Aston Martin, his 1:42.7 split the Audis for fourth fastest time in the first 20 minutes.

Also flying early on was the #34 Porsche, again in the hands of Jeroen Bleekemolen, he wasn’t the fastest LMP2 man in the first 15 minutes though, that fell to Fernando Rees in the #32 Barazi-Epsilon Zytek, a 1:44.698 the fastest class time of the meeting thus far.

Thomas Erdos was finding real speed too and before the halfway point he was the second fastest LMP2 man with a 1:45.0 before being pipped by a few thousandths by Andrera Bellichi in the seemingly now fighting fit #33 Lola Coupe.  The coupe improved again on the half hour, into the 1:44s

In GT1 the pace was being ramped up too, two cars into the 1:54s, both Corvette-shaped, with Moreau in the #72 posting a 1:54.3 ahead of Policand in #73 with a 1:54.9.
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GT2’s early pace setter was Richard Westbrook in the Farnbacher Porsche but Ferrari honour was restored before half way by none other than Stephane Daoudi in the #99 JMB 430.  Westbrook though was soon ahead once again, a couple of tenths to the good.

Another car that had been in trouble yesterday afternoon was the #95 JWA Porsche, the team though found that their oil leak problem was far less serious than expected, a faulty sensor reading had given major cause for alarm but all is well.

At the halfway point the Lavaggi is still going well, and into the 1:49s and then the 1:48s, climbing into the middle order of the LMP2s – Progress indeed! 

After all the phoney war excitement in LMP2, Jos Verstappen explodes a Porsche shaped smart bomb in amongst proceedings, a 1:43.901 8 tenths faster than the Zytek.

Enge gets in amongst the Corvettes in the Team Modena Aston, the Czech two thousandths faster than Policand before blitzing that mark with a 1:53.602, beretta’s initial response improves the time for #73 but still leaves it 3rd quickest.

Stephen Simpson starts to make his way up the order in the #14 Creation AIM after a quiet session for that team, a rapid series of improving laps.  There are improvements too for both Epsilon Euskadis and for the #5 Courage Oreca, the #6 sister car though had had trouble at the pit entry, the car stopping before the speed limit line.  

Alexander Premat draws within a tenth of a second of Mucke’s time, still fifth fastest though, that is until the next time around, the Audi man posting a 1:42.4 – Diesel order restored.

In GT2 its Ferraris second and third fastest as Anthony Beltoise gets into the 1:59s in the #90 Farnbacher car, edging out Marc Lieb in the #77 Felbermayr Proton Porsche, the top 4 all under 2 minutes.  Beltoise continues down into the 1:58s before session end.  So too though did Marc Lieb, and his effort grabbed the fastest GT2 time of the session, a 1:58.114 for a Porsche 1, 2, improving again next time around with a 1:58.082.  Second fastest in GT2 at session end was Beltoise, a 1:58.4 giving the order a neat Porsche, Ferrari, Porsche, Ferrari, Porsche, Spyker look.

10 minutes to go and the goalpost moving Peugeots do it again, Lamy with a 1:39.023!  that’s almost 2 seconds faster than the sister car and well over 3 seconds faster than the fastest Audi – on a relatively short track!  Alexander Premat pops up third fastest into the 1:41s a lap or so later, still though 2.8 seconds shy of Lamy.  Not for long though – he splits the 908s with seconds of the session remaining with a 1:40.347.