Le Mans Series – Monza Preview
Third Time Around Monza

This is where it all began, on May 9 2004, the first race for the then new Le Mans (Endurance) Series. That was an absolute classic, dominated in the end by the two Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx Audis, ahead of a slightly off-form Goh Audi, but with the brand new Zytek 04S mixing it with the R8s, notably in qualifying and early on in the race.

The opening race of the 2007 series might have a similar (privateer against ‘factory’) feel to it at the front of the field, but the entries are all completely different from three years ago.

LMP1
That 2004 race / series certainly kick-started prototype racing in Europe, with an impressive 12 entries on the grid – although some of those were showing signs of age. The oldest LMP1 cars at Monza this weekend, among an entry of 13 (now sadly reduced to 11 with the late withdrawal of both the Arena Zytek and the Swiss Spirit Lol Audi – both running out of time to make the meeting), are no more than a year old. With two or three notable exceptions, this is very much a first look at how June’s Le Mans 24 Hours could pan out – because the Paul Ricard test days, for various reasons, left several questions unanswered.

Paul Ricard did reveal that:
The Lavaggi is still woefully off the pace
The revised Courage LC70 AER is very much more reliable than the original version
The brand new Racing for Holland Dome Judd was very close to ultimate pace straight away
The brand new Charouz Lola Judd was bang on the pace second time out
The Rollcentre Pescarolo Judd was fast and supremely reliable
The Chamberlain-Synergy Lola AER was also quick and reliable.

Paul Ricard didn’t reveal a great deal about the Peugeot 908’s form – except that it was fastest of all, but not by much. The Pescarolo Sport entry wasn’t in full 2007 trim. The new Creation wasn’t ready for Ricard, and won’t be at Monza either: expect its debut at Valencia (together with the Zytek and Lola Audi).

What that all means is that potentially there are up to eight cars in contention for the overall win at Monza – but who on earth do you make the favourite, Peugeot? Pescarolo? Henri’s team won all five events last year so it wouldn’t be a surprise to see the Collard / Boullion entry make it seven in a row (they won the last race of 2005 too) – looking back further than that, the last non-Boullion / Collard winners of a Le Mans Series race were Tom Chilton and Hayanai Shimoda (Nurburgring 2005), they’ll be in the mix for sure at Valencia but sadly not at Monza.

Eight cars probably have the speed to win, and if you’re going for tried and tested, go for a Pescarolo, with the Rollcentre and Primat / Tinseau cars looking almost as strong as the 2006 champions. Perhaps a Peugeot will win first time out though?

It will be fascinating to follow the progress and development of the new / revised cars from Courage Competition, Racing for Holland and Charouz. Jan Lammers reckoned that his new Dome felt good as soon as he drove it down the pit lane at Ricard for the first time – which seems to sum up how well the new cars have been running this year. Perhaps the Lola Audi will feel just as good as the Dome?

LMP2
Seven of the 11 LMP2s stand out as potential winners, but four of them head the ‘most likely to’ list – the RML MG Lola, the Quifel-ASM Lola, the Bruichladdich Radical and the Barazi-Epsilon Zytek. The next three comprise the Horag and Binnie Lolas and the Embassy Radical, although the Saulnier Courage and Kruse Pescarolo could legitimately be added to that group, which leaves the del Bello and Bruneau entries making up the numbers.

RML suffered some ridiculous misfortunes last year, winning only once in the LMS, and with the Barazi-Epsilon Courage winning the opening race a year ago (at the not-missed-in-the-slightest venue of Istanbul), ASM took the remaining three wins. Bruichladdich heads the list of those most likely to join the LMP2 winners (and score that first, overdue win for an SR9), and ‘all’ it will take is a fast, trouble-free run from Moseley and Greaves (Robin Liddell is on ALMS duty this weekend). Perhaps Embassy’s switch to the ex-Rollcentre Radical will turn out to be an inspired move though, even this early in the season? Hughes and Cunningham form the strongest driver line-up in the class but both ar every short of seat time in the Radical.

Whilst the LMP1 Zytek 07S is absent there is still a potential class winner here for Trevor Foster’s team. the Barazi-Epsilon LMP2 car, what a result that would be…

GT1
Five-sevenths of GT1 has a very French look to it – the cars from Oreca (one Saleen), Aston Martin Racing Larbre (two DBR9s) and Luc Alphand Aventures (a C6.R and a C5-R). Team Modena with its DBR9 has Sebring under its belt already, and the seventh entry is the Italian Racing Box Saleen.

The #50 Aston Martin and the Oreca Saleen look to have the strongest driver line-ups (respectively Bouchut / Gollin / Gardel and Ortelli / Ayari), and both teams are proven winners in the Le Mans Series – but so is Team Modena, while Alphand’s team deserved a win last year.

After all that reliable running at Ricard, Oreca start out as favourites, as they begin a second year with the Saleens.

GT2
With the JWA Porsche replacing the Creation LMP1 entry, GT2 numbers 19 cars, from five manufacturers. Porsches (seven) and Ferraris (six) dominate – and historically it has been Porsche teams that have come out on top at the end of each season. But the wins have been spread around as follows: seven for Porsche, four for Ferrari, two for Panoz and one for TVR. If a Panoz wins this one, that will be a straight hat-trick in the LMS, after LNT’s wins at the Nurburgring and Jarama last season.

Porsche’s record of three championship titles has been largely down to the fact that one team has put together a sequence of results in each of the three seasons. So far, no Ferrari team has managed that – but that could be about to change, care of Virgo Motorsport. Robert Bell and Allan Simonsen form the strongest Ferrari driver line-up, matched only by the Lieb / Pompidou pair in the Felbermayr-Proton Porsche, Kimber-Smith / Watts in the #81 Panoz and Kox / Janis and Chiesa / Belicchi / Kane in the Spykers.

Elsewhere in GT2, three drivers will share most of the cars, as one or two pros. are joined by one or two gents. – but in certain cases, the presence of a gentleman (or two) hardly weakens the squad at all. For instance, what about Rosa and Drudi joining Mowlem in a GPC Ferrari, or Hernadez / Bonetti / Simone in the other GPC 430?

The evidence from the 2007 ALMS races so far this season point to the Ferrari 430 having an advantage over the Porsche 997, but the evidence of the 15 Le Mans Series races held so far point to the driver combination (and the team) being more important factors than the marque of car they drive.

Lieb and Pompidou against Bell and Simonsen then, with Panozes and Spykers in with a shout?

The action begins at lunchtime on Friday, and the whole race will be broadcast (for European fans) on Motors TV. It’s the biggest Le Mans Series grid ever in prospect, and it should be a fabulously entertaining race.