LMS - Monza - Post-Event Thoughts

Firstly a correction – it seems that the initial assessment of the photographs of the fire for the Luc Alphand C5-R was incorrect.

David Lord, who captured the images of the fire on Friday, observed that the mechanic manning the fuel tank venting head on the pit garage side of the car had trouble engaging the component, but that the fueller then started to fill the tank. The consequence of not engaging the vent was that fuel sprayed out of the car on the garage side under pressure, the initial spillage igniting on the Corvette’s exhaust or brakes and leading to the very rapid spread of fire. The ‘broken fuel hose’ in the shot below is actually the venting head.

Luc Alphand observed at the post race press conference that all of his injured crew wanted the team to start the race with both cars and that the team’s first action post race was to ensure that they knew of the team’s excellent 1 – 3 result.

Virgo Motorsport personnel were delighted with their podium finish but there was some frustration that a very crowded pitlane had prevented them from pitting within reach of the refuelling rig at their first stop. “It’s not sour grapes but the reality is that the time we lost there (over a minute) was roughly equivalent to the gap between us and the class winner. It’s a real shame as we could have been in the hunt for a race win,” said team manager Chris Warne. A further ‘grit your teeth’ moment was revealed by Chris later when he pointed out that one of the reasons the team had been late to arrive at the Monza circuit was that Michelotto had asked them to help out by delivering a car to GPC on their way there – this was the car that won the class!

Chad Peninsula’s John Hartshorne hobbled by on his way back to the team’s truck, after a very plucky display on the team’s Panoz debut. “We’ve all got big problems with the heat in the cockpit and I have huge blisters and some burns as a result. Richard Dean told us that the LNT boys wear a particular type of racing boot to counter it, but did we listen? The heat came through the floor, through heat matting, through further cladding, the pedals and our boots.”

Peugeot Sport has produced a fabulous beast in the 908 HDi FAP, but some of their backroom staff could do worse than take a leaf out of the book of Serge Saulnier. The team manager responded politely and concisely to several clarifying questions about the minor issues surrounding the delays to the car’s race, a contrast to the rather rampant paranoia about pitlane pictures of the rear of the car.

Peugeot clearly don’t want the engine photographed in situ (presumably as opposed to the very high profile press conference conducted at last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, when the engine was wheeled out and floodlit for all to see!). So comprehensive has their blackout been that an unofficial contest amongst the series’ regular media is apparently underway to get the first such shot.

Indeed dsc observed one Peugeot press officer literally jumping up and down in front of a photographer to prevent a shot, which was particularly pointless as a) the rear of the car wasn’t in view and b) the photographer was a good half metre taller than said Pug person. Come on Peugeot, do it with dignity!

We still wait of course to find out the final entry list for the next round at Valencia, but there are several unhappy GT2 teams which look certain to lose out on an entry, with the permitted grid size falling short of the full season entry numbers. That means double trouble for any team which suffered an early race problem at Monza – they look set to lose out not only on the points from Italy but also from Spain too. Why not trim each of the classes? And indeed why go to a track that can’t accommodate all of your entrants?

All in all though it was a tale all weekend of a packed grid with some new faces and a lot of very new cars: some ended up top of the tree and others needed more time than they had available to get their season bedded in. All in all this wasn’t a classic but it did have much to savour, and it promised a great deal for the season to come.
GG