Le Mans Series Nürburgring 1000 Kilometres 2008

LMP1:

1 - Audi
The Audi number 1 did not have its day. Unlike its sister car it was never able to beat one of the Peugeots in any of the sessions (number 2 did it twice) and in most of the sessions was behind the number 2 as well as for most part of the race. Despite that they almost finished on the podium having not had a pitstop at the end of the race. After being fourth in Belgium they continued in a tradition to be the only diesel not to reach a podium during the 2008 season.

2 - Audi
The second Audi, which was usually slower in previous LMS races but more reliable or trouble-free and maintained much better position in the championship, was this time usually better and quicker of the two Audis, for reasons unknown. During the race it ran originally fourth behind the Charouz Lola Aston Martin but soon moved to third and for most part of the race kept it. But near the end of the race it appeared to run behind the other Audi, so the Audi number 1 was called to pits for a tyre change to allow number 2 move ahead and make its championship chance more open.

3 - Lavaggi
Last time in Spa report we wrote it had been the best Lavaggi's race so far. This time we have to write the same since the underfinanced team, which clearly lacks testing and development, is improving race after race. This time it was not even slowest of the LMP1 cars (Saulnier no.4 was running behind till the Lavaggi suffered its first problems) and for some time it ran some 3 or 4 spots from the very end of the prototype field (add WR or Radical, not counting some pitstop delayed cars). During the race the car spent a lot of time in the pits, especially during the second part of the race and despite it was not classified, it was the first time ever this italian car saw the chequered flag in an international Endurance race.

4 - Saulnier Pescarolo
This is by far the poorest driven car in the LMP1 field but still very welcome racer as we also need some cars running behind the top private teams like Oreca, Creation or Pescarolo. It is interesting to see Jacques Nicolet as a star of CER race in his yellow Lola, where his driving looks really cool compared to most of that hobby drivers, on one day and then rather poor performance in a strong LMS field the second day. Hopefully they will not give up and continue their effort. That would be surely followed by some improvements. In the final results it was classified 11th out of twelve cars.

5 - Courage-Oreca
The car missed the Spa race because Ortelli had a very heavy accident in Monza in it. This time he was back at the wheel for the first time, while the car was built new from scratch. Because Ortelli was still in rehabilitation process a third driver (French Loic Duval racing in Super GT) was called from Japan to help. So Ortelli could do just a single stint while Ayari started the car, and rather successfully. Originally they battled factory Pescarolos and LMP2 Porsches but after two hours it developed into a battle between this Courage-Oreca a Van Merksteijn Porsche. WHile the Porsche was ahead in hours 4 and 5, the Courage had advantage in hour 3 and, fortunately for the team, in the finish.

6 - Courage-Oreca
The car started by Panis was running just behind the Audis since the starts. Actually only this car plus four factory diesels and quick Lola Aston Martin were the only LMP1 cars that were able run quicker than Verstappen in the LMP2 car. Unfortunately the car was hit by troubles in lap 68 while still running 6th and then settled fro some time in 19th position, then there was some progress until lap 125 (14th position) but then another delays stopped Panis and Lapierre from getting a decent result. The car was in about 30th position and in the end it was retired two laps before the finish.

7 - Peugeot
The car driven by Gene and Minassian took the pole position ahead of the other Peugeot by only 0.023 seconds. They were in the championship lead and maintained the same position early in the race. In fact both Peugeots were running very closely until this car was delayed some 10-15 seconds during a pitstop due to a starter problem. Since then the other Peugeot ran in the lead while the car number 7 continued regularly to appear in the lead for a couple of laps during all the pitstops but never got really close to the other car.

8 - Peugeot
Both Peugeots were very well matched and ran at the same pace. This car was however luckier after a complete retirement in the previous race. Good for Lamy and Sarrazin that the team let them win the race, though for drivers's championship it would be safer to have the car number 7 as a winner because car number 8 is already out of contention. We really appreciate that Peugeot had no team orders and that they allow their drivers to race themselves. On the other side, if the car number 8 was forced to slow and leave the victory to car number 7, any chances to have both Peugeot on the top of championship standings would be gone. At the current constellation, the car number 8 is only nine points behind the Audi number 2 and if it did not finish in the final race and Peugeot number 8 won that races, there would be still Peugeot 1-2 in the championship.

10 - Charouz Lola
After having been only 8th in the first practice session, the Lola started to shine later. Beginning with the second sessions it was always the best petrol car and in qualifying Mücke even outqualified both factory Audi. He appeared on the track only very late in the session, did only a few laps but they were very quick. In the race Mücke managed to defend the third position in the first corner, even if it almost look that one Audi might have passed by, and then maintained it for several laps. But on a longer distance Audis were more powerful and consistence so at the 25 lap mark the second Audi moved to fourth and Lola continued 5th. Despite it was lost for a short after a puncture following a collision with a slower GT2 car and Lola ran briefly 6th, generally for most part of the race, the Lola was safely the best of the privater petrol fuelled entries and finished 5th. Same position it now keeps in the championship standings.

14 - Creation
Car number 14 was back after its Monza accident. But not with usual Jamie Campbell-Walter at the wheel but rather with Liz Halliday, debuting in LMP1 car and a complete sports car novice Stephen Simpson. Not much was expected from this Creation but the result was not really bad. They were just four position behind the team lead cars and ahead of likes of Rollcentre Pescarolo, Horag Porsche RS or RML MG Lola. Unfortunately the car was hit by troubles in thr third hour to drop down to 36th. They were able to move up to 22nd in the finish but it was not enough to score any championship points.

15 - Creation
This is the car that raced in Le Mans as number 14 in the new brown/blue colour scheme. Since the Creation with number 15 had much better position in the championship, the best drivers of the team were placed into this car and the result was fairly good. Eighth overall and two points to the LMP1 championship might not sound great but considering a fact that they were third best petrol fuelled car behind unbeateable-if-running Lola Aston Martin and very well organised team Oreca with a long history, we can consider it as a very good result, realistically the best the team could hope for. Only more retirements among the very top teams could have helped. In provisional championship standings the car lies 7th behind P-P-A-A-Lola AM and Pescarolo 17. If their home race would develop well for the team, they could achieve a really great results in the championship.

16 - Pescarolo
Pescarolos did not have its day this time. Though the car number 16 was running 7th for some time, just being sandwiched between two Oreca cars, then Boullion went off the track. After a long time the car was released and then slowly returned to the pits. But it sat in the garage since then and never returned back.

17 - Pescarolo
The car, which is now in better championship position that its sister car number 16, which almost won the LMS championship last year ran well for over fifty minutes before it got a broken drive shaft and lost more than 15 minutes with repairs of damaged suspention. It dropped down to 44th being followed only by Radical and second Epsilon Euskadi. After this issue they ran relatively well and in the end they scored one championship point and became the best LMP1 Pescarolo in the finish. They were 18th but still far behind the LMP2 Pescarolo, which was classified in top 10 as ninth overall.

18 - Rollcentre Pescarolo
The Rollcentre team used to achieve some great results in the past but it seems that the level of competition grew up too much this year and the car is usually running at the end of the class field, if we forget the likes of completely undeveloped Lavaggi or poorly driven Saulnier Pescarolo. Even the new Euskadis are clearly ahead and we have heard this might be the last season for the team in the Le Mans Series. Hopefully not but after disappearing of another similar team, the Chamberlain Synergy, everything is possible. Nice lady Vanina Ickx, Joăo Barbosa and the team owner Martin Short finished 19th here in Germany, just a single lap behind the points. It was their second race in a row without points (both here and in Spa 9th in LMP1) and the situation really does not look well for the team that finished 4th in Le Mans last year, recorded 3rd andf 4th place finishes in the Le Mans Series last year and was even second fastest right behind a Peugeot at its first appearence early in 2007 during pre-seasons testing in Paul Ricard.

20 - Epsilon-Euskadi
Those both Euskadis seems to be well matched, this one was probably a bit slower, especially during the qualifying and early in the race. Later both Euskadis's racing reminiscent the situation in Le Mans. After a fairly good early running both cars experienced technical issues, used to spent longer time in the garage and then returning for a while, again to the garage and so on. In the end this car was the luckier of the two because it saw the chequered flag. But 33rd position was definitely nothing the team could hope for after a good performance early in the race.

21 - Epsilon-Euskadi
The second Epsilon cars had its race debut in Le Mans and this time it had its first race in the Le Mans Series. It was quick enough for its debut, actually beating both factory Pescarolos during the qualifying, so the speed of the car was promising but reliability issues during the race killed any chances for a good result, unfortunately.

LMP2:

25 - RML MG Lola
The team officially supported by MG, at least their car is badged as MG (though scoring points for Lola in the manufacturers championship) was a team to beat last year. Now, Erdos and Newton cannot find a pace. It is sure that a new car is a need for the team should they continue next year. Well, our secret hope is closed LMP MG-badget Lola. This time they scored 3 points for 6th in class to secure their 5th position in the championship, actually second best non-Porsche car. This is fairly good result for a common team, but nothing to enjoy for former champions. They are unlikely to be catched by another team in the final race but in case of another major failure of Horag Porsche they could move to fourth. Theoretically even the third championship position is possible.

26 - Bruichladdich Radical
The car that used to be a pace setter last two season was now slowest prototypes but the still new and underfinanced WR effort. Even though Petersen who started the car ran out of fuel during his first stint and had to reach his mechanics using a starter. As a result of it a new starter had to be fitted. The car then dropped down to the very last position in its lap 30. And it was not the end of the problems. However in the end they were able to cross the finish line to be classified 34th overall and 13th in class.

27 - Horag Porsche
The third fastest Porsche looked a bit out of form this time. Not only it was beaten by many LMP2 in qualifying and then ran in the middle of the field early in the race but after it somehow managed to get through the class field and at times running second behind to much better Van Merksteijn Porsche in the final part of the race it suffered serious brake problems and had to be called to the garage for relatively long repairs. Despite the car was classified, the result was nowhere near what the team hoped for: 12th place, no championship points and just Radical and WR behind in the class could really hardly been worse.

30 - Racing Box Lucchini
The car was withdrawn earlier than the similar car of Randaccio. The issues from Le Mans with the homologation papers were not solved, though the team probably hoped differently, considering a fact they made a rather worthless trip after the Le Mans debacle.

31 - Essex Porsche
The Essex entry was the main opponent of the completely dominant Van Merksteijn Porsche. At least in the early stages of the race when it even took the lead four laps before the first series of pitstop after which the Merksteijn Porsche completely dominated the race. Bad for the Essex team, the car went off to the gravel in the second hour and lost a lot of time before being pushed back. It ran only 9th in class and 19th overall after two hours of racing. But since it was faster then all other cars in the car but the troubled Lola Coupe, Nielsen and Kasper managed to moved to the class podium but to beat consistently running Pescarolo LMP2 they did not manage.

32 - Barazi Zytek
It was one of the fasted non-Porsche car in the class but not quite well lucky. Juan Barazi span it already in the first corner after the start and had to wait till the entire field went by. While he was able to catch some slower cars in the class during his stint, the car really never featured in the race after having been 4th in class on the grid. Barazi was again at the wheel when the Corvette no.73 cross his way in the first corner. Zytek spun again but the Corvette with a broken suspension was a retirement. At the end of the race the Zytek was classified 8th in class, effectively getting one point for the championship. Still better results than the Lola Coupe, which finished one position higher after having been one position ahead in qualifying.

33 - Speedy Lola Coupe
The traditionally fastest non-Porsche LMP2 car struggled to find pace in the early sessions but for qualifying everything worked well and the Lola was third quickest in class behind two Porsches. In the race itself they suffered an early puncture and lost a lot of time while other teams were still in their first stints. After some steady run the Lola overtook everything in class but the Verstappen's unbeatable Porsche but later in the race usual reliability problems cut once again the effort and in the end the team could have been happy to move from 10th in class to 9th in the very final laps of the race. Looking at the fastest race laps, the Lola was second just 0.035 seconds behind the Van Merksteijn Porsche a with a notable gap ahead the rest but after a very successful debut the team is struggling to achieve any further notable result.

34 - Van Merkstein Porsche
Van Merkstein, the car owner, who recently announced his intention not to continue in the Le Mans Series next year, was not present here at the Nürburgring as he prefered to take part in German Rallye and thus losing any chances for LMP2 title. As a results of that the car driven by very fast ex-F1 driver Verstappen and also rather quick Bleekemolen, who set the fastest lap in the class, the Porsche was even more dominant than usually. It lost its lead only briefly at the end of the first stint when tyres went off and the Essex Porsche took the opportunity to be in the lead from lap 29 for another four laps before the pitstops. Van Merksteijn Porsche was also quicker than most of the pertrol fuelled LMP1 cars but the Lola Aston Martin but in the end of of the Oreca cars managed to beat it by only 18 seconds after the almost six hours of racing.

35 - Saulnier Pescarolo
After average or even worse showing in qualifying and early in the race when mainly the total lap speed did matter, later when the race progressed, the performance of Pierre Ragues and Matthieu Lahaye started to shine when they moved up steadily. After problems of the Speedy Lola, Essex Porsche and finally the Horag Porsche, they found themselved running second in class and in top 100 overall, which was really going to be the best result in the season so far. For the team it was important to keep the recovering Essex Porsche behind, which in the end they managed by 22 seconds and moved to the third position in the championship with a real chance to maintain it even after the final race in Silverstone.

37 - WR
Still the very new car showed some improvement compared to their previous races but Salinis were still by far the slowest prototype in the field, more likely mixing with GT1 or top GT2 then anything else. It was nice to see them in the race almost until the finish. Unfortunately 15 minutes before the end they retired, effectively becoming the first and the only one retirement in the LMP2 class. There is still some potential in the car but it remains to be seen whether they are really ever able to match the tail of the prototype field rather then fight with GT1s. While there were still running without problems, they were located behind leading Aston Martin of team Modena and ahead of all other GT cars. Their fastest lap in the race was however better then that of any GT car.

40 - ASM Lola
With one of the oldest car in the field the team ASM had some excellent showing during the weekend. They were second fastest already in the first practice session and beaten the Van Merksteijn Porsche, continued with the third class place in the final Friday's session. We spotted the car running very very well through the corners. After worse Saturday's morning session they improved a little in qualifying to get fifth class spot, excellent results from Friday could not repeat though. Pla and Amaral then ran at the same pace as the new Lola Coupe during the first stint. It was nice to follow the battle between the two Lolas. Then the coupe was hit by its first trouble and the ASM old car ran third for some time before having its moments as well. But fifth in the class in the finish was not bad result for this aging car.

41 - Trade Zytek
The very successful factory Zytek from the last still cannot find its form this season in hand of new Trade Performance team. Unfortuntely Karim Ojjea and Claude-Yves Gosselin are nowhere near the performance of for example Mücke and Charouz, who drove it last year to fourth overall in Petit Le Mans, so we cannot expect too much from the team depsite having quite excellent car. This time we had almost no retirements in the class, so the team went home without any championship points. Hopefully Zytek will try to impove its presence in sports car racing as we believe their cars are the most stunning of those that do not use a roof.

42 - Randaccio Lucchini
A welcome return of the team to the Le Mans Series was a disaster. The team rather surpringly arrived with a completely new chassis (number 166 - newer than the Racing Box car) but failed scrutineering similarly as the other Lucchini. Reason - homologation problems. Perhaps it was the last time of Lucchini in the LMS, wasn't it? Hopefully so, but we are afraid. It would be good to have some field fillers in the series so that WR, Lavaggi and a very few other under-financed teams were not so alone in the competition.

44 - Kruise-Schiller Lola
It was the first car to be seen in the pits (in lap 7) and thus delayed from the beginning. Then the Mazda supported Lola circulated almost constantly between positions 20 and 25 to be classified 21st overall and outside the class points.

45 & 46 - Embassy
Let's describe a performance of the two Embassy cars together as they were both running really similarly at the same pace and both finished closed together. Originally the team was not much satisfied with the cars's performance but already in qualifying they managed to be 7th and 8th among 14 cars, which is really good considering a fact that four of those ahead are not expected to by reached by new privately developed cars (3 x Porsche and the Lola Coupe). They had also a decent race, running originally 15th and 16th overall, then they slightly dropped down but still in top 20. The car n umber 46 had a better race, at times even running in top 10. The final result was 4tha nd 7th in class and 11th and 14th overall, which was by far the best results achieved by the team so far.

GT1:

55 - Lamborghini
During the first hours the Lamborghini was running in a close formation with the two Corvettes but then both of them were damaged after collisions with GT2 cars so the Lamborghini secured second position in class for a few hour. Kox and Rusinov had just to finish in order to get 8 points but after four and half hours, when they needed just to cover 5 laps and cross the finish line in order to be classified, the car stopped next to the track with a broken drive shaft and never moved after that. When one of the Corvettes was repaired and reappeard on the track, it took a very long till its drivers moved to the second position ahead of Lamborghini. Unfortunately there was no way to get the Lamborghini back to the pits, so it was given up and the Corvette took the second.

59 - Modena Aston Martin
The car driven by Enge/Garcia simply had no real opposition in the race. They led from the start and no car in the class was actually close to them as both Corvettes and the Lamborghini fought between themselves but relatively far behind the Aston Martin and since all of them sooner or later suffered serious problems, in the end the Aston Martin won the class by record 32-lap margin.

72 - Alphand Corvette
The team arrived as a class championship leader and getting points were quite important and there was, of course, a chance to became champions here. But the fortune was not on their side this time. They suffered a puncture early in the race, then the car was in the garage for a long for repairs (broken fuel tank) and in the final part of the race, when all other car in the class but the leader were already retired, their only objective was to finish the race within the 70% range of the distance in order to score very valuable point giving them a very big chance to win the title.

73 - Alphand Corvette
This time the car was quicker than usually because Beretta and Policand were called to drive it and they were in close battle with the other Corvette and the Lamborghini while the only other car in the class Aston Martin was far ahead. Later during the first hour the car settled second but after 100 minutes in the race it crossed its way to the Barazi Zytek, both cars touched and a result of the collision was broken rear suspenstion of the Corvette. Policand managed to get the car safely in the pits but the team had already the other car in the garage for repairs and since that was in the lead of the championship, they decided to pay their attention to the other car and this one was retired.

GT2:

75 - IMSA Porsche
Second IMSA Porsche driven by Belloc, Balandras and Lecourt, were 8th in class on the grid behind the factory Spyker and 6th in the race again right behind the factory Spyker. After two non-finishes in the last two races it was their best result in the championship so far. In the point standing they moved up from 12th to 11th but it still remains one of the weakest performances among GT2s. There are 13 of them registered in the point table but one of them is Aston Martin with the only recorded participation being DNS in Barcelona.

76 - IMSA Porsche
Leading entry of the IMSA Performace team driven by Narac and lietz actually belong to the top of the class. After the third position in qualifying they kept second early in the race behind another top class Porsche of team Felbermayr. That situation continued until championship leading Virgo Ferrari approached from behind. Already in lap 15, the IMSA Porsche had to gave up on the Ferrari and continued third. After two and three hours they were even classified 2nd in front of Felbermayr but then they settled third and finished almost a minute behind the best Porsche GT2, and the unbeatable Virgo Ferrari.

77 - Felbermayr Proton Porsche
It was another top class Porsche entry. In fact Lieb and Davison were fastest Porsche during the entire event, loosing class pole only to a Farnbacher Ferrari and the race itself to the Virgo Ferrari. At times in the race they were classified behind the better IMSA Porsche but their Porsche-subclass win was convincing and they were also fastest Porsche in all practice sessions. They also lie on the second spot in the championship standings behind Ferrari.

85 - Spyker
Factory Spyfer effort is a welcome addition to boost the variety of the class but the car still cannot reach the top of the class. Results almost exactly in the middle of the GT2 field characterised usual performance of Kelleners, Dumbreck and Vasiliev throughout the entire meeting. The best appearance was one the of free sessions where the Virgo leading Ferrari was not present and the Spyker was fourth. They managed to reach the same position also in the race during some early hours but then settled fifth and maintained it until the end.

88 - Felbermayr Proton Porsche
As some other teams in the LMS championship Felbermayr Proton field two cars and one of them being real gentlemen effort. This is also an example of this car number 88, which reminds the times when the team was nowhere the top and carried out battles with similarly slow team Vonka Racing in the FIA GT championship. This car is driven by a pair of Felbermayrs and one of Rieds and this is the main reason for being behind. They were actually the slowest in the class but in the end were classified ahead of class pole winning Farnbacher Ferrari by one lap. In the championship tablew they are one point and two position above the real buttom.

90 - Farnbacher Ferrari
After the Virgo Ferrari could not take part in qualifying session, the Farnbacher version of the same type of car took the class pole and ran then among top 5 of the class for some time but before the end of the second hour Kaffer, who was at the wheel, went into the gravel in order to avoid collision with slowly running Corvette no.73, which had its rear suspension broken and was on its way to the garage. When it had been pushed away the gravel and could return back to the race, Kaffer was actually almost the last in the class. The car really never quite recovered and finished last in the class. There were only two cars still running at the finished and covering less lap. Those were the unclassified Lavaggi, which spent most time in the pits, and very much delayed Alphand Corvette with the only objective to cover enough distance to score points.

91 - Farnbacher Porsche
This Porsche, though it did not prove to be the fastest one in the class, is the only example of this German manufacturer that managed to score a Porsche victory in the Le Mans Series this year. However in their home race, the team was nowhere near such success, After running fourth for some time, the car stopped after three and half hours and became the first retirement in the class.

94 - Speedy Spyker
Even if in a better position in the championship then its factory sister car this time this privately entered Spyker could not match it factory counterpart. Before they become the second and last retirement of the class they usually kept a few positions behind the factory car, with the only exception being hour 3, when the factory car experienced some problems and dropped down from 4th to 7th.

95 - JWA Porsche
One of the less impressive performance in the class. The team was about to field Aston Martin this season as well but it never really happened in any of the races. Their Porsche is slightly better, it least it is running in the race but after the Nürburgring race it keeps the very last position along with that team's Aston Martin, which exists more on a paper than on a track. After being gridded last in the class, the crew somehow managed to get better in the race and used to run some 3-5 from the end of the class. At the end they were awarded by a single point to the championship for their eighth place finish. Not really quite bad.

96 - Virgo Ferrari
The team arrived as class leaders to the Nürburgring but their first day brought a lot of dramas for them after they suffered a serious damage after the car caught fire during the Friday's free practice session. Since they lead only by a single point after having already one retirement in the previous race, it was very crucial for the mechanics to try to rebuild the car in order to keep the chances of the fastest GT2 car for the title quite open. All team working very hard on Saturday and during the nights, some parts had even to be delivered from Michelotto and fortunately for the team, the car was ready for the Sunday's warm up session. They started last from the pitlane but already at the end of the first hour they were in the class lead. They were in the lead ever since and won the class by two margin over two Porsches.

98 - JMB Ferrari
Slightly slower of the two JMB car driven by a team regular Kutemann with Basso and Scheier started the race with a nice battle for 5th. Unfortunately before the end of the first hour they were delayed and dropped down to some 10th position. They weren't able to progress much until the very last hour (in fact 45 minutes) when they moved up from9th to 7th actually getting two points for the championship.

99 - JMB Ferrari
The JMB Ferraris were surpisingly quick this time and this car appeared to be the better one of them. The result was fourth in class and second best Ferrari just after the unbeatable Virgo example. After having scored points in all of the previous races Aucott and Daoudi are now in excellent third position in the championship, even ahead the leading IMSA Porsche.