Racing In the Woods
Races attended by DSC in May
Group C Challenge – Donington Park & Spa
Italian GT – Vallelunga
ALMS – Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca
Britcar Endurance – Snetterton
Grand-Am – New Jersey Motorsports Park
GT Cup – Silverstone
British GT – Nürburgring
FIA GT1 – Navarra
FIA GT3 – Navarra
Dutch GT – Zandvoort
Nurburgring 24 Hours
FIA WEC – Spa Francorchamps
FIA WEC At Spa
After the melee in Florida, Spa marked both the arrival in Europe of the sparkly new FIA WEC and should too have marked the first race where the grid was almost entirely composed of the WEC’s season-long entries.
The fact that it didn’t do the latter was down to the gathering crisis for the ELMS, a high quality LMP2 grid at Paul Ricard had imploded and the second round, at Zolder, was cancelled – The Series looked doomed and the ACO moved to help prop up the main contenders’ seasons. Grid places were offered at Spa to a restricted number of cars and several of them took up the invitation, not least to give themselves track time before Le Mans. As things would turn out Spa would go very badly for some, and very well indeed for others!
Toyota had not featured Spa in their plans but the latest iteration of the TS030 was at the track the day before WEC action started, the team stopping by for a photocall with the debuting Audi R18 e-tron Quattro, en route to their first major test with the car, it would be the last time we saw the car in its red and white livery, more of that next month!
Spa did though feature a press conference which drew together the major protaganists for the remainder of the season as Audi and Toyota worked hard to boost the reach of the WEC. It marked a very welcome trait within the Championship, openness, and not only did we enjoy the freedom that gave us, they apparently did too!
Beyond the e-tron Quattro the race marked a raft of other debuts, the 2012 spec all diesel R18, the dubbed the Ultra, would debut and win, and it would do so in the hands of another Audi debutant, Marc Gene, the Spaniard thereby becoming the first man to take race wins for both the Audi and Peugeot Works team – Marc raced as a reserve driver filling in for Timo Bernhard, the popular German having suffered a massive testing accident at Sebring which came perilously close to finishing his career.
Lola’s woes had hit the headlines by now and everyone had their eyes on the spares situation – Rebellion had both their cars in full 2012 spec and pronounced themselves concerned but in good shape – Status GP though were in big trouble after a Free Practice shunt left their weekend (and their Lola!) in tatters. They withdrew to consolidate their Le Mans plans. Gulf Racing Middle East meanwhile had an even worse weekend – They had struggled very badly indeed at Sebring and then suffered a major loss after team owner Frederic Fatien suffered a bizarre accident during pitstop practice, a badly broken leg the result of him stepping backwards and falling over a loose wheel. It would put him out for the season and, together with the spares situation and, almost unbelievably a second broken leg, this time for Stefan Johansson, would see the team’s second Lola Nissan parked for the season after le Mans.
The race itself proved several things – There was no shortage of quality amongst the ELMS entrants – They took class wins in both LMP2 and GTE-Am and scored 4 out of the 6 podium positions available to those entered!
It proved too that LMP2 was set to be a dogfight for the season, ADR Delta fumbling on fuel and losing the win, Starworks suffering a rare blip in form.
It proved that Audi were deadly serious about the WEC – R18s of both types coming home in a 1,2,3,4 and it proved that far from being a rebranded ILMC, the WEC was the real ticket!
Nurburgring 24 Hours
Later in the month and we’d be at the Nurburgring – a joint effort between DSC and Radio Le Mans, the DSC Ed making his 6th annual trip with Hindhaugh and co, this time though he’d be joined both by Deputy Ed Mark Howson and Ring 24 virgin Dave Lord – the trip made more entertaining both with the company of RLM’s Jonny Palmer and with the offer from Nissan of a loan car, not a GTR, nor even a 370Z (we had that last year!) but instead an X-Trail, and it would come in handy later in the weekend as DSC’s VLN man Soren ‘Zorro’ Herweg, showed Lordy the ropes around the back lanes of the circuit!
I’ve waxed lyrical about the appeal of this astounding event for years but it is always a buzz to bring newbies along and their reaction was all we’d hoped for.
The paddock, with a British GT Championship round added for extra spice, was as amazing an experience as ever, club racer here, international racing superstar there – Bloke with a kettle and a bratwurst there, Audi’s DTM hospitality set up there – Amazing stuff!
At some point soon we’ll reach the high water mark in the cycle for the Ring 24, and it might just, with continued woes at the ‘Ring, have been 2012, an epic battle between the Mercedes, Audis, BMWS and, to a lesser extent the non factory supported Porsches too – the end could barely have been more dramatic as podium bound cars failed with minutes to go and the Manthey Porsche expired whilst trying to defend its podium finish, only then to be comprehensively nerfed by a dozing Clio driver as it sat motionless at the Start Finish line!
Audi finally won it after years of trying, settng up a season that would see Ingolstadt claim no fewer than four overall victories in 24 Hour racing!
There was the opportunity to commentate on the British GT Championship for the first time too, and what a Championship that is looking set to be! And an opportunity to reflect that there are some manufacturers that ‘get’ the Ring 24 and others that don’t – Stand up and take a bow Aston Martin, Nissan and Toyota amongst several others – here’s hoping that regional politics don’t blow something truly unique away for future generations!!!
GG
