Austria’s Red Bull Ring is the picturesque setting for round three of the ELMS next weekend. With two rounds gone, this represents the middle round of the season so it is a crucial event in terms of championship momentum.
A grid of 29 cars will take the start, with 10 of those in LMP2.
Few would bet against Thiriet by TDS Racing racking up a third consecutive podium. The current championship leaders might have made a strategic call pitting under the safety car that cost them the win at Silverstone, but they didn’t put a foot wrong at Imola with a deserved win and will be looking to do the same in Austria.
Winners of round one, Jota Sport’s Simon Dolan and Oliver Turvey, ran well at Imola too until the second half of their race began to unravel, but this is a team that is more than capable of bouncing back and muscling their way back into the championship hunt. Watching Murphy Prototype’s Brendon Hartley and Oliver Turvey battle it out in qualifying and the race was a highlight at Imola, but regular co-driver Mark Patterson is not on the entry list, so on this occasion it falls to Jonathan Hirschi to prepare for some serious pressure.
Morand Racing, after a baptism of, well, quite the opposite of fire at Silverstone, have impressed mightily this season, not least with a fifth-place finish at Le Mans. Another podium would be a good result for this fledgling team.
Greaves Motorsport are on the entry list with their Zytek Nissan, but no drivers are listed as yet. The team had a torrid time in torrid conditions at Silverstone, but with the pairing of Kimber-Smith and Heinemeier-Hansson taking the reins at Imola they were punching their weight once again.
Pierre Ragues and Nelson Panciatici probably deserve a win in their Alpine. This pair have shown consistency and pace in abundance, but their Michelin tyres do throw another variable into the mix. Will conditions in Austria suit them? We’ll have to wait and see.
Michel Frey and the impressive Patric Niederhauser return in the Race Performance Oreca and Lotus WEC drivers Dominik Kraihamer and Thomas Holzer are taking a holiday (and taking over) the Boutsen Ginion Racing Oreca, the Austrian Kraihamer having more of a stay-cation.
Not only is the Russian SMP Racing team returning with its three resplendent GTC Ferraris, but it has added an ORECA 03 Nissan to its ranks. Maurizio Mediani and Sergey Zlobin leave their GTC mount to take on this new challenge.
DKR Engineering round out the entry with their ageing Lola and it would be nice if Olivier Porta and Stéphane Raffin could stay out of trouble; for them and for everyone else, that is.
LMPC sees its usual three entries from Team Endurance Challenge and Paul Loup Chatin’s faultless runs have become a staple of this class. Soheil Ayari also provides entertainment. They have a new playmate in Austria, though; the Portuguese Algarve Pro Racing Team bringing Brit C O Jones and German GT specialist Nick Catsburg into the fold.
LM GTE sees the same 5 Ferraris back for more; RAM Racing, JMW and AF Corse with their regular line-ups. RAM Racing will be looking to show what they are capable of once again.
In the rival Porsche camp, IMSA’s Patrice Milesi works his way through another co-driver as 2013 24 Hours of Le Mans LMGTE Am class winner Jean Karl Vernay steps in where Holzer and Long stepped out due to other racing commitments. Collard returns to ProSpeed to partner François Ferrodo. Proton Competition of Germany add a fan’s favourite #88 driven by the all-Austrian trio of Horst Felbermayr, Horst Felbermayr Senior and Klaus Bachler. The #77 will once again be driven by Christian Ried, Gianluca Roda and the oh-so entertaining Porsche works driver Nick Tandy.
In GTC, all the teams who were at Imola will be racing in Austria: Kox Racing, with the single Lamborghini Gallardo LP600 GT3 for Peter Kox and Nico Pronk; the sole BMW Z4 on the grid from Ecurie Ecosse with Ollie Millroy, Andrew Smith and Alasdair McCaig; the Momo Megatron DF1 Audi R8 LMS, of interest locally with the Swiss Raffi Bader joining Dylan Derdaele and Kuba Giermaziak;
and three Ferrari 458 Italias – AF Corse’s #62 (Andre Rizzoli, Stefano Gai and Lorenzo Casè), the Imola-winning SMP Racing #69 (Fabio Babini, Viktor Shaitar and Kirill Ladygin), and the #72 SMP car of Devi Markozov and Alexander Frolov.
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