Aston to Porsche
The start was declared wet, although conditions were improving after a heavy shower drenched the area at about 10:00 (two hours before the green flag). It remained quite muggy and still pregnant with more rain, but the gestation period seemed like several hours. This meant that the race was born under full green conditions once the pace car dropped into the pits at the end of the formation lap. Dave Cox followed along, the No. 30 MMC BMW becoming the first car to stop—it rejoined a short time later.
Stefan Mücke simply left the field in the dust—or more correctly, in the light mist. By the first time around he had a six second lead over Norbert Siedler in the No. 7 Stadler Porsche. The reason for the discrepancy soon became apparent. The Barwell team had chosen slicks and most others went with grooved rubber. Thus we quickly had a rash of stops to correct matters. Siedler, Robin Chrzaarnoski (No. 12 Clickvers/Destree Porsche), Christiaan Frankenhout (No. 4 Hofor Racing Mercedes) were among those to stop. Compounding the problem, No. 12 had a puncture as di the No. 8 LD Racing Porsche of Michel Mitieus. Others further back who came into the boxes were Steffen Fürsch (No. 47 Racing for Friends Mini, Klaus Kresnik (No. 59 Red Camel Seat), Marco Petry (No. 57 Küpper Racing BMW 135d), Jose Perez-Aicart (No. 40 Monlau Competicion Seat), Oliver Campos (No. 19 Escuela Espanola de Pilotos Ginetta), Jordi Sola (No. 52 Sola Sport Renault Clio), and Jaime Hernandez (No. 41 Monlau Seat).
A few cars started from further down the grid order than their times would have indicated. They were penalized for various reasons. The No. 45 Drivex Scirocco (Rafael Sarandeses starting) did not have adequate night practice. Several French teams were lost in translation on the regulations, which precluded certain work on the car in between the free practice and qualifying sessions. For thee parc ferme violations Ruffier Racing Porsche No. 10 (Franck Racinet), the No. 17 GC (Jean-Charles Perrin), the LD Racing Porsche, and Jerome de la Chapelle (No. 18 GC) all started from the back of the grid. Perrin had the best recovery of this group, moving up to 26th spot by the 4th lap.
By the 4th lap the lead of the Aston had yawned to 18 seconds. Mücke remained relentless, resetting the fast lap twice. De Lorenzi in the No. 3 Mercedes and Alexander Mattschull in the similar entry or Car Collection moved into second and third respectively. It soon became a Benz 2-3-4 as Frankenhout recovered from the early stop. By the 50-minute mark of the first hour, Mücke had a lap on his pursuers.
The 997 class was being led from 6th overall by Dario Paletto in yet another De Lorenzi team entry, car number 11. He had a little less than a lap in hand over Clint Harvey in the No. 9 Motorsport Services Cup car. Perhaps the best start of all came from Cor Euser, who had the SP3 class leading Lotus Evora to 7th overall, a lap ahead of Max Partl in the No. 21 Bonk Bimmer. Michal Vitak had a comfortable lead in A5 with the No. 32 RTR Projects E46 M3.
We had big drama just before the turn of the hour. The first Code 60 was called when the leading Aston Martin lost a rear wheel and Mücke became stranded on the racing line! Thus hour 2 started with Gian Luca De Lorenzi inheriting the lead. That came on lap 28. Recoveries are allowed here and the Aston was returned to a very sheepish and quizzical English team. The words being exchanged in their pit box were not part of the vocabular of the Queen’s English.
The Code period lasted about 24 minutes, which coincided nicely with many teams’s pit stop plans. The Aston went back in the pits and the team expected a delay of about 8 minutes while the loose wheel nut was repaired—Richard Abra starting the long climb from the back. Also dropping well down is the Lotus after its glorious start. It is suffering from issues the throttle linkage and electrics. After a long delay Hal Prewitt began the recovery process but there were several subsequent pit visits.
Several teams switched to their second drivers during the neutralization. These include Dominik Baumann (in for Siedler in the No. 7 Porsche), Michael Klostermann (in for Ryan McLeod, No. 27 Perfection Racing Aston Martin), Yannik Trautwein (in for Ulrich Becker, No. 29 Tischner BMW), Rory Penttinen (taking over from Nikolai Zhuravlev inthe No. 31 Brunswick Racing BMW), Peter SChmidt (No. 2 Car Collection Mercedes from Mattschull), and Chantal Kroll took the wheel from Bernd Küpper in the No. 35 BMW. Jean-Marc Rivet-Fusil was the second driver in the No. 36 LD BMW, started by Eric Vincenot while Gijs Bessem took over from Harry Hilders in the No. 37 Ymor Racing Seat. “Segolen”—aka Andre Gahinet is driving the No. 39 Breizh Motorsport Seat after Fabrice Reicher started the race. Marcus Mahy relieved David Glasson, No. 43 Motorsport Services Seat and Nick Barrow took over from Richard Corbett in the No. 56 Saxon Motorsport BMW 135d. Dominik Hans was the second driver in the No. 60 TTC Racing VW Golf that was started by Daniel Schilliger.
It was now De Lorenzi’s turn to make a mark on the race. The Mercedes team owner-driver opened up a 90-second lead on Baumann’s Porsche, who in turn was being chased by a quite quick Peter Schmidt. The 997 contest was still led by Paletto, with Harvey about 30 seconds behind. There was a similar gap between 1st and 2nd in A3T, Kaye’s Duel Racing Seat clear of Perez-Aicart’s similar car. The latter, at 8th overall, was the highest placed Spanish entry. Partl had taken over a commanding lead of SP3 with the problems suffered by the Lotus.
The No. 29 Tischner BMW of Trautwein had five laps in hand over the nearest A5 competitor. Fredrik Lestrup was putting in an excellent performance, lifting the A2 class leading Mini to 16th overall. Jim Briody has steadily moved the D1 class leading BMW up the overall order as well. As somewhat expected, the class structure was revised slightly before the start. The two cars previously in the 996 class, the No. 14 and No. 15 Speedlover Porsche Cup cars, have been moved to 997 while the No. 35 and No. 36 BMWs, originally in A4, have been consolidated into A3T.
Other driver changes during the second hour included Thomas Miniberger in for Vitek in the No. 32 A5 class BMW, Mark Radcliffe in for Adam Hayes in the Intersport Racing BMW CSL, Rob de Laat (in for Theo de Prenter, No. 63 MDM Motosport BMW), Jordi Caig relieving starter and Motor rider Aleix Espargaro in the No. 50 Black Motorsport Clio, and Lev Fridman in the No. 17 GC.
De Lorenzi stopped at almost exactly the two-hour mark, handing the overall lead to Baumann, and the De Lorenzi Mercedes to Ivo Breukers. More driver changes from the top of the order were Gabriel Abergel in for Racinet in the No. 10 Ruffier Porsche (a strong 9th overall, second in 997), Paul White, no in the No. 19 Ginetta, 12th overall and 3rd in SP3. Norbert Pauels is in the SP2 class leading ClickVers/Destree Porsche and Jaime Carbo is driving the No. 45 Drivex VW—15th overall, 1st in A3T. Ramzi Moutran is next in the class with the Duel Racing Seat, followed by Jaume Font’s No. 40 Monlau Seat. Alvaro Vela has taken over the No. 26 Ginetta from Tiziano Frazza. Roberto Fecchio became the second driver in the very well-running class leading 997 Porsche of the De Lorenzi team.
The LD Racing BMW, No. 36, became the first team to go to a third driver, the honor handed to Jean-Marc Bachelier. Others on their second were No. 9 Motorsport Services Porsche (Malcolm Niall in, Clint Harvey out), Speedlover No. 15 (Carlos Rivas replacing Jesus Diez Villaroel), Hal Prewitt now in the troubled Lotus, and Kevin Bird replacing Martin Thomas in the Gambler Racing BMW (No. 28). The all-Mexican squad of the No. 38 Astra Racing Seat went from Santos Zanella to Oscar Arroyo and Thomas Tekaat spelled Lestrup in the still strong Besaplast Mini. Further back, Friedhelm Erlebach took the second stint in the Racing for Friends Mini.
At 2-1/2 hours we had a balanced 1-2-3 of one lap between each of the leaders, Baumann over Schmidt over Breukers while the fourth place Mercedes of Frankenhout dropped back with a routine pit call. Continuing with the driver changes, Pierre-Yves Paques was second in the no. 14 Speedlover Porsche that was started by Robert Matot. Josep Zapata took over the long delayed Monlau Seat from Jaime Hernandez while Stephen Borness relieved in the reasonably well running MMC BMW (No. 30). Harald Rettich was the third driver in the Breizh Seat—“Segolen” having a very short stint. Claus Gronning took over from Boris Hrubesch in the No. 51 Roadrunner Clio while Carlos Sarrea replaced Sola in the Sola Clio (No. 52).
Ricky Coomber relieved starter Tom Gannon—No. 54 RKC/TGM Honda and Fortia Pares took over the No. 58 Black Motorsport Seat from David Lloret. The Red Camel Seat went from Klaus Kresnik to Youssef Bassil and Dirk Schulz replaced Jim Briody in the Euser team BMW. Significantly, near the front in 6th place overall Michael Kroll replaced Frankenhout in the No. 4 Mercedes while Peter Bonk is wheeling the No. 21 BMW that is in 12th overall and was started by Max Partl. Another top runner, the No. 25 Ginetta, took on Fabio Ghizzi as the second driver, replacing Luis Scarpaccio.
A very long stop for the No. 3 Mercedes (loss of second gear) and a less long stop for the No. 2 Mercedes (Heinz Schmersal taking over), left the No. 7 Porsche with a multi-lap lead. Baumann handed over to Marcel Matter without losing the top position. The No. 4 Mercedes (newy with Kenneth Heyer driving) was about two laps back in third place.
There are other problems in Euser land as the team’s BMW has a broken crankshaft. They are not giving up, however. The Audi has been in the box for a long time, completely replacing the gearbox. The No. 57 D2 class BMW of Küpper Racing lost much time with fuel injection system problems. The No. 55 Synchro Motorsport Honda’s brakes became so hot that the CV joint boot melted. Both of the CV joint boots were replaced and some ersatz ducting was built to improve cooling. However, no sooner did the car return to the circuit that it collided with the No. 28 Gambler Racing BMW. That green BMW was also delayed earlier with a mysterious loss of engine power. Speaking of hot, driver Rory Penttinen was badly overheated and was barely able to climb out of the No. 31 Brunswick BMW, which in any case needed attention to its electrical system.
It was noted that several cars were penalized on their grid starting positions stemming from parc ferme violations. The No. 37 Ymor team’s sin was cleaning the windscreen.
At the 3-1/2 hour mark the race incurred its second Code 60 interuption with two cars stopped at Turn 4. One was the No. 38 Astra Racing Seat, which caused the situation, while the No. 32 RTR BMW was also stopped. The No. 11 GDL Porsche that had run so well at the start, was in the pits for a long stop with some sort of hard to diagnose engine malady. The evolved into a gearbox issue which was subsequently repaired. The Red Camel Seat is going well after earlier turbo hose and throttle problems.
Norbert Siedler stepped back into the lucky no. 7 Porsche with the Stadler team’s lead under no threat. There were two very brief Code 60s to pick stranded cars. Despite various delays of several teams we have no official retirements well into the6th hour. The closest thing to a retirement is the No. 57 Küpper BMW which has a complete lack of fuel pressure. Half the team is sitting back while the rest have headed into the city, searching for parts. The No. 3 Mercedes is now running well after working to overcome gearbox woes.
Most significantly, the rain returned at about 16:30, 4-1/2 hours into the race. It remained light but persistent at first.
Another Code 60 came about 20 minutes into the rain when Heyer planted the No. 4 Mercedes into the mud. It was now streaming buckets in Barca.
Enjoying the break in the action, here is another anorak fact. There are an astonishing 13 teams here at Barcelona this year with more than one family member on the driving roster. Here is the list:
Family Fretin; Frères Benoit et Bruno, No. 8 LD Racing Porsche
Family Niall; Father Malcolm and son Brett, No. 9 Motorsport Services Porsche
Family Lafargue; Père Patrice, fils Paul, No. 10 Ruffier Racing Porsche
Family Bonk; Bruders Michael und Peter, No. 21 Bonk Motorsport BMW
Family Cox; Father David and sons Jason & Michael, No. 30 MMC Motorsport BMW
Family Kroll; Onkel Martin und Nichte Chantal, No. 35 Hofor Racing BMW, with vater Michael in the No. 4 Hofor Racing Mercedes—family competition here!
Family Hernandez; Hermanos Javier y Jaime, No. 41 Monlau Seat
Family Moutran; ‘n ahook (brothers )Ramzi, Nabil and Sami, No. 42 Duel Racing Seat
Family Esparagaro; Hermanos Aleix y Pol, No. 50 Black Motorsport Renault
Family Gannon; Brothers William and Tom, No. 54 TGM Honda
Family Barrow; Father Nick and son Tom, No. 56 Synchro Motorsport Honda
Family Stanco; Zio (uncle) Adriano and nipote Luigi, No. 48 Gloyna Motorsport Renaul
Family Tischner; Sie sinde Zwillige!—Matthias undMichael, No. 28 Tischner BMW
Janos Wimpffen
