LMP2 (5 Cars)
26 G-Drive Racing Roman Rusinov/ Olivier Pla/ Julien Canal Morgan Nissan
27 SMP Racing Sergey Zlobin/ Nicolas Minassian/ Maurizio Mediani Oreca 03 Nissan
37 SMP Racing Kirill Ladygin/Viktor Shaitar/Anton Ladygin Oreca 03 Nissan
38 Jota Sport Simon Dolan/ Harry Tincknell/ Marc Gene Zytek Z11SN Nissan
47 KCMG Matthew Howson/ Richard Bradley/ Alexandre Imperatori Oreca 03 Nissan
There’s no good news whatsoever from Millennium Racing, their two car FIA WEC effort now officially withdrawn from both Spa and Le Mans. That’s a massive blow for Simon Dowson and his team, it’s difficult to come to a conclusion other than that this top line team has been let down very badly indeed.
Strakka Racing had already made it clear that they would miss the first two races of the WEC season with their new Strakka Dome S103 coupe – They have every expectation though of being ready for the Le Mans Test Day.
Onto the quintet that we do expect to see in Belgium and there’s a double dose of good news from Jota Sport.
Their now traditional guest slot at Spa as part of their prep for Le Mans is set to go ahead after the team rebuilt the car damaged in Simon Dolan’s big Silverstone ELMS shunt around their spare tub, the damaged chassis which was being used for the first time! will be repaired.
That spare though is the same chassis which Jota used to win the WEC race in 2012, and it also came second last year too.
Despite some bumps and bruises Simon Dolan has been cleared to race and he’ll join Harry Tincknell, the youngster keen to get his first racing miles for Jota, and by Superdupersub Marc Gene, Audi’s reserve driver filling in for Filipe Albuquerque who is driving for the factory team this weekend.
Judging by the pace of the Jota car at Silverstone there’s every expectation of another good result for the team here, Dolan one of the pick of the Gentleman drivers, Gene a previous overall winner and Tincknell who set a blistering pace in qualifying at Silverstone.
Jota will make it a trio of Dunlop shod runners and its the hello men that had the upper hand in the WEC’s only tyre war last time out where the Michelins were struggling with the changeable UK conditions the Dunlops ran well.
SMP Racing are the Michelin runners here and they arrive after a Silverstone race that proved to be a trial.
Electrical woes dispensed with the challenge from the #27 Oreca Nissan very early on and the sister #37 car struggled throughout too, though it did at least make it home, laps down, but a podium and the points that came with it will be some comfort.
The AF Corse run outfit will be hoping for better reliability in Spa, this is a team that wants some good news headlines as the shadow of sanctions continues to hang over them.
If the #27 car can find reliability the talents of Nic Minassian will surely be a force to be reckoned with.
The third Oreca Nissan is the Dunlop shod #47 KCMG car and the Asian team put up a good fight for much of the Silverstone opener before delivering a volley of shots into their own feet with repeated pit lane violations dropping them out of contention for the class win.
They’ll field Brit duo Matt Howson and Richard Bradley once again but they’ll be joined at Spa by the returning Alexandre Imperatori, this trio hoping for a cleaner run, and to stay with the battle for the win – Definite contenders.
Finally there’s G-Drive Racing, the #26 team run by the Oak Racing team with a Morgan Nissan and Dunlop rubber. The team were always in contention at Silverstone with consistent pace and good pit work and looked favourites to win even before KCMG’s self inflicted troubles.
Olivier Pla is fast everywhere and Roman Rusinov is a safe pair of (quick) hands too with Julien Canal slotting in here nicely. At present it’s tough to see this effort as anything other than Championship favourites.
GG
