73 cars are present at the L’Autodromo del Mugello for the 2015 24 Hour Series 12 Hours of Mugello, and as usual it’s another sizeable and mixed entry normally found at a Creventic organised event.
Everything from Mercedes SLS GT3s to Honda Accords will be competing, and with such a diverse grid of Touring and GT cars here, theres most certainly a corner of the VLN in Italy, that’s for sure.
It’s DSCs first trip to the storied circuit, and first impressions are that it’s charmingly rustic, and cold, sunny, but very cold. Like This place, like the Sachsenring and Misano, is famed for its Moto GP heritage rather than races featuring four-wheeled series.
Nevertheless it’s a wonderful place to watch a motor-race, and a worthy change of scenery from the usual circuits that the sportscar circus visits. Visually stunning, lengthy and challenging, it’s a real treat for the teams who’ve made the trip.
Upon our arrival this morning, the driver’s briefing was held in the press room, and was packed with an astonishing number of drivers ready to tackle the circuit.
Looking down the entry list, there’s some really interesting teams on the bill to watch out for, like the Ram Racing SLS with Tom Onslow-Cole and Adam Christodoulo, the Car Collection SLS’, the Black Pearl Ferrari headlined by Pierre Kaffer and Walkenhorst BMW all in the A6 class.
Outside of the the runners in A6 who’ll will be gunning for the lead, the Vantage Racing Aston Martin featuring Stuart Hall, Optimum Motorsport Ginettas and KPM Racing Golf with BTCC champion Matt Neal driving are just some of the more quirky and exciting entries at the circuit.
When the cars did hit the track for the hour and a half practice session, the Black Pearl Racing Ferrari 458 of Steve Parrow, Alexander Volz and Pierre Kaffer went quickest with a 1:49.442.
The A6 cars made up the majority of the top ten, with the Scuderia Praha 458 going second quickest with a 1:49.774 and the HB Racing Team Herberth Porsche 997 rounding out the top three, just a second off Kaffer’s fastest time.
First of the non A6 runners was the #77 GDL Racing Porsche 991 Cup car in the 997 class, featuring Nigel Farmer, Oleksandr Gaidai and Bashar Mardini. It set a time of 1:55.225 with Gaidai driving, and managed to crack the top 10 overall, ending the session 8th.
71 of the 73 runners made it out to the session, which was almost completely incident free.
The race is split into two segments, with the first being four hours today after qualifying at 13:30 local time, and the second eight hours tomorrow morning at 9:30.
We will be tweeting all the key events throughout the race on @dscracelive and posting reports of each session and both segments of the race on the site.
You can also follow the action with timing and pictures on the official series website and listen to live commentary on radiolemans.com.
Stephen Kilbey
