It’s that time of year again, when the motorsport season finally starts to get underway. The 2015 VdeV season visited Catalunya for the first round, where plenty of new faces were on hand to take on the challenging Spanish circuit outside Barcelona. The Proto series that headlines the VdeV boasts a healthy grid once again, this time of 26 prototypes, and promises to be another great season of racing.
6H Barcelona-Catalunya, IDEC Sport Racing Take Debut Win
Patrice and Paul Lafarge, this year partnered with Dimitri Enjalbert as part of the IDEC Sport Racing Team managed to take a superb win in the fourth six-hour contest held at the circuit. Last year’s GT champions adapted to the Proto series with relative ease as the trio came home to take the win by just 5 seconds ahead of the second placed #29 Graff Ligier, which after a pit-lane mishap forced the Graff crew to relinquish the lead late in the race.
The rain from the morning on Saturday cleared up enough for the teams to start the six hour race on slick tyres. It was a close race up front, which after the second hour became a battle between the IDEC and Graff Ligiers. The Graff Ligier, driven by Eri Trouillet, Yann Clairay and Jordan Perroy, then took a commanding lead for much of the second half of the race.
Going into the final hour, it looked as if the leaders had the race wrapped up, but they had to make an extra pit stop in the dying minutes for a splash of fuel which handed the IDEC JS 53 the win on a platter.
CD Sport managed to take third spot with the #30 Norma of Thomas Accary, Kevin Bole Besançon and Jean-Ludovic Foubert which in the end was a lap down on the pair of leaders, so failed to benefit from the fuel miscue from the Graff squad. Their sister-#33 Norma also was in contention, but mechanical problems late in the race cost them a chance at the win, and resulted in them finishing 8th overall.
Next on the VdeV Proto calendar is the 6H of Mugello on the 24th-26th of April.
Stephen Kilbey
