LMP2: Close weekend in prospect
Despite running a car new to the team, Greaves Motosport is being mentioned among the pre-season favourites with its #41 Nissan-engined Ligier. Veteran race engineer Ricardo Divila is on hand with the squad this weekend, and the team also looking after the Krohn Racing entry, putting it in the unique position of having one car on Michelins (the Krohn) and one on Dunlops (the Greaves).
“We’re as confident as you can be in motor racing,” Divila said with a grin. “We saw the Michelin wet was very good at the Prologue but the Dunlop should be up there too.” The Brazilian was also highly complimentary of “seriously quick” young Polish driver Kuba Giermaziak, cited by many as the team’s (rapidly becoming not-so-secret) weapon.
Nicolas Lapierre was settling in nicely at his new ELMS team DragonSpeed, although admitted he would still be with KCMG had the team continued its full-season programme (the Frenchman is with Alpine for the WEC, including Le Mans). “It’s a good atmosphere, I know the car, so it’s all good,” he said. “We’re just keeping an eye on the Michelin runners. It makes it more interesting as it’s all Dunlop in WEC.”
Damien Faulkner had a torrid start to the session when the #48 Murphy Protoypes Oreca’s rear brakes locked up on his first time into Stowe. With no testing in the car before this weekend, the Irishman was rueing the lost running time during what is for now at least, a one-off LMP2 appearance. A late change to the entry sees Shaun Balfe and young Irish driver Sean Doyle join Faulkner at the wheel of the Nissan-engined Oreca 03.
Algarve Pro Racing also missed a lot of running in the first session due to some mechanical issues with its Ligier-Nissan, but star signing Sir Chris Hoy (above) was putting as brave a face on things as he could. “I’m just getting used to the new enviroment and new faces,” he said. “I don’t mind the wet at all but it’s always good to get more running. I don’t think we’ll be right at the sharp end initially, but the main thing is to build everything up and work out the kinks before Le Mans.”
LMP3: Lots of new faces
United Autosports has an impressive driver line-up across its two LMP3 class entries, with Northern Irish Formula Ford stalwart Wayne Boyd joining Matt Bell and Mark Patterson (below) in the #3 Ligier. “I’ve been doing bits and pieces, mostly Formula Ford, but this will be my first full season of racing for five years, so I’m really looking forward to it.
“I’m finding the multiclass racing fine, busy Formula Ford Festival grids will prepare you for that, but at the moment we’re slightly slower on the straights than the GTs, so it’s tricky to pass. There’s been no probems compromising on setup or anything like that, luckily we all want the same thing from the car and we can use the same seat, too. The plan is definitely to look at sportscars for the next few years and get something long-term together.”
GTE: Wet tyre worries
Among the GTE runners, there was some concern at the Dunlop allocation of three sets of full-wet and five set of intermediate tyres for the whole race weekend, leading to many of the nine-strong grid setting only a few laps in the morning session in order to conserve tyres for what’s expected to be an at least partly wet four-hour race tomorrow.
Dunlop’s Mike McGregor said: “the intermediate has a wider operating window than before, so it can run in quite dry conditions. We bring the same allocation of tyres every weekend, but we’re open to discussing more if the teams feel it’s needed. We didn’t have any communication along those lines before this weekend though.”
Over in the Aston Martin garage, Beechdean’s Andrew Howard elaborated on his plans for the weekend, as he hopes to contest both the ELMS race here and the British GT season opener at Brands Hatch. “ELMS is the focus, no question,” he said. I should be able to get down to Brands this evening for the testing no problem, but if there are any stewards enquiries or anything I won’t be able to leave during the race. I’m planning to route the helicopter over Wycombe Wanderers ground [Howard is chairman of the club] on the way down so I can say I made the match there, too!”
At JMW Ferrari, an upbeat Rory Butcher was looking forward to building on his impressive ELMS outings with the team last season. The car is of course first reserve for Le Mans, but the Scot couldn’t say for sure if he’d part of the team’s plans should an entry for the 24 Hours materialise.
