Kumar harbouring ELMS ambitions
Michelin Le Mans Cup runner Ajith Kumar is targeting a move to the European Le Mans Series next season, following his maiden LMP3 campaign across the Asian Le Mans Series and Michelin Le Mans Cup this year.
“I prefer the longer formats,” he said. “Probably that’s the reason I would also like to be a part of the ELMS next year.”
The 55-year-old also expressed his interest in competing on home soil in ACO-rules competition in the future, following the chief minister of Tamil Nadu, C.Joseph Vijay – who waved the green flag for yesterday’s Michelin Le Mans Cup race – announcing plans to establish a motorsport city in the state.
“I’m glad he accepted the invitation to come and see what it would take for Chennai to host events like the Le Mans Series in India, and my wish is to see these events come to India,” Kumar said.
Multi-class dynamic key Silverstone challenge
Reigning LMP2 champion Oliver Gray is seeking his first victory on home soil since his British Formula 4 days this weekend, aboard Forestier Racing by Panis’ #29 ORECA 07 – Gibson LMP2.
The 21-year-old is, however, incredibly aware of the narrow margins which have split the leading LMP2 contenders this year, with the #29 ORECA currently tied on points with the #22 United Autosports ORECA for the championship lead.
“Anytime you come to Silverstone, you feel so privileged to be driving around here,” he said.
“But coming in as champion, it’s a bit of added pressure from the competition. I think they’re all sort of coming for us maybe a little bit more than they were before, but you can see how close it’s been this year with United, and now Inter Europol have been added to the battle after Spa.”
“The small margins that you have to meet to be in front are definitely bigger than last year, but we know we have to continue to perform week in, week out. We’ve seen that so far this year.”
Gray, who qualified third for today’s race, has cited the nature of racing Silverstone in multi-class competition as one of the track’s standout features in ELMS competition.
“I think the most unique challenge is actually with the different classes here,” he said.
“The closing speeds you have here to the GTs especially are incredible, and it’s something that you have to really adapt to. When you come into Maggots, Becketts and Chapel, the speed difference between GT is massive and you have to anticipate what what they’re going to do, what we want to do, and give each other all racing room.
“It’s also pretty good here because if you get slightly unlucky in traffic, you can lose maybe two and a half seconds, and then you’ll fight back and get onto the gearbox of the car in front.”
United holds Friends and Family day
United Autosports is once again hosting its annual friends and family weekend for its employees and parters, with more than 400 guests invited to the 4 Hours of Silverstone, housed in the team’s huge hospitality unit at the exit of Copse.
This includes panels with the Anglo-American squads drivers, with DSC’s editor Stephen Kilbey hosting Oliver Jarvis yesterday afternoon.
United is also displaying multiple significant cars from the team’s history in the fan zone this weekend.
Goodyear expecting single-stint approach
Event title sponsor Goodyear, which supplies tyres to the LMP2, LMP2 Pro/Am and LMGT3 categories, is predicting single-stinting to be the most-common strategy for the race, as the ELMS races at a high-speed circuit for the second consecutive event.
“Silverstone should be a fairly straightforward race from a tire strategy perspective,” said Stephen Bickley, Goodyear Endurance programme manager. “The high-speed nature of the circuit means fuel consumption will be high, so fuel strategy is likely to be the main factor influencing pit stop timing.
“The tyre allocations broadly give teams the flexibility to change tyres at every stop, so there is less of a need to stretch a set of tyres purely to save time in a pit stop. We therefore expect teams across both categories to largely focus on single-stinting tires. The biggest variable at Silverstone is always the weather, which can quickly change stint lengths and pit stop timing.”
First Ligier European Series champions crowned
This weekend’s Ligier European Series double-header has seen multiple champions crowned with one event remaining.
In JS2 R, Antonin Bernard and Daniel Dallakyan have won the Drivers’ title, with their #41 VSF Sports crowned Teams’ champions, following a double-victory in Northamptonshire.
The #69 Bretton Racing and #50 Les Deux Arbes efforts have secured the JS P4 Pro-Am and Am championships respectively, with Dominique Bastien/Marius Kristiansen and Jeremy Loisel winning the equivalent Drivers’ titles.
The JS P4 and JS2 R Pro/Am battles will continue to next month’s Portimão finale.
The #14 Team Virage Ligier of Alex Gardner/Simon Schranz and the #6 ANS Motorsport entry of Ethan Pharamond/Mika Abrahams are separated just by six points in JS P4, after winning one race apiece this weekend, with the #57 M Racing effort of August Therbo still a mathematical contender at 39 points behind.
In JS2 R Pro/Am, the #84 Trajectus Motorsport entry of Martin Tabery is 15 points ahead of the #18 VSF Sports Ligier of Anthony Ghibaudo/Maxime Aparicio, with the gap having been almost halved this weekend.
Images courtesy of David Lord and VSF Sports
