Both IDEC Sport’s #28 and Algarve Pro Racing’s #31 entries are set to take the start in today’s ELMS 4 Hours of Spa, (subject to passing scrutineering) following their heavy crashes in Free Practice 2 on Saturday morning, DSC has learned.
To ensure that title contenders Paul Lafargue, Paul Loup Chatin and Memo Rojas can race, IDEC Sport has rented sps Automotive Performances’ unraced ORECA 07 Gibson. The German team was present here yesterday for the Le Mans Cup race, and has a privately owned, never raced chassis.
Chatin’s big off into the barriers at Raidillon damaged the car beyond repair. The team’s rented 07 is currently being prepared for pre-race scrutineering.
Algarve Pro meanwhile, has managed to repair its #31 ORECA chassis for the race. The car suffered a head-on collision with the barriers on driver’s right at the start of the Kemmel Straight after Henning Enqvist lost the rear of the car. It must be noted that both Chatin and Enqvist walked away from their respective incidents.
Great #news! @APRacingTeam is back to being a two-car effort, as the #31 @Oreca 07 #LMP2 has been repaired and cleared by @EuropeanLMS scrutineers!
Following the huge FP2 crash, #APRacingTeam's mechanics worked through the night to make the car raceworthy 💪 🇵🇹 #ELMS #4HSPA pic.twitter.com/CnvqqaDidg
— Algarve Pro Racing (@APRacingTeam) September 22, 2019
In other ORECA chassis related news, Duqueine Engineering’s #30 ORECA is a new chassis for this weekend, following its incident at Silverstone when Nicolas Jamin hit the Cool Racing 07.
Interestingly, the team’s new car is the ex-GRAFF ORECA that Richard Bradley won two races with in 2018. The Briton is hoping that the change to his ex-race-winning tub sees an improvement in fortunes for the French team in the final two races this season.
The 2019 ELMS 4 Hours of Spa is set to start at 12:30 local time. You can watch it live for free on the ELMS YouTube channel (below), with commentary from DSC’s editor Graham Goodwin and RSL’s Jonny Palmer.
