But do you remember what he said last week, in announcing that Richard Lyons would be partnering Antonio Garcia, in the #61 DBR9? “That should spice this race into a three way battle between Oreca, Larbre and ourselves.” Actually he achieved more than that: his Cirtek team took the fight to one of the absolute acknowledged masters of endurance racing – Hugues de Chaunac, and his ORECA team… and the pair of them left Larbre’s Aston Martin in their wake. In fairness, Jack Leconte’s team had suffered the accident damage on Friday, and missed a session on Saturday, plus qualifying. But the ORECA - Cirtek GT1 race was, by some margin, the best Le Mans Series GT1 battle we’ve yet seen. It was a brilliant race – with some neat twists and turns along the way. “Just before the last pit stop,” continues Rob Schirle, “we had tyres out and ORECA had tyres out – but neither of us had any intention of using them!
The pattern of this race was that the two battling cars pitted together at almost every stop: how did that come about? “It’s just the way it worked out: we were both running to the maximum on our fuel. We didn’t know they were coming in at the same time as us each time – they just did!” So that made the race between these two relatively simple to follow. After the initial confusion of the lap 1 accident and then the long wait on the grid, when racing did commence, Garcia in the Cirtek Aston Martin and Ortelli in the ORECA Saleen were straight down to it.
Lap 10 was the first flying lap, and they were nine-tenths apart. Lap 11 and they both set their fastest laps of the race, Ortelli a 2:17.025, Garcia a 2:17.144. These two were perfectly matched: lap 20 and the gap was still just 1.2 seconds.
But lap 23 was a slow one for the Aston Martin, a 2:22.1 – and with Ortelli setting a 2:19.7, he led. Peter Kox lay third, 12 seconds behind Garcia, and being caught by the recovering Lamy.
Rick Bryant, owner of the #61 Cirtek Aston Martin: "Garcia had a spin (half spin?), that's how Ortelli got past. He heard a thud at the rear, which we think was rubber. But they checked the driveshaft at the stop, which was how Richard (Lyons) took over in third." That first stop, together, came completing lap 27 – and initially, watching both teams at work just seven or eight garages apart, it looked as though Cirtek had the advantage. But one of the crew dived into the left rear wheelarch, as described above, and 16 seconds were lost (3:42 out lap for the Saleen, 3:58 for the DBR9). This is where strategy differed between the two teams: Ortelli stayed at the wheel, but Richard Lyons took over in the DBR9. He had slipped to third (with the pit stop delay), behind Beltoise in the Policand Corvette. Rob Schirle: “Richard wasn’t quite as quick as Garcia, but in fairness he hasn’t raced at Spa for seven years, and it was his first time in the Aston Martin.” The gaps between these three cars were each about 12 seconds, but Ortelli, into his second hour of racing, was still charging, and pulling away from his pursuers. Typically, the little Frenchman was lapping in 2:17 / 2:18 / 2:19, depending on traffic. His lap 30 was a 2:17.037, remarkably close to that fastest GT1 lap of the race. Lap 36 and Lyons had slipped to 40 seconds behind the Saleen, still third, he and Beltoise typically lapping in 2:20 / 2:21 / 2:22. Lap 40 and Lyons was 48 seconds down: something had to happen to bunch the cars up… Jens Moller obliged by crashing the Lister. The Alphand Corvette pitted immediately, while for the only time in the race, the two who would be battling for the win did not pit together. Ortelli came in after 2 hours 33 minutes (staying in again), while Lyons pitted a lap (under the SC) later at 2 hours 38 – and handed back to Garcia. The green flag was shown to the leading car overall, the Pescarolo, completing lap 50, at which point Ortelli and Garcia were 1-3 in GT1, with Gardel between them. That didn’t last long: they were 1-2 a lap later, eight seconds apart. Now the advantage swung back to the Cirtek Aston Martin: completing lap 57, these two were exactly one second (1.000) apart. Was it mainly traffic that brought the gap down so quickly? The #72 Corvette was about 43 seconds behind at this stage, in third – and we had a two horse race. Next we were
entertained by a new phase of this fascinating race… Vasiliev,
in the Convers MenX Ferrari was fifth, and he had Jos Menten just
a little further up the road in fourth, in the PSI Corvette. The Dutchman didn’t have a working radio, and he thought that he was racing for position: we then had lap after lap of Menten, Ortelli and Garcia racing round as a three some. Ortelli and Garcia were typically half a second apart, which would become significant…… “Two and a half hours left, and the GT1 battle is an absolute classic (we wrote in our live coverage). “Garcia is getting a raw deal from the back markers, but isn't going for any silly moves. He gets held up by the Camathias Porsche and the JWA 911, and the gap grows - but Ortelli finally laps Menten, Garcia too - as Menten then pits. Lap 70 and Garcia is 1.6 seconds behind – then on the next lap, he takes the lead – just before they both pit, together again, at 3 hours 40 minutes.
Ayari climbed aboard the Saleen for the first time. Garcia just got ahead in the pitlane, Ayari slipping in behind the DBR9. Ortelli goes off for a de-brief with Hugues de Chaunac – and looks suitably knackered. It’s advantage Cirtek, at least for a little while….Garcia pulls out 1.6 seconds on Ayari on their first flying lap, the gap four seconds. Vasiliev and Hardman (in Cirtek’s #62) are racing for third in GT2, the Alphand Corvette fifth. The 1-2 gap grows to five seconds, then seven, and hovers around seven or eight – but starts to shrink on lap 82.
Rob Schirle: “Having followed Ortelli so closely, we could see the temperatures going up on the telemetry. When that happens, the electrics automatically retard the ignition, so that lost us a little bit of speed. We hoped that the ambient temperature was going to get cooler, so we didn’t take the tape off the radiators when Richard took over. We did for the last stint.” Lap 85 and Ayari is 4.4 seconds behind. Lap 88 and the gap is only eight-tenths. “GT1 continues – fabulously,” we wrote at the time. Lap 89 and Ayari leads. Rob Schirle: “Ayari was very impressive, wasn’t he? He’s raced the car in French GTs, and he was very quick.” Laps 91 and 92 and the Frenchman is in the 2:17s for the first time, the lead just over six seconds. There are less than two hours to go. And we’ve got the safety car out again – to recover the T2M Porsche. They pit together – again (at 4 hours 35). Ayari leads into pitlane, Garcia right behind. The official times of the stops are 1min 56 for the Saleen, 1:52 for the Aston Martin – but these aren’t real ‘stationary’ times. There was a ‘competition’ going on between the two Cirtek crews, the crew chief on the #62 reckoning that a perfect stop, for fuel and then tyres, should be possible in “52 seconds. Typically 53 or 54 in racing conditions, but we’ve practised at 52.” The crew on #61 were just as good, and with Richard Lyons back in the DBR9, the Cirtek stop quicker, and the Cirtek pits further up the hill than ORECA, Lyons was moving first … Rob Schirle: “I was shouting at Richard, over the radio, to keep his foot in it, but Ayari just floored it and cut Richard off.” Ayari still led then – just. They were racing again starting lap 99, and at the end of that lap the gap was nine-tenths.
Lap 102, and Ayari was flying, a 2:17.2, Lyons a 2:21 – and the gap was already eight seconds. Lap 115, 17 secs. The ambient temperature was going up, and the Cirtek crew was preparing to take the tape off the radiators at the last stop. 5 hours 36 and they both pitted (completing lap 118). Cirtek’s stop was again quicker than ORECA’s (these the ones when both teams had tyres ‘ready’, but all they needed was half a tank of fuel – plus that tape removing from the DBR9), and back on the track, the gap was down to 13 seconds – but it grew to 20 at the flag. Six hours of frantic GT1 action (less the stationary half hour just after the ‘start’) – and a “fabulous race”. In these circumstances, it doesn’t matter one jot that the race didn’t go all the way to the flag: this is proper endurance racing, and ORECA had it all but won with 25 minutes to go… as long as Ayari could bring the Saleen home without any delays. He did just that and the right team probably won – but it was a classic, two-car race.
ORECA won’t be at Le Mans, but Cirtek will – with an Aston Martin and the Ferrari 550. “We’re looking to run at Corvette pace at Le Mans,” says Rob Schirle. With the Aston
Martin or the Ferrari or both? It will be fascinating to see how
the driver line-ups develop in the two cars during the next week
or two. Cirtek has indeed had (almost) the perfect warm up for Le
Mans – and will be heading to France as a truly independent
team, ready to tackle (most of) the best GT1 teams in the world. We’re still aiming to round up the Spa 1000 Km, with a wider look at the whole event, including the other three classes.. but we could probably write a book on that one race meeting.
|
Those
are the words of a very satisfied Rob Schirle, after the two Cirtek
Aston Martins finished second and fourth at a dramatic Spa 1000
Km.. 
“I
had an email from Hugues (de Chaunac) yesterday, congratulating
us on our performance, which was very nice of him. I think he was
glad we gave them such a good run, because otherwise the Saleen
would have won by a couple of laps.”
Gardel
was fourth for Larbre, Vasiliev fifth and Menten sixth.
Antonio
Garcia (left, with JC-W), immediately after the end of this stint:
"We have some overheating, so I had to cut the revs. and the
Saleen was 10 kph quicker on the straight."
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