Tag Archives: 6 Hours of Silverstone

That’s Entertainment – 6 Hours Of Siverstone

Last Sunday saw the runners and riders of the World Endurance Championship gather for the 6 Hours Of Silverstone with a smattering of new rules, new cars, cars and new faces.

Of the new rules the most significant was abandoning the safety car in all but the most extreme cases for full course yellow’s and this led to the race being disturbed for only 8 minuets over six hours and no unnecessary bunching of the field.

6 Hours Of Silverstone

Qualifying in the top LMP1 category was locked out by the two Porsche 919 Hybrids, reckoned to be more powerful than the 900hp Peugeot 908 turbo diesels, driven Timo Bernhard, Mark Webber with Brendon Hartley and Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb which can be seen leading the pack of Audi’s and Toyota’s on the opening lap.

Thanks to an electrics problem that knocked out his telemetry and gave him a misfire Benoit Tréluyer is seen on the extreme left of the photo above as he fell all the way back to tenth place in the opening laps before the problem sorted it’s self out.

Ferrari F458 Italia, Shaytar / Bertolini / Basov, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Despite qualifying only 5th fastest in the GTE/Am category Russians Victor Shaytar, Aleksey Basov with Italian Andrea Bertolini came through to finish third in class and 18th overall, with their #72 SMP Racing Ferrari F458 Italia seen above on the Hangar Straight.

Ferrari F458 Italia, Perrodo / Collard / Aguas, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Seen turning into the fast sweeping Abbey above is the #83 AF Corse Ferrari of Frenchman François Perrodo and Emmanuel Collard who with Portugals Rui Aguas qualified 4th in LMGTE/Am and finsihed 2nd in class and 17th overall.

Dalla Lana / Lamy / Lauda, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Only 30 seconds covered the top three LMGTE Am class finishers after six hours of racing, Canada’s Paul Dalla Lama with Portugal’s Pedro Lamy and Austian Mathias Lauda converted their LMGTE/Am pole into a first place in class finish, 16th overall, driving the #98 Aston Martin Racing Vantage V8 seen at Becketts above.

Ferrari F458 Italia, Rigon / Calado, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Slowest of the 7 LMGTE Pro qualifiers were Italy’s Davide Rigon and Britain’s James Calado but they dug deep and finished the race third in class, 11th overall, less than 30 seconds behind the class winners.

Porsche 911 RSR, Chevrolet Corvette C7, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

German Richard Leitz and Denmarks Michael Christensen qualified their #91 Porsche Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR in 4th place behind three Aston Martin’s, by the end of the race the Aston’s had all fallen one lap down on the three class leading LMGTE Pro cars.

The 2nd in class, 10th place overall, finishing #91 Porsche is seen lapping the returning Labre Competition teams new LMGTE Am #50 Corvette C7 driven by Italians Gianluca Roda, Paolo Ruberti and Denmarks Kristan Poulsen at Vale above.

Ferrari F458 Italia, Bruni / Vilander, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Winners of the LMGTE Pro class and 9th overall were Italy’s Gianmaria Bruni and Finlands Tony Vilander who qualified their #51 AF Course Ferrari 5th in class, the Ferrari is seen being chased by a LMP1 Toyota at the Arena.

HPD ARX 03B - HPD, Sharp / Dalziel / Heinemeier Hanson, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

While awaiting the delivery of a new pair of LMP2 Ligier’s the Extreme Motorsports team made their debut in the WEC with a pair of HPD (Honda Performance Developmant) ARX O3B’s.

The #30 HPD, seen above exiting Maggots, driven by American Scott Sharp, Britain Ryan Dalziel and Denmarks David Heinemeier Hanson qualified 4th in class and crossed the line third in class.

Regrettably the car was excluded because it was found in post race scrutineering to have been running with a thinner ALMS spec plank under the car than the mandated thicker WEC spec plank, this was a tough break for the popular US team.

Dome S103 Nissan, Leventis / Watts / Kane_6 Hours Of Silverstone

With the exclusion of the #30 the Nissan powered #42 Strakka Racing Dome S103 driven by Britain Nick Leventis, Danny Watts and Jony Kane was awarded third in class.

Watts ended up going into the kitty litter on the first corner of the first lap but with help from the marshalls the team recovered from last place to finish a respectable 8th overall.

Ligier JS P2 Nissan, Yacaman / Derani / Gonzalez, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Columbian Gustavo Yacaman, Brazilian Luis Felipe Derani and Mexican Ricardo Gonzalez qualified their Nissan powered #28 G-Drive Racing Ligier JS P2, seen at entering Becketts on class pole, but finished the race 2nd in class, 7th overall and 1 lap behind their team mates …

Ligier JS P2 Nissan, Rusinov / Canal / Bird, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Russian Roman Rusinov Frances Julien Canal and Sam Bird, who’s class winning #26 Ligier is seen above at Club.

Toyota TS040 Hybrid, Davidson / Buemi / Nakajima, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

At the head of the field representatives from all three leading manufacturers took turns at the lead after qualifying fourth reigning World Endurance Champions Brit Anthony Davidson and Swiss Sébastien Buemi, who were joined by the Japanese Kazuki Nakajima came through to a third place finish just 15 seconds behind the the winning car.

6 Hours Of Silverstone

After easily leading the opening 90 mins of the race from pole position Mark Webber had to retire the lead #17 Porsche 919 Hybrid with transmission issues before team mates Timo Bernhard and Brendon Hartley had a chance to drive it, leaving the sister #18 front row starter driven by Romain Dumas, Marc Lieb and Neel Jani with a small lead over the fast recovering #7 Audi driven by Benoit Treluyer, Marcel Fässler and Andre Lotterer.

A fantastic battle between the two leading cars ensued from the half way stage of the race, which included this linked scrap with 50 mins to go, at the end of the day the inferior tyre wear on the faster Porsche swung victory away from them despite trying a two tyres only final stop.

Above Neel Jani slices past the LMGTE Am #96 Aston Martin driven by Francesco Castalocci, Roland Goethe and Stuart Hall while the #1 Toyota awaits to slice past the LMGTE Am Dempsey Proton Racing #77 Porsche driven by Patrick Dempsey, Patrick Long and Marco Seefried and LMGTE Pro #99 Aston Martin driven by Alex Macdowall, Fernando Rees, and Richie Stanamay.

Audi R18 e-tron quattro, Fässler / Lotterer / Tréluyer, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

With 15 minutes to go the #7 Audi driven by Marcel Fässler had lead of over a minute when it was called in for a splash and dash stop. At the same time the #7 was also awarded a stop go penalty for an overtaking maneuver beyond the track limits at club.

The #7’s lead was just 37 seconds after the splash and dash and less than 10 seconds after the penalty stop, but there were not enough laps left for Neel to chase the #7 down and with a winning margin of less than five seconds it was the Audi Sport Team Joest drivers who’s names were added to the base of the 110 year old Tourist Trophy at Silverstone.

Despite starting with an electical failure the #7, seen passing the 3rd placed #1 Toyota in the Arena above, came through to win by covering a record 201 laps.

Thanks for joining me on this “That’s Entertainment” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at a Chrysler 300D. Don’t forget to come back now !

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2014 Highlights – Motor Racing

45 years after I was taken to my first motor race meeting in the middle of Africa it is hard to believe that one of my greatest joy’s is getting up in the middle of the night and heading to the next one.

M4 East Bound

This year I managed to get to at an average of one meeting month from March through to October.

Gould GR55, Colin Calder, Great Western Sprint, Castle Combe,

For the last couple of seasons my motor racing year has got underway in March marshaling at the Bristol Motor Clubs Great Western Sprint, this year my duties in the pit lane were over for the top ten run off, above Colin Calder made his 15 hour trip from Scotland worthwhile by grinding out the fastest time of the day narrowly pipping his daughter heather by just over 1/10 of a second.

Lola, Goodliff, Elva, Woodhouse, VSCC Spring Start, Silverstone

The VSCC Spring Start meeting at Silverstone saw the start of the 80th Anniversary of ERA celebrtions, top race of the day was the Formula Junior event which saw a race long scrap twixt the red 1960 Lola Mk2 of Simon Goodliff and the 1959 Elva 100 driven by Mark Woodhouse fall in Simon’s favour.

Ocon, Verstappen, Dallara F312, Silverstone

2014 was Max Verstappen’s first season in car racing, in his third car race ever, above, he is seen overtaking Esteban Ocon on his way to second place in the 3rd European Formula Three championship of the season run at the Silverstone 6 Hours meeting. Even then he probably would have found it unlikely to believe that aged seventeen years and one hundred and sixty-six days old he is set to become the youngest driver ever to start a Formula One Grand Prix when making his 33rd race car start driving a Torro Rosso in the 2015 Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne next season.

Benhard / Webber / Hartley, Porsche 919 Hybrid, 6 Hours of Silverstone

The 6 Hours of Silverstone meeting was my second visit to Silverstone in 8 days. Timo Benhard Mark Webber and Brandon Hartley in the #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid above started the event in 6th place and survived to finish 3rd. At the end of the season Mark Webber became world news and ended up in hospital after crashing his 919 Hybrid with in half an hour of the finish of the race run in São Paulo an event which completely eclipsed the fact that #14 Porsche 919 Hybrid team mates Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb went on to score the teams first World Endurance Championship race win since returning to top level endurance racing at the start of the year.

Maserati MC12 Goodwood Cent 100, Michael Bartels, Goodwood Festival of Speed

At the end of June I popped over to Goodwood for the Festival of Speed where Sebastian Loeb driving his 2013 Pikes Peak winning Peugeot 208 was tipped to make an attempt on the Goodwood Hillclimb course record set by ‘Quick Nick’ Heidfeld driving a Formula One McLaren Mercedes in 1999. Dark horse for the Goodwood Hillclimb turned out to be Michael Bartles driving the specially liveried Maserati MC12 ‘Goodwood Cent 100’ which finished just over a second down on Loeb who missed taking the outright record thanks to the gearing being short on top speed.

Lotus Cortina, Shedden, Meaden, Silverstone Classic,

Gordon Shedden and Richard Meaden provided the tyre smoking dice of the day driving their Lotus Cortina’s on the Super Saturday morning of the Silverstone Classic meeting. Richard Meaden seen following above won with team mate Grant Tromans after Gordon’s car over heated during the mandatory pit stop in the Sir John Whitmore Trophy.

07 14 07 26 Lola T70 Voyazides Hadfield_2455sc

Having already won the Mustang Celebration trophy during the afternoon of the Super Saturday Silverstone Classic meeting Leo Voyazides swapped his Ford Falcon for his Lola T70 Coupé and won the FIA Historic Masters Sports Cars race with Simon Hadfield after Martin O’Connel’s 2 litre/122 cui Chevron B19 mysteriously went off road with out injury to the driver.

Mallock Mk 9, Michael Mallock, Oulton Park,

Over the August Bank Holiday weekend I managed to get up to Oulton Park for the Gold Cup meeting, while the day was fairly wet and miserable the racing was hot from beginning to end. Michael Mallock achieved the rare feet of not only winning a race in a car, #9 Mallock Mk 9 Formula Ford, bearing his family name but also beating a field of rear engined Formula Ford cars with the only vehicle carrying it’s engine in front of the driver.

Plymouth Satellite, Cheng Lim, Brighton Speed Trials,

Having encouraged readers to help save Brighton Speed Trials at the beginning of the year I managed to make my way down to Sussex for the saved event in September. Slowest car in the event but none the less entertaining was Cheng Lim’s Plymouth Satellite.

BY-Pod, Chipping Sodbury School, Renishaw Castle Combe Heat 2014

Counting as one of the most awesome vehicles I have seen all season is Chipping Sodbury Schools BY-Pod electric vehicle taking part in the Renishaw Castle Combe Heat 2014 of the Greenpower Challenge. I left the meeting with my spirits for the future of motorsport in what ever form it might take thoroughly uplifted.

Cooper Mk X, Steve Jones, Cooper Mk XI, George Shackleton, BAC MSC Challenge Trophy, Autumn Classic, Castle Combe,

One of the many highlights of the third Autumn Classic meeting run at Castle Combe was the dice between the Cooper 500 Formula 3 cars of Steve Jones and George Shackleton for the BAC MSC Challenge Trophy, Steve claimed the spoils in his slightly older #74 Mark X. Next year among the many attractions of the 4th Autumn Classic at Castle Combe on October 3rd will be one of the BRM V16’s which for my money would be worth the price of entry if nothing else showed up.

Thanks for joining me on this “2014 Highlights” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow for Americana Thursday. Don’t forget to come back now !

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2014 World Endurance Champions

For todays blog I’ll be reflecting on the championship winners from the World Endurance Championship.

Toyota TS040 Hybrid, 6 Hours of Silverstone

The 2014 World Endurance Drivers’ Championship winners are Britains Anthony Davidson and Switzerland’s Sébastien Buemi who drove the #8 Toyota TS040 Hybrid to four victories from 8 starts and are seen above on their way to winning the opening race at Silverstone. Toyota also won the 2014 World Endurance Manufacturers’ Championship taking 5 victories in total.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

Italian Gianmaria Bruni and Finland’s Toni Vilander driving for the AF Corse Ferrari team won their class four times to secure the 2014 World Endurance Cup for GT Drivers, Ferrari also won the 2014 World Endurance Cup for GT Manufacturers.

Lola B12/60, 6 Hours of Silverstone

Five class victories for Switzerland’s Mathias Beche France’s Nicolas Prost and Germany’s ‘Quick’ Nick Heidfeld were enough to win the 2014 LMP1 Private Teams Drivers’ Trophy for the Rebellion Racing trio, who’s second Toyota powered car claimed the other three victories to ensure Rebellion Racing won the 2014 FIA Endurance Trophy for Private LMP1 Teams.

Oreca 03, 6 Hours of Silverstone

The marginally superior reliability of the SMP Oreca 03 and the absence of a regular team mate meant that Russia’s Sergey Zlobin claimed the 2014 FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Drivers on his own with just one class win at Le Mans. The Nissan powered SMP team also won the 2014 FIA Endurance Trophy for LMP2 Teams.

Aston Martin Vantage GTE, 6 Hours of Silverstone

Dane’s Kristian Poulsen and David Heinemeier Hansson won the LMGTE Am class four times with Nicki Thiim in the #95 Aston Martin Vantage GTE, but raced to four 2nd place finishes in Nicki’s absence to secure the 2014 FIA Endurance Trophy for LMGTE Am Drivers and help Aston Martin win the 2014 FIA Endurance Trophy for LMGTE Am Teams.

Thanks for joining me on this “2014 World Endurance Champions” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be looking at the inspiration behind the Belchfire Runabout. Don’t forget to come back now !

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2014 WEC LMGTE Ferraris – Ferrari 458 Italia GT2s

Seven entries in the 27 car field for the 6 Hours of Silverstone on Easter Sunday were GT2 spec Ferrari 458 Italias, 3 of which were running in the LMGTE Pro class and the remainder in the LMGTE Am class, here is a quick overview of how they fared.

Ferrari 458 Italia, 6 Hours Of Silverstone, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Fastest of all seven was the AF Corse entered #51 driven by Gianmaria Bruni and Toni Vilander which secured class pole position, but could not keep pace with the Porsche RSRs during the race when the conditions turned damp and were completely outclassed when the track was completely soaked. Gianmaria and Toni eventually finished 4th in class, 10th overall, behind the two works RSRs and an Aston Martin Vantage V8.

Ferrari 458 Italia, 6 Hours Of Silverstone, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

AF Corse team mates Davide Rigon and James Calado driving the #71 Italia followed the # 51 home in 11th place overall.

Ferrari 458 Italia, 6 Hours Of Silverstone, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

RAM racing were making there WEC debut, with entries in the LMGTE Pro and Am classes having run a GT2 spec Italia to win the European Le Mans series in their first full season of competition last year. 2013 ELMS drivers co champion Matt Griffith was paired with Alvaro Parente in the Pro #52 Italia seen above and they came home 12th overall and 6th in class.

Ferrari 458 Italia, 6 Hours Of Silverstone, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Pole in the LMGTE Am class was also won by AF Corse with Stephen Wyatt, Michele Rugolo and Sam Bird at the wheel of the #81 Italia. However they could not keep pace with the Aston Martin Vantage V8s during the race and so finished 3rd in class 17th overall.

Ferrari 458 Italia, 6 Hours Of Silverstone, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

The RAM racing LMGTE Am entry was driven by 2013 ELMS drivers co Champion Johnny Mowlem, Mark Patterson and Ben Collins who finished 19th overall and 5th in class.

Ferrari 458 Italia, 6 Hours Of Silverstone, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

The second AF Corse LMGTE AM entry was driven by Luis Perez-Companc, Marco Cioci, Mirko Venturi it finished 20th last of the cars still running at the end.

Ferrari 458 Italia, 6 Hours Of Silverstone, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

The races only ‘recorded’ retirement was filed by 2013 LMGTE Am debutants and champions 8 Star Motorsports who’s #90 Italia was driven by Vicente Potolicchio, Gianluca Roda, Paolo Ruberti. After attracting three penalties for speeding in the pit lane, due to a faulty rev limiter, a drive shaft broke just over half way through the race and the #90 recorded 118 laps. For some as yet unknown reason none of the six other unclassified finishers that were not running at the finish of the race bothered to officially retire.

My thanks to Victor R0 at the Racing Comments forum for enlightening me as to some of the anomalies of retiring from an endurance race.

Thanks for joining me on this “2014 WEC LMGTE Ferraris” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Prelude To Le Mans – 6 Hours of Silverstone

Easter Sunday emerged gray and overcast at dawn but nothing was going to dampen my enthusiasm for getting to Silverstone just in time for the gates to open because Porsche were due to make their first official appearance in top line sports car racing since 1998 Le Mans winning Porsche GT1-98 was retired from competition.

Dallara F312, Ocon, Verstappen, Silverstone

Before the pits walk about which would give spectators an opportunity to see the new Wundercar the third FIA Formula 3 race of the weekend was run. The cars were all mandated 2012 Dallara F312 but now running motors which are sealed and have to last a whole season. Much to the delight of his vocal fan club Ferrari’s protege Antonio Fuoco won the event by just under five seconds from sixteen year old Max “Son of the Boss” Vertappen who is seen above being gifted second place by third place finisher Esteban Ocon who wound up the weekend with the championship lead having finished 2nd and then 1st in the weekends earlier races. Max is son of former Formula One Racer Jos ‘The Boss’ Verstappen perhaps best remembered as the driver sitting in the Benetton which erupted into a fireball at the 1994 German Grand Prix and winner of the 2008 LMP2 Le Mans series title.

Porsche 919, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

By the time I got to the pit lane for the walkabout the queue was already enormous but within a couple of minuets it was moving and unsurprisingly spectators were standing 6 deep trying to get a glimpse of the Porsche 919 Hybrid which was started from scratch, leaving the past behind, as evidenced by the turbocharged 2 litre V4 and and two energy recuperation systems that has been developed over the last 30 months.

The #14 driven by Romain Dumas, Neel Jani and Marc Lieb and the #20 driven by Timo Benhard, Mark Webber and Brendon Hartley showed phenomenal speed in free practice being over 10 mph faster than their rivals in a straight line. They lined up 3rd and 6th on the grid respectively despite being the only runners in low down force Le Mans spec.

Anthony Davidson, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

The #7 Toyota TS 040 Hybrid driven by Alexander Wurz, Stéphane Sarrazin and Kazuki Nakajima was on pole ahead of the #1 Audi R18 e-tron quattro driven by Lucas di Grassi, Loïc Duval and Tom Kristensen. Forth on the grid was the #2 Audi of Marcel Fässler, André Lotterer and Benoit Tréluyer ahead of fifth place Anthony Davidson, seen seated above right, who shared the #8 Toyota with Nicolas Lapierre and Sebastian Buemi, seated above right. Less than half a second covered the qualification times of the 6 work LMP1 cars.

Toyota TS 040, Audi R18, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Toyota led the opening laps of the race but it was not long before André Lotterer in the #2 Audi, seen above about to relieve the Sebastian Buemi of third place, got to the front of the field. As the first hour of the race unfolded rain started to fall that would, unknown to anyone at the time decide the outcome of the race. Buemi pitted from fourth to take on a set of intermediates, Wurz pitted from second to take on full wets as Toyota wisely split it’s strategy between its cars while the ever optimistic Audi Team elected to stay on slicks.

Porsche 911 RSR, Holzer, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

The Porsche 919’s were running comfortably in 5th and 6th places until the #14 first lost a wheel and then returned only to experience a drive problem and retire after completing only 30 laps. In the LMGTE Pro class however the works 911 RSR’s were comfortably running 1st and 2nd with the #91 driven by Patrick Pilet, Jörg Bergmeister and Nick Tandy easing away from the #92 seen above driven by Marco Holzer, Frédéric Malowiecki and Richard Lietz. With less than an hour to go the #91 pulled into pit for full wets but when the #92 was about to follow suit the pit lane was closed, and was to remain so until the race was called nearly half an hour early handing the LMGTE Pro class win and 7th place overall to the #92 of Holzer, Malowiecki and Lietz who finished just over 40 seconds ahead of their team mates.

Morgan Nissan, Pla, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

The LMP2 class pole was won by Roman Rusinov, Oliver Pla and Julien Canal driving the #26 Morgan – Nissan, seen with Oliver Pla driving through Becketts above, from the similar #47 Oreca 03 badged example driven by Mathew Howson, Richard Bradley and Tsugio Matsuda. On their way to a 5th place finish overall the #26 had to change their nose twice, to repair damage the first time and then fit one with the correct dive planes the second, but managed to catch and pass the #47 which received a 10 second penalty for speeding in the pit lane and was later penalised a lap for unsafe release from a pit stop.

Porsche, Toyota, Aston Martin, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Meanwhile the #7 Toyota, seen above about to overtake the #88 LMGTE Am Porsche RSR driven by Christian Ried, Claus Bachler and Khaled Al Qubaisi, on the full wets was struggling and fell behind the sister #8 car of Davidson,Lapierre and Buemi on intermediates which inherited the lead after the #1 Audi which di Grassi crashed into the barriers on slicks in the wet at Woodcote had to retire with a broken suspension pick up point and the #2 Audi also on slicks lost four laps and five places when Lotterer went off at Stowe.

Ferrari F458 Italia, 6 Hours Of Silverstone, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

While the #2 was making up lost time the #71 LMGTE Pro Ferrari F458 Italia, seen above was being driven by Davide Rigon and James Caldo to an eventual 5th in class finish ahead of the #81 F458 Italia driven by Stephen Wyatt, Michele Rugolo and Sam Bird which recorded a third place class finish in the LMGTE Am division behind …

Aston Martin Vantage V8, Silverstone, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

two works Aston Martin Vantage V8’s. On this occasion #95 Aston Martin seen above brought home the GTE Am bacon with Danes Kristian Poulsen, David Heinemeir Hansson, Nicki Thiim recording a 15th place overall along with class honours.

Audi R18 e-tron quattro, Treluyer, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

On intermediate tyres Benoit Treluyer recovered to 4th place in the #2 Audi when just after the 3 hour mark he appears to have locked a wheel braking for Copse corner, clouted the inside barrier and then went sailing over the kitty litter to come to rest on solid ground against the barrier, which he hit hard enough for the front wheels to be facing in different directions. Benoit valiantly cleared up the worst of the mess, against the marshals better judgement, jumped back in the car fired it up and got it going all of 5 yards before the Audi steered its self into the gravel trap and retirement. For the first time in 18 races going back to 2011 neither Audi finished which “may” yet have effectively handed not just the race but also the World Endurance Championship to Toyota.

Porsche 919, Hartley, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

On his LMP1 debut New Zealander Brendon Hartley meantime kept the #20 Porsche 919 Hybrid on the black stuff as it progressed to a third place with Timo Bernhard and Formula One™ refugee Mark Webber sharing the podium finish. Porsche will be keeping their Le Mans low down force spec bodywork for the next round of the WEC championship at Spa where they will continue their preparations for Le Mans which they are obviously very keen to win on their return to top flight endurance racing.

Lola B12/60 - Toyota, Heidfeld, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

“Quick Nick” Heidfeld was the immediate beneficiary of the #2 Audi’s misfortune as he was handed back 4th place in the race driving a triple stint in the long in the tooth Toyota powered Rebellion Racing Lola B12/60 which by Le Mans should be replaced by a pair of Oreca built Toyota powered R-One LMP1 Coupés. Quick Nick with team mates Nicolas Prost and Mathias Beche came home fourth overall a distant 8 laps behind the winning #8 Toyota.

Safety Car, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

With an hour to go the rain returned getting ever more heavy, this led to the Pace Car being brought out and for twenty odd minuets we had a curious situation where, other than those immediately behind the pace car when it came out, none could maintain anything like the pace necessary to actually catch it. For some like the #12 Rebellion Lola this may well have been because cockpit was steaming up reducing visibility, for others like the #91 Porsche RSR it was because they were on the wrong tyres and the pit lane was closed, because the pace car was out and so with twenty six mins to go the race director sensibly called the race.

The Wing, 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Anthony Davidson is seen above celebrating Toyota’s 6th WEC victory with his team mates and the third place Porsche crew on the podium built into The Wing, while the rest of the cars are seen in Parc Ferme on the start finish straight.

The Silverstone 6 Hours, the 2014 edition of which can be seen on this link, has often been used by the works Porsche team as a prelude to it’s assault on the Le Mans 24 hours, on this occasion one of the cars performed well enough to show that the team should be in the ball park for victory in the 24 hour classic, while Toyota cleverly split their tyre strategy during a period of weather uncertainty to secure a victory for one of it’s cars leaving the other well placed.

Last years 6 Hours of Silverstone, Le Mans and World Endurance Championship winners completely dropped the ball when the weather threw a curve ball leaving both of their entries on the wrong tyres at the wrong time showing that not even the very best of teams over the last 15 years always has things to learn and room for improvement.

I am not sure that I’ll be able to make it to Le Mans or indeed any of the rest of the WEC rounds but I’ll be following it with keen interest until the end of the season.

Thanks for joining me on this “Prelude To Le Mans” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me for Americana Thursday tomorrow ! Don’t forget to come back now !

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90 Hours and 500 Zip Ties – Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 #2844

3 years after starting race car driving, in which the highlight was winning the 2005 Six Hours of the Glen with Niclas Jönsson in the Grand Am series, Tracey W Krohn founded his own Grand Am team in late 2005 and started competing in the at the 2006 Daytona 24 hours.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

Success was immediate as Krohn team driver Jörg Bergmeister won the drivers championship and Krohn Racing finished second in the top DP division of the championship. Right from the start Krohn Racing also ran a parallel GT program mostly at Le Mans with Risi Competizione running Ferrari’s.

Krohn, Jönsson, Mediani, 6 Hours of Silverstone

Since 2011 Krohn Racing has run it’s own GT programme to compete in the US and European Le Mans series, which in Europe last year became the FIA World Endurance Championship (WEC). Krohn Racing started competing in the GTE Am class of the WEC last year with today’s featured car the Ferrari 458 Italia GT2 chassis #2844 that this year has been driven by Tracey, Swede Niclas Jönsson with whom he won the Watkins Glen six hours and former Russian Formula 3 Open Wheel champion Maurizio Mediani.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

There seems to be some confusion about the name of this model with various sources quoting it as a GTC others including Krohn Racing’s own website calling it an F458 GTE however the Ferrari website calls the model a GT2 which is good enough for me. If you know different chime in below.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

Based on the stunning Ferrari 458 Italia road car the GT2 differs with it’s more aggressive aerodynamic aids, however like the road car it has power steering, air conditioning to keep the cockpit temperatures tolerable and perhaps most surprisingly electric mirrors.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

Power from the 4.5 litre / 274.6 cui V8 is restricted by air intake restrictor plates that means the motor produces a maximum 465hp at 6,250 rpm down from 562hp at 9,000 rpm in the road car.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

#2844 is seen here at the recent 6 Hours of Silverstone where the team came home 25th overall and 6th in class. Since then the car has competed at the Spa 6 Hours where the team came home 28th overall and 8th in class and at the Le Mans test where Will and Maurizio recorded 61st fastest time.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

The chassis final appearance was at the Le Mans 24 hours where during the opening day of practice Will, as Tracey is known, skidded off the track in the Dunlop Curves and wrecked the €480,000 / US$ 628,000 car fortunately with out any injury to himself.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

By 11pm that night Krohn Racing had concluded a deal with Edelcriss Racing in Northern Italy to lease a their racing 458 chassis. Only problem was it was a more powerful GT3 spec car and it was 1,100 miles away. The Edelcriss Racing transporter set off with the car for a 15 hour sprint to Le Mans.

Ferrari 458 Italia GT2, 6 Hours of Silverstone

When it arrived it was promptly stripped and refettled to GT2 spec using all of the salvageable parts from #2844 a task which took a team of ten technicians 9 hours and some 500 Zip (cable) ties.

The new car was ready to roll for the Thursday qualification session in which Le Mans rookie Maurizio had yet to complete 5 laps in order to qualify.

The car made it to the grid but had to retire at 1am after another accident at the Porsche Curves left the new car stranded out on the track.

All of Krohn Racing troubles were put into perspective when they learned that fellow GTE Am competitor Allan Simonsen, seen above leading the Krohn Ferrari in the #95 Aston Martin, was killed in after a crash during the opening laps of the Le Mans 24 hours after he left the circuit at Tetre Rouge.

An appreciation of Allan’s life will be appearing in tomorrow’s blog.

Thanks for joining me on this ’90 Hours and 500 Zip Ties’ edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”. I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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Zwei Eins – 6 Hours Of Silverstone

Thanks to catching a break with my car insurance last week I found I had just enough petrol in the tank and cash in my pocket to take a 2 hour drive to go and see the 6 Hours of Silverstone World Endurance Championship Sports Car race.

6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

Recently there has been a lot of debate about the possibility of a female ever winning the World Championship, 33 years ago I remember seeing Desiré Wilson co drive her de Cadenet Ford to victory in the Silverstone 6 hour race with Alain de Cadenet and the top line cars have not become anymore physically demanding since. So it was a tad disappointing to see the sports governing body the FIA setting a bad example of equality by sanctioning the use of so many females as eye candy with out giving the ladies in the audience something corresponding to look at, such a move might just make the sport a little more appealing across the board.

ROSENQVIST,  MARCIELLO, Dallara, FIA Formula 3, Silverstone, UK

First race of the day was the third and final Formula 3 race of the weekend, that forms part of the FIA European Formula 3 Championship. Starting on a slippery track it was not long before six competitors fell off requiring the use of the pace car to clear up some of the mess. Felix Rosenqvist was leading from a third place on the grid, in the #6 Mucke Motorsport Dallara-Mercedes, when the action resumed but Raffaele Marciello driving the #1 Prema Powerteam Dallara-Merc who was the man on the move having out braked his team mate and pole sitter Alex Lynn going into Club after the Safety Car was withdrawn and then chased down Rosenqvist and over taking him on the outside of Stowe. Full results for all three FIA Formula 3 races can be found on this link. Ferrari protege Marciello leads the new championship from Rosenqvist, Harry Tincknell, and third place finisher Lynn, the next round is at Hockenheim on May 4th.

Howson, Ka To, Impertori, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

After the Formula 3 race it was time to go on the pits walk about where many of the drivers were busy signing autographs that is all except KCMG Motorsports trio (left to right) Matthew Howson, Jim Ka To and Alexander Imperrori who had no giveaways to sign, they were however armed with their own pens and they kindly signed my programme before going on to finish the race 12th overall, 6th in class from a 25th place start in their #47 Morgan Nissan.

Lotus Praga T128, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

Not for the first time two Lotus share the same Type Number, the original Lotus T128 was a Renault powered 2011 Formula One car built by what is now called the Caterham Formula One team while seen in the pits above is the new Type 128 a LMP 2 Endurance racer running with a Judd V8 motor that carries the name plate of the Czechoslovakian kart manufacturer Praga. The #31 Lotus Praga T128 scheduled to be driven by Kevin Weeda, Vitantonio Liuzzi and Christophe Bouchut completed the least number of laps, 44, and was classified 31st and last, while the sister #32 driven by Thomas Holzer, Dominik Kraihamer and Jan Charouz completed 113 laps and was classified 29th on the teams debut outing.

Aston Martin, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

A timely reminder of Aston Martin‘s centenary year appeared just before the start of the race, expect to see some more Aston Martin blogs in the months ahead.

Start, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

31, of an expected entry of 33, cars took the start of the 6 Hours of Silverstone race the front row was locked out by Toyota TS030 Hybrids with Alexander Wurz starting on pole in the #7 car. The Audi R18 e-Tron quattro‘s of Tom Kristensen and André Lotterer started line astern in 3rd and 5th places flanked by the Lola Toyota B12/60 Coupé’s of Nicolas Prost and Matthias Beche.

Kristensen.Audi, Wurz, Toyota, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

Toyota’s moment of glory proved to be short lived as Kristensen relieved Wurz of the lead going into Vale after only a hand full of laps, the sister Audi also made short work of both Toyota’s and soon settled into second place.

Toyota TS030 Hybrid, Maggotts, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

While the Audi’s sailed into the distance the Toyota’s which looked great in the corners like Maggotts above were visibly unstable on the straights when compared to the overall leaders.

Pla, Morgan Nissan, Pit Straight, 6 Hours Of Siverstone, Silverstone, UK

While I was spectating at the end of, the original now ‘National’ pits straight, I remembered that it was 35 years since I had first attended the Silverstone 6 hours and seen the awesome Porsche 935/78 “Moby Dick” win by a comfortable 7 laps. Above Oliver Pla guides the #24 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan he shared with David Heinemeier Hanson and Alex Brundle to an eight place overall finish, 2nd in class.

Aston Martin, Lola, Toyota, Luffield, 6 Hours Of Siverstone,

Aston Martin fielded four Vantage V8’s two in the LMGTE Pro class and two in the LMGTE Am class all four cars finished with the #97 of Darren Turner, Stefan Mücke and Bruno Senna winning the Pro class and #95 of Christoffer Nygaard, Kristian Poulsen and Allan Simonsen winning the Am class. Above the Am class #96 of Roald Goethe, Stuart Hall and Jamie Campbell-Walter leads the Rebellion Racing #13 Lola Toyota B12/60 Coupé of Andrea Belicchi, Mathias Beche and Cong Fu Cheng, which finished 6th overall and the 4th place finishing #7 Toyota of Wurz and Nicolas Lapierre through a slippery Luffield as light rain that caught out a couple of competitors was falling.

Loic Duval, Audi R18 e-tron quattro, 6 Hours Of Siverstone,

Loic Duval, seen above at Club, drove the winning Audi through the middle of the race swapping the lead with the sister Audi as the pit stops cycled through.

Bruni, Ferrari F458 Italia, Club, 6 Hours Of Siverstone,

The LMGTE class Ferrari 348 Italia’s all appeared to get involved in incidents of one kind or another the AF Corse #51 Pro entry for former Formula One Drivers Gianmaria Bruni and Giancarlo Fisichella carries war wounds on it’s way to an 18th place finish overall, 5th in class.

Ferrari, Chevrolet, Porsche, Hangar Straight, 6 Hours Of Siverstone,

The appeal of Endurance racing is that somewhere there is always a battle over tarmac above the 6th in class #57 LMGTE Am Krohn Racing Ferrari of Tracey Krohn, Nicoläs Johnson and Maurizio Mediani dukes it out going on to the hangar straight with the 2nd in class LMGTE AM class Labre Compétition Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1 of Patrick Bornhauser, Julien Canal and Fernando Rees with the 3rd in class LMGTE Pro works Porsche AG Team Manthey Porsche 911 RSR of Marc Lieb, Richard Lietz and Domain Dumas in hot pursuit.

SARRAZIN, Toyota TS030 Hybrid, The Loop, 6 Hours of Silverstone

Like the works Porsche AG Manthey team cars the works Toyota and Audi entries finished in reverse order the #8 Toyota of Anthony Davidson, Sébastian Buemi and Stéphane Sarrazin leading the #7 Toyota home to 3rd and 4th place finishes respectively. Sarrazin is seen above negotiating the Loop.

Ferrari, Chevrolet, Toyota, Porsche, Club, 6 Hours of Silverstone

There was drama right through the field right up until the end with only 5 mins to go a tyre on the 8 Stars Motorsports LMGTE Am #81 Ferrari 458 Italia of Vicente Potolicchio, Rui Aguas and Philip Peter let go demoting it to a 3rd in class finish on it’s WEC debut, behind the following #50 Corvette above, despite having earlier had to stop to replace a door.

Alan McNish, 6 Hours of Silverstone

The #1 Audi of reigning world endurance champions Lotterer, Benoit Treluyer and Marcel Fässler was leading with 5 mins to go when a front drive shaft broke which allowed team mate Allan McNish to nip through and take a three second victory over the now two wheel drive #1 both Audi’s finishing a lap ahead of the #8 and #7 Toyota’s. McNish is seen above taking a bow after finishing the race. Full results for the 6 Hours of Silverstone can be found on this link.

All in all £40 including official programme well spent on 6 hours of nonstop action with an 8 mile walk in and around the track thrown in. Next time I must remember to take more batteries for my trusty AM/FM Sony Walkman Compact Cassette player with which to stay in touch with the on track action via Radio Silverstone.

Thanks for joining me on this “Zwei Eins” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow. Don’t forget to come back now !

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