Tag Archives: 6 Hours

Jun Jeans – Mazda RX7 253i

Welcome to the first of 26 vehicles that will be featured this month that have either run at, or are of a type that have run in the Le Mans 24 Hour endurance race, I will be featuring these cars every day this month except Wednesday, there will be no prizes for guessing what the featured marque will be on Mazda Monday’s.

In 1979 Mazda ran a single Mazda RX7, also known as a 252i, at the fastest round about in the world for Tetsu Ikuzawa, Youjirou Terada and Claude Buchet but it failed to qualify with a best qualifying time of 4m 18.880 s.

The 252i is thought to have raced at Fuji on at least 3 occasions, but a class win in November ’79, for Youjirou Terada and Nico Nicole, is the only known result.

Mazda RX7, Silverstone 6 Hours,

Three years later today’s featured car the RX7 253i made it’s debut sans 252i type rear wing at the 1981 Silverstone 6 Hours, as seen in these photographs, where it was driven to a IMSA GTU class win and 8th place overall finish from 23rd on the grid by Youjirou Terada and Win Percy.

Youjirou and Win were joined by Hiroshi Fushida at Le Mans in 1981 where they out qualified a Domon sponsored sister car driven by Tom Walkinshaw, Pete Lovett and Tetsu Ikuzawa with a 49th best time of 4:04.790 against the 51st best time of 4:07.180 achieved by the Domon sponsored drivers.

Neither 253i finished the race the Jun (Jeans not Speed Shop) sponsored car retired after completing 25 laps with a rear axle problem while the Donon sponsored car retired with a rotary engine problem.

Mazda RX7, Youjirou Terada / Win Percy, Silverstone 6 Hours,

253i’s were raced in Japan until 1986 by teams that included Kinomi Racing, Team Speed Shop Seven, Yours Sport, Alpha Cubic Racing Team, Mishima Auto Hanbai, Capris Enterprise,TRS Itabashi, Koyata Engei Racing and AMRC teams.

The best known results for the model are three second place overall finishes for Tony Trimmer and Nico Nicole at Suzuka in August 1981, at Fuji 1000kms in July 1982 for the Alpha Cubic Racing Team trio Chiyomi Totani, Kaoru Iida and Keiichi Suzuki and finally for the Aqua Motors Club No.3 drivers Chikage Oguchi and Takashi Yorino in the November 1982 Fuji 500 kms.

In 1982 Mazda built an even more radical body for a pair RX7 254i’s for Le Mans and got one of two cars entered to a 14th place finish at Le Mans with Youjirou, Takashi Yorino and Australian Allan Moffat sharing the driving.

Thanks for joining me on this “Jun Jeans” 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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Silent Running – Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

Last Sunday I popped up to Silverstone for the 6 Hour race, the 4th round of the 8 race World Endurance Championship.

Silverstone Circuit, Northamptonshire

When I first visited Silverstone in 1978 the layout was still essentially an airfield perimeter track consisting of six straights joined by six fast corners with the main runway still in use on raceday’s. Since then the track configuration has changed several times, the runway is now long gone and there is a completely new infield section between the Club and Woodcote corners which was introduced last year.

Japanese Fans, Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

When I arrived at the track I was heartend to find that endurance racing appeals to a younger audience who travelled from far and wide, though just as in 1978 in disappointingly small numbers.

Toyota TS030 Hybrid, Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

Making it’s first appearance in the UK was the new for 2012 Toyota TS030 Hybrid which proved fast at the previous Le Mans 24 hours if ultimately unreliable, the car driven by Austrian Alexander Wurz, Frenchman Nicolas Lapierre and Japanese Kazuki Nakajima qualified 3rd behind the two Audi Sport Joest R18’s but after a dozen laps went into the lead, unfortunately it could not maintain it’s lead during the pit stops and so was always, entertainingly playing catch up to the Audi’s with their smaller, diesel filled, fuel tanks which proved ultimately more economical.

Lola- Nissan B12/80 Coupé, Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

Further Japanese interest in the race was provided by Keiko Ihara who was sharing her second tier LMP2 #29 Gulf Racing Middle East entered Lola Nissan B12/80 Coupé with Fenchman Fabien Giroix and Swiss Jean-Denis Delatraz, they qualified a distant 22nd and finished an equally distant 18th overall and 11th in class.

Zytek - Nissan Z11SN, Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

Also running in the LMP2 class was former Grand Prix Driver, 1990 Le Mans winner and Sky Sports Formula One presenter Martin Brundle who joined his son Alex and Spaniard Lucas Ordonez in the #42 Zytek Nissan Z11SN. The #42 qualified a respectable 8th overall 1st in class but could only finish 12th overall 5th in class.

Porsche 911 RSR (997), Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

As well as the two LMP1 and LMP2 prototype classes additional classes catered for GT2 cars which are split into LMGTE Pro and LMGTE Am divisions. Amateurs Christian Ried from Germany with Italians Gianluca Roda and Parato Ruberti from Italy qualified the #88 Porsche 911 RSR (997) 27th overall and 2nd in class and finished 25th overall 2nd in class, seeing the slower GT drivers getting swamped by the faster prototypes on the corners is always interesting but only rarely leads to the kind of damage seen above.

Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1, Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

The #50 Chevrolet Corvette C6-ZR1, seen above, shared by Brazilian Fernando Rees and Frenchmen Patrick Bornhauser and Julien Canal actually crossed the line 25th and 2nd in the LMGTE Am class but was disqualified after a “non-conforming safety device, namely the validity date of the car’s fire extinguisher” was discovered in post race scrutineering. Labre Competition Team manager Jack Leconte was suitably contrite after the discovery.

Oreca - Nissan 03, Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

From 35 starters there were only four retirements the second of which was the #23 Signatech Oreca Nissan O3 of French trio Jordan Tresson, Franck Mailleux and Olivier Lombard. Approaching 3/4 distance. Tesson is seen here after a rear tyre exploded at Becketts coming out of the next corner Chapel his car turned sharp left and hit the wall. The ensuing safety car period played into the hands of the overall victor of the race.

Ferrari 458 Italia, Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

The #61 AF Course Waltrip, as in Micheal Waltrip Racing apparently, Ferrari 458 Italia of Italians Piergiuseppe Perazzzin, Marco Cioci and Irishman Matt Griffin qualified 30th overall / 3rd in LMGTE Am and came home winners in the class beating the #98 Aston Martin Vantage V8 of German Roald Goethe and Briy Stuart Hall, seen above, that finished 4th in class by 3 whole laps. Griffin said of his win “I’m not British but it’s still my home race so I’m really happy.”

Ferrari 458 Italia, Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

LMGTE Pro honours fell to the #51 AF Course Ferrari 458 Italia of Grand Prix Winner Giancarlo Fisichella and Gianmaria Bruni who beat another 458 Italia by two clear laps.

Oreca Nissan 03, Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

The #25 ADR-Delta team Oreca Nissan O3 of John Martin, Jan Charouz and Tor Garves edged the second Signatech team Oreca Nissan by just six seconds at the finish line but this was not the closest class victory of the day.

Lola Toyota B12/60 Coupé, Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

By securing the win in their Rebellion Racing Lola Toyota B12/60 Coupé 6th place starters and 4th place overall finishers Italian Andrea Belicchi and Swiss Harold Primat stretched the Rebellion Racing Teams lead in the Privateer LMP1 Championship. They finished 6 laps behind the third place #2 Audi and less than 1 second ahead of the 2nd place privateer LMP1 Honda powered HDP ARX 03a to take the closest class victory of the day.

Audi e-tron quattro Hybrid, Silverstone 6 Hours WEC

With the best fuel economy and aided in a small way by several short safety car periods the Audi e-tron quattro Hybrid with a flywheel accumulator system developed by Williams Hybrid Power, to drive the front wheels only at mandated speeds in excess of 75 mph, silently, and I mean really quietly, out ran the Toyota TS030 Hybrid by less than a minute thanks to one less stop for diesel than it’s petrol powered competitor. By crossing the line first Audi secured this years World Endurance Constructors Championship at the half way point because it’s Le Mans win is the one race in the series that counts for double points.

Thanks for joining me on this “Silent Running” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres”, I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be visiting Dunsfold Aerodrome. Don’t forget to come back now !

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