Tag Archives: Christensen

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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Three Engineers From Detroit – Wolverine LD65 #LD65/1

The story of the Wolverine Chevrlolet LD65 according to one of it’s former owners, began at a race where Jerry Hansen was driving his successful McKee Chevette and was blown into the weeds by a front engined car. When Jerry approached the team in the pits after the race and asked who they were they responded “three engineers from Detroit”. One of the engineers was Lee Dykstra who would make a name for himself with the Jaguar XJR5 IMSA car and a number of Indy Cars.

When Jerry asked why the three engineers did not build a rear engined car they replied they did not have the money so Jerry wrote them a cheque and asked the three engineers from Detroit to build him one.

The Wolverine designed by Lee Dykstra and George Anderson first appeared in a national SCCA race at Greenwood which Jerry Hansen won, Jerry then recorded a did not finish at Mid-Ohio before appearing at the inaugural Can Am Challenge at St Jovite in September 1966. Jerry qualified 25th and finished 20th.

Wolverine LD65, Goodwood Revival

Jerry never raced the Wolverine again, it would appear that the week before St Jovite Jerry was due to share a McLaren Elva Mk II with Charlie Hays in the Road America 500. However, after his friend and fellow Minneapolis/St Paul, Minn., resident Don Skogmo was killed driving a Lola T70 Mk II, in an accident during practice for the same race, Jerry withdrew from the event handing his ride in the Hayes McLaren to Earl Jones.

It is thought Jerry raced the Wolverine at St Jovite before sitting out the remainder of the year due to pressure from his family to retire from driving. The following year Jerry returned to racing and did not retire permanently until 1986, by which time he had clocked up a record 27 National Sports Car Club of America titles. Today the Hansen name is still connected to racing through his daughter Courtney an actress, author and presenter of motoring related television shows including Powerblock.

Jerry sold the Wolverine to Owen Rutherford who bought the car for Frank Opalka. In 1968 Frank recorded a DNF in the Road America 500 miles with Bob Lyon, and by Franks account scored many more DNF’s before the bugs were sorted out in “SCCA and USRRC” events. Frank relates how once the car was reliable he would be congratulated for finishing.

Wolverine LD65, Goodwood Revival

Frank also tells a good tale about a sponsor “Miami Serpenterium” who required that the car be painted all over with snakes. At Road America Owen turned up with a “station wagon loaded with poisonous snakes” one of which, a cobra, escaped and bit sponsor Bud Severens who required Buds hospitalisation, a story which made the local news. Apparently Bud never did work out how the cobra came to be in Wisconsin.

Jim Place became the next owner of the car and it is in the colours that Jim painted the car that it appears today. Jim is known to have been on the entry list for at least two Can Am events he is recorded as not arriving at the race at Michigan International in September 1969. Jim qualified 24th at Road America in August 1970 but did not start the race which is the last of the Wolverines appearances known to me.

The car is now raced by Morgen Christensen who is seen at the wheel above at Goodwood a couple of years ago. The red car alongside Morgens is the Rolls Royce powered Marina driven by Mark Ashworth.

My thanks to all those including Frank Opalka who commented on the Wolverine thread at The Nostalgia Forum, and especially Tom “RA Hisotrian” Schultz who revealed why Jerry Hansen’s career with the Wolverine was so short lived.

Thanks for joining me on this “Three Engineers From Detroit” edition of “Gettin’ a li’l psycho on tyres” I hope you will join me again tomorrow when I’ll be having a French sojourn. Don’t forget to come back now !

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