Tag Archives: WEC

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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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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