Le Mans - Ferrari Owners' Club

Le Mans is a week-long event requiring competitors to qualify in both day and night conditions and, whilst Thursday practice was restricted due to heavy rain, it was the all-French Pescarolo Sport team that headed the timesheets. The ACO had changed the rules for the hitherto invincible Audi R8s, making them run with extra weight, smaller fuel tanks and smaller restrictors. Was this an attempt to ensure a French victory [shurely not? - Ed.], or just to make the Audi teams work a bit harder?

Eagerly anticipated was the GT1 class battle between the Prodrive DBR9s and the equally new C6 Corvettes. This was the first time an Aston had started the “great race” since 1959 and under the preparation of Prodrive boss and Aston enthusiast Dave Richards much was expected from the Banbury based team and their experienced driver line up. Their qualifying pace was matched by the equally well organised Pratt and Miller team who have run the Corvette programme on General Motors behalf for several years. Sometime F1 and Indycar driver Max Papis was teamed with the highly successful duo of Ron Fellows and Johnny O’Connell in the lead car….definitely a team to watch!

GT1 also included the Care Racing supplied 550 Maranellos of Larbre Compétition (1 car), BMS Scuderia Italia (2), Cirtek GT (1 - Colin McRae’s 2004 car) and the Monaco based JMB Racing (1). The 550 has served the GT championship well and, now in the twilight of its racing career, it was great to see so many of them take the start. With drivers of the calibre of Vincent Vosse and Christoph Bouchut at the wheel it was obvious that “Care” was intending to go out on a high.

In GT2 Cirtek had entered a 360GTC, as did British GT Championship leaders Scuderia Ecosse with a similar example, albeit a different car from the one they run in the UK to meet Le Mans regulations. Regulars Nathan Kinch and Andrew Kirkaldy were joined by Touring Car refugee and fellow Scot Anthony Reid. That Reid is quick is without doubt…..but would his door rubbing antics and reputation last the distance?

Elsewhere, familiar names to Shell Historic Challenge spectators – John Bosch was teamed with Jan Lammers in the Racing for Holland Dome; ex-pat Bill Binnie shared an LMP2 prototype and classic dealer/racer Gregor Fisken shared a further LMP2 class car with US lady racer Liz Halliday.

With the camp sites full and the relocated fun fair (now near the Porsche curves) doing good business, the Le Mans Legends 1hr historic race was started by Sir Stirling Moss in a TVR pace car and won fittingly by Audi ALMS and former F1 driver Johnny Herbert in Nigel Webb’s 1955 winning Jaguar D Type. Shared in’55 by Mike Hawthorn and Ivor Bueb it was rumoured to have broken the Mulsanne speed trap at 178 mph and Johnny celebrated the 50th anniversary of its win in great style - though what a waste of talent really, he'd have been much better employed in the main event.

Much has been written about the race elsewhere , so for Ferrari enthusiasts an overview of each teams fortunes:-

Labre Compétition - 4th in GT1 and 13th overall, the team had the first Ferrari home. With the talented Belgian Vincent Vosse at the wheel, the car ran faultlessly with the exception of a puncture and hot brakes – which were resolved. At 4am the local temperature was 68 degrees Fahrenheit, forcing the team to single stint drivers to avoid heat exhaustion, but made easier by tyre durability. Would have made the class podium if the no 59 DBR9 Aston hadn’t returned to the race with 5 minutes to go

Cirtek Motorsport - 5th in GT1 and 18th overall - The unlikely combination of Le Mans winner Christoph Bouchut and Russians Nikolay Formenko and Alexey Vasiliev (talent/money/money) took the start in the ”Russian Age” car run by crack British team Cirtek, managed by Rob Schirle (a talented driver in his own right); this was the car raced by Colin McRae in 2004. Finished 9 laps down on the Larbre car but with a fastest lap only 7 secs slower. The team’s dramas were minor with a broken front damper at 6am on Sunday morning, a subsequent broken front splitter and a bonnet pin! Vasiliev had almost collapsed during the night, whereafter his team-mates shared the remaining driving duties.

BMS Scuderia Italia - Giuseppe Lucchini’s team was having its first race since announcing its intention to abandon Ferrari and run an Aston Martin DBR9 in 2006. After a solid run into the evening the car sustained a front left puncture and crushed bodywork following a spin into the barrier. Despite several repairs this proved terminal and by 10.20pm the 52 car was out. This mirrored the experiences of the team’s 2nd car which sadly also retired before midnight.

JMB Racing - The 575GTC started well start and ran between the two BMS 550Ms. However it later suffered two punctures, one of which led to a tyre disintegration and damage to the car, necessitating a change of floor. Finally an engine failure at the eighth hour stopped the car for good and its official withdrawal was announced a couple of minutes before midnight.

Cirtek Motorsport - With 2 gentlemen drivers accompanying experienced New Zealander racer Rob Wilson, the black 360GTC made steady initial progress until 5.40pm, when the car suffered a big spin exiting the Porsche curves and was very nearly collected by several LMP1 prototypes! An uneventful night was broken with a rear suspension failure at 10.40am, ultimately causing the car to lose a rear wheel just before Tetre Rouge, resulting in retirement.

Scuderia Ecosse - After an excellent start by Andrew Kirkaldy and strong contributions from Nathan Kinch and Anthony Reid, the team saw 7pm and 3rd in Class GT2! Sadly things didn’t go too well thereafter…first Reid spun at Mulsanne Corner damaging the rear bumper and in a subsequent relay, Kinch had a puncture exiting the chicane after Mulsanne. With the front bumper missing he elected to return to the pits slowly – sadly the tyre delaminated between Arnage and the Porsche curves and with the car in a location too dangerous to contemplate changing a wheel…it was all over ! Stewart Roden and the boys from Edinburgh are to be congratulated for their efforts – to undertake Le Mans in the middle of their British GT Championship season required a huge effort.

Congratulations to Tom Kristensen, who took a record 7th Le Mans victory; to Audi and the invincible R8; to the under-funded Jan Lammers and John Bosch who made it home in 7th and to the Prodrive Aston team…better luck next time!

As in previous years, many of the class winning cars find their way “sur Le Manche” to West Sussex and the Goodwood Festival of Speed this weekend (Fri-Sun). This year they’ll join amongst others Antipodean tin top legend Peter “Perfect” Brock, former Indycar Champion Al Unser Jnr., and current F1 Championship leader Fernando Alonso - assuming his tyres are suited to Lord March’s driveway! See you there!