LMS 2008 - Greatest calendar of all times...

[Ranald]

The GT1 field was scattered by racing incidents quite soon, I guess it has been a difficult week end for Ranald (btw if you read us, what happened to the DBR9, has it run out of fuel, rumors say there was a leak on the fuel tank from the beginning, forcing you to shorten your stints. Is it true? Was the car damaged after the colision with the Pug?)

I can't really say what the problem was simply because we don't know yet, but I would doubt that it had a fuel leak as the amount of fuel lost would have been enough for a fire. What has already been released to the media is that we were able to pump out more than 3 litres of fuel from the car after the race using just the cars internal pumps, enough for the car to return to the pumps. We will just have to wait to find out what the problem was. It really was a shame because the car was quick all weekend and we were looking for a really good result.
The damage to the car after the Peugeot hit was almopst invisible as the collision was very gentle and the car is strong.

On a positive note the circuit is great and the series looks really good this year. Very professional and very competitive in all classes. I have to aggree with you vyselegend that the Oreca car looked terrible but the Lola-Aston and the GT2 Vantage looked superb as to be honset did most of the field excepting the Lavaggi!

Ranald

[vyselegend]

Yes, I've read the report on Planetlemans before seing your post. I'm not involved in mechanical engineering, but the problem sound strange... What can prevent the fuel from reaching the engine while the fuel pump works correctly? Obstruated pipe, injectors?

Anyway thank you to share some comments of what must have been a disapointing (but promising) week end. It always feel "special" to read the facts from someone involved in actual racing, that's nice really. Hope to see you comment here about your win at Monza. In sheer pace you can eat the Corvettes, as showed in Barcelona qualy.

Ben, I see you've updated your report with the P2 class now. Great pics as usual, the WR car really looks fast, very sexy piece of work, a shame it is just slow actually.

Another car was running the AER engine, the LAVAGGI LS1, unfortunately I wasn't allowed to take photos of the beast, so many secrets to hide...

I detect a bit of irony there.

I have to aggree with you vyselegend that the Oreca car looked terrible but the Lola-Aston and the GT2 Vantage looked superb as to be honset did most of the field excepting the Lavaggi!

C'mon, give him a break! As far as I know the bloke is designing, manufacturing, driving the car and managing the team all by himself. I wonder if he just jump out at each pit stop to refuell and change tyres too...



Sure it's not the sexiest car of the field...

[benjabulle]

The WR is an interesting car and could show new directions for the sidepods but I'm afraid it's never been tested in CFD or wind tunnel. The team was the smallest of the field, they even didn't have any clothes with the colors of the team and it was looking as they were at a hill climbing race of the district. The car won't be fast as they simply can't test it and the gentlemen drivers/sponsors can't drive it fast. But that's what makes this serie interesting, the mix of factories and true amateurs with their own car.

[vyselegend]

That's what I don't understand. If the WR team has so little (if any) tools to study aero, why did they design such an original shape. Whithout proper method to rough out the body, there's a risk the design is terribly draggy, or that frontal surface impede rear wing flow etc...

Sure it's beautifull, but shouldn't one design raw angles and straight lines (Like what Lavaggi did actually) when it's impossible to do the windtunnel / CFD study on it, rather than trying to be cleaver and sculpt complex body which aerodynamic influence's understanding is out of reach?

[benjabulle]

The Lavaggi may look rough but it benefited from wind tunnel tests with a model. For the nose of the WR I'll be surprised it makes any differences, I'll say it may be only to have a different look.

[vyselegend]

What a race!

Those 1000 km will stay in the history book for sure. After 4h50 of race, there were still tight battles with dramatic overtaking, including the controversial way Peugeot took the win.

I have to say P.Lamy disapointed me a little by being so "Schumacherish" at the end, going as far as overtaking under yellow (nearly hit a tractor btw), overtaking while cutting a chicane (took him at least half a lap to concede back position...), and colliding with the Audi in a very agressive move, while he had 10 laps remaining to try something "cleaner" with his (1.5 sec per lap) faster car. I like him since a long time, but he and his team showed their dark side today. Dr Ullrich seemed pissed...

I guess it signs the end of the "good spirited" rivalry we had enjoyed so far between the two manufacturers...

I must say: CONGRATULATIONS Ranald for you & your team! A well deserved victory. =D>

I was fortunate enough to witness Enge's decisive move over the corvette after 121 laps of tight racing, (thanks to the spanish Eurosport live stream). GT1 may be wounded by the loss of another car, it still procure impressive battles.

Now I must say Stephane Ortelli's crash is one of the most terrible one I've ever seen in racing, along Kubica's one and Viso's GP2 one too:

[youtube]http://youtube.com/watch?v=52wUHuZ7fqI[/youtube]

Last news talk about a broken ankle. He's lucky to be alive, but it means no Le Mans for him this year... I wish him a fast recover.

[roost89]

Thanks for the re-direction vyselegend didn't see another one in the "other racing series" before I posted my one

I'm not really a follower of the LMS, but I keep sort-of up to date with some news and video from the Eurosport website. That's as far as it goes really.

What caused the initial drastic change in direction?

It was an epic crash! Very lucky to escape with a broken ankle and not to collect McNish along the way!

[dumrick]

Wow, indeed what a race!

Unfortunately, I only got the chance to see a small 30 minute "canned" version of it on Eurosport (vyselegend, where did you find that Spanish feed and is it open for URL's outside Spain?), but there were some epic moments and fearsome crashes (it's amazing how the n.1 Audi was repaired and back on track, the R10 is just as rock solid as the R8 was...).
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OAP2FJns0M0[/youtube]

Concerning the final overtaking, what was Lamy supposed to do? He had to turn and the Audi just tried to block (and I don't even know if he was going to make the turn without the Pug on the outside). In closed wheel racing that was strictly within the acceptable. Blaim it on the Audi driver (was it Rockenfeller?) that knew that the Pug had a stop-and-go to do and yet raced him as if he needed to...

[vyselegend]

What caused the initial drastic change in direction?

I'm not in position to tell what initially happened to Ortelli, as you say the car suddenly breaked off to the right, before it took off (because of bumps in the grass?). And then it happened what have become a classic whith flat floored cars: It flew... And crashed.

Considering what triggered the direction change, it doesn't seem any tyres got punctured, Eric Hélary on Motors TV said he suspect a brake problem. Maybe the left front brake disc got loose, which would result as the car oversteering to the right suddenly like that (like the way some farming tractors turn, with a left and right brake pedals). I can't think of a better explaination...

It was an epic crash! Very lucky to escape with a broken ankle and not to collect McNish along the way!

Indeed! Mac Nish had the stars with him on this one!

Unfortunately, I only got the chance to see a small 30 minute "canned" version of it on Eurosport (vyselegend, where did you find that Spanish feed and is it open for URL's outside Spain?), but there were some epic moments and fearsome crashes (it's amazing how the n.1 Audi was repaired and back on track, the R10 is just as rock solid as the R8 was...).

I googled around a lot when both motorsTV and eurosport did quit the live, and I landed on a fantastic forum called "ten-tenth", where a guy had posted a few foreign stream that didn't work for me (it said: this clip is unavailable due to geographical restrictions in your area), and a last link which saved me: [url=mms://ulswmod008.bcst.uls.yahoo.com/slot024?StreamID=63172159&pl_auth=f69a697566eb5d1c0fef50c8406a33e9&ht=30&pl_b=00448ED8EB5870E95832993BEF481456E6&CG_ID=1604560&s=2023169283&br=300&mid=7554350&nid=7554806&pg=MTgxOTQ4NDAxNzQ4MTQ1Nm&q=35d7947a210d03c0c64830&sl=86400&so=%252Feseurosport%252Feseurosport%252Flive%252Fvideo%252FES-LeMansSeries-1000kmMonza]spanish mms-stream for external media player[/url]

This Audi is terrific, indeed. When I saw the crash with at least one broken front left triangle, heavily damaged rear drivetrain, and so much destructed parts, I said to myself "at least 45 min, if reparable." 17 min later Capello was lapping Monza as if nothing happened... You have to laugh when you see that, after it took them about the same time to change a simple brake disc at Sebring. Even funnier, that's the time Peugeot needed to re-attach the little piece of bodywork that was "scalped" by the Aston at Barcelona.

Concerning the final overtaking, what was Lamy supposed to do? He had to turn and the Audi just tried to block (and I don't even know if he was going to make the turn without the Pug on the outside). In closed wheel racing that was strictly within the acceptable. Blaim it on the Audi driver (was it Rockenfeller?) that knew that the Pug had a stop-and-go to do and yet raced him as if he needed to...

Yes, now I'm calmed down I agree Rockenfeller is the one who made the strategic error, it cost'em the win, thats why Ullrich was angry. Still, I found Lamy's last few laps just before were quite clumsy, with the overtaking under yellow, even the moves over Rockenfeller felt bungled. But it seem the n°8 was running a very very low downforce setup, and the car suffered from some understeer / snap oversteer (on board showed Parabolica is scarry under these conditions! He had a few moments with oversteer) and braking instability. So true, I'm maybe big-mouthed to lecture him on dirty driving...

What have disapointed me was to see Dr Ullrich pissed, saying he want the ACO to look in the matter etc... And I tought, OMG we will have the political / controversial episodes like F1. The truth is that before that race, the rivality between Audi & Peugeot was exemplary, with all the respect and everything... I wish it could continue like that.

[modbaraban]

I started watching right befor the horrific flight in the 1st chicane. And the MotorsTV commentators mention some other bad shunt in Parabolica. Anyone has a video of that? What happened?

[zac510]

It was all round a great race! I tipped Team Modena and fortuantely they came through with the goods

[vyselegend]

It was really nice to see JV on the top step for the first time in 11 years!



I hope for a similar result in three weeks time at Le Mans.

Meanwhile Wurz had an heavy crash. I couldn't see it because I was watching F1, and there is no footage to be seen of the incident, even on youtube! I know he brushed a spyker because of his declarations, but I'd really like to see a clip of the incident, even an amateur one. Anyone have that?

BTW, the related news, from princip: http://www.f1technical.net/news/9084