[ILMC/LMS11] 1000 km of Spa-Francorchamps...

[Tom206wrc]

Sebring and Castellet are over, it's time to open a thread for the second round of both ILMC/LMS, held next month in Belgium :cool:

The official placard :p : http://www.endurance-info.com/version2/images/news/2011_ILMC_Visuel_02_Spa.jpg

Official website http://www.race-rally.be/

Entrylist to come in a few days... ;)

[EavesFan09]

In the LMS I expect Rangoni Motorsport to make their debut. I am sure I heard something on Planetlemans.com or Endurance-info.com about it. Likely the former because I read that more. And I hope Guest Racing Europe and their drivers Wolfgang Kauffmab and Richard Hazelbrouck get to compete.

I expect TDS to do well in LMP2 and I think Pencom Racing won't be far behind. In the GT's Bruni and Fisichella at AF Corse ought to be one of the ones to watch out for. And in the GTE Am I hope Team AMR race because in the Manufacturers standings Aston Martin need to score. Simon Dolan/Sam Hancock at Jota Sport need to do their bit too for the manufacturer or Porsche and Ferrari will run away with it.

[Tom206wrc]

Looks like Alexandre Prémat found a seat for Spa and Le Mans: in the official LMP2 ORECA Matmut Nissan :confused:

[harvick#1]

entry list was expected to be around 62 cars :bounce:

[EavesFan09]

Is there any change of drivers? I thought Darren Turner raced in France for Aston Martin with Stefan Mucke and Harald Primat but didn't score.

[Tom206wrc]

entry list was expected to be around 62 cars :bounce:

60 crews registered on http://www.lemans-series.com ;)

No HPD Highcroft, no Aston Lola Kronos... :(

[harvick#1]

its like 60 entries is a badthing or something :laugh:

its a shame HPD hasnt been around since Sebring, the ALMS could really use them right now until Autocon and Intersport come back later with updates for their Lola's

[Tom206wrc]

Looking what the Aston AMR ONE did at the Le Mans test day last sunday, after their "brilliant" 6 hours of Castellet, not sure the protos will last long in SPA(even remains to be seen if they will take part to it) :s

[Tom206wrc]

Official today: Aston-Martin won't run next week's 1000km of Spa-Francorchamps(does it surprise any of you ???) :mark:

[Tom206wrc]

Now forfaits of one of the OAK Racing Pescarolos and of the hybrid ORECA Lehmann :mark:

Tomorrow morning(thursday) starts of first free practice ;)

[Tom206wrc]

The race doesn't interest anybody of the forum ???? :s

AUDI 1-2-3 in qualifying today...disaster strategy at Peugeot only 13th - 18th and 50th because they got out too late to get a chrono and a red flag hampered them(Pescarolo OAK crashed in barriers) :mad:
At least ORECA managed 4th and can hope a good result tomorrow :rolleyes:

[harvick#1]

dont expect the Peugeots to stay there too long :laugh: although its nice to see Audi finally produced a car thats on an even fight with Peugeot. plus the R18 is a striking beauty.

dont understand why Peugeot didnt just run a lap or two to get a time, then run for pole.

[AndyRAC]

Another Audi v Peugeot contest - it's getting like the WRC with Ford v Citroen.........i;e boring. It seems as if the Audi is the quicker car - and Audi don't have to have the quicker car to win. Good strategy, racecraft gets them into winning positions. Can Peugeot threaten them?
Sportscars needs more challengers to the big 2 Diesel cars.....

[harvick#1]

at Sebring, they felt they were happy with the equalization, I dont get it cause the HPD was a pretty solid LMP1 in 2009, HPD designed a great car for 2011 and has some big names, I believe Rebellion, Pescarolo, and AMR has the driver talent to run with the Audi's/Peugeot's, but the Diesel technology those teams have is just staggering, no matter how many times the ACO tries to slow them down and bring in a gap, they actually get faster, Lemans is still gonna have a 4-5+ second a lap advantage on all the petrol cars

[harvick#1]

RML withdrew their HPD LMP2 after a nasty crash from Lamy in the Peugeot, in practice, you know really, Mike held his line and Pedro pushed the issue, went into the grass, came back and took out the RML machine, its a shame for RML that they were taken out and force to retire in practice.

[Tom206wrc]

Finally another 1-2 for Peugeot :bounce:

Congratulations to Alexander Wurz, Anthony Davidson and Marc Gené for their brilliant victory :cool:
Helluva to Franck Montagny, Stéphane Sarrazin and Nicolas Minassian for their fight in traffic to climb from 50th to...2nd !!!

The lion roars again ;)

[V12]

Really enjoyed watching this today. Different looking cars, no DRS or commentators tossing themselves blind over tyres that deliberately fall apart after a few laps, it really beat the F1 hands down. The drivers aren't 21 year olds with bum fluff either. Proper racing.

[AndyRAC]

Really enjoyed watching this today. Different looking cars, no DRS or commentators tossing themselves blind over tyres that deliberately fall apart after a few laps, it really beat the F1 hands down. The drivers aren't 21 year olds with bum fluff either. Proper racing.

Yes, absolutely. I was slightly surprised by the Peugeot race pace - I was expecting the Audi's to walk away. Makes Le Mans interesting, I still think Audi will win.
There's been some great Motorsport this weekend - however according to most of the papers I read, there was only one taking place, F1 in Turkey.

[BDunnell]

Yes, absolutely. I was slightly surprised by the Peugeot race pace - I was expecting the Audi's to walk away. Makes Le Mans interesting, I still think Audi will win.
There's been some great Motorsport this weekend - however according to most of the papers I read, there was only one taking place, F1 in Turkey.

And this despite the return of Mini to rallying. Sad indeed.

[24fan24]

Intersting race, could make for a great le mans, guardian did cover it here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/may/08/peugeots-spa-intercontinental-le-mans-cup

[24fan24]

good call, only coverage i saw was the guardian, link in post below.

[24fan24]

Yes, absolutely. I was slightly surprised by the Peugeot race pace - I was expecting the Audi's to walk away. Makes Le Mans interesting, I still think Audi will win.
There's been some great Motorsport this weekend - however according to most of the papers I read, there was only one taking place, F1 in Turkey.

agree, sports car racing woefully under reported. this series in particular bar the above.

[AndyRAC]

Interesting race, could make for a great le mans, guardian did cover it here:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/sport/2011/may/08/peugeots-spa-intercontinental-le-mans-cup

To be fair, the Guardian have had reports on other LMS/ALMS races......

[AndyRAC]

And this despite the return of Mini to rallying. Sad indeed.

Sad, but entirely predictable......Le Mans is the same - even that race struggles now for mainstream coverage - unless Mansell turns up and crashes.

[mclarenf1gtr]

agree, sports car racing woefully under reported. this series in particular bar the above.
hello, if you think endurance is under covered by media, you should take a look to Spanish media :mad: .
Further, this year only five mins of Eurosport weekend magazine were applied to the Spa race.
Eurosport people say that they will cover the 24h race. I hope so, although I expect to be there.

[Tom206wrc]

hello, if you think endurance is under covered by media, you should take a look to Spanish media :mad: .
Further, this year only five mins of Eurosport weekend magazine were applied to the Spa race.
Eurosport people say that they will cover the 24h race. I hope so, although I expect to be there.



Maybe Peugeot-Sport should hire Fernando Alonso instead of Marc Gené if they want to attract spanish medias to endurance racing :rolleyes:

[boesel]

Hi everybody,
at this address you can find a complete report with 200 photos about the 1000km of Spa
http://www.connectingrod.it/LeMansSeries/2011/Spa/spa_eng.html
Nice reading