Le Mans Series

Planetlemans analyzes the LMS season - GT2

© Planetlemans - Gerlach Delissen

A classic duel, a field of almost 20 cars and close racing were a powerful recipe to make GT2 one of the most attractive classes to watch at the 2007 LMS. Virgo and Felbermayr-Proton were the current incarnation of the Ferrari vs Porsche rivalry, the British team clinching the championship at Silverstone after 2 victories, 2 seconds and a third place.

Rob Bell and Allan Simonsen did not have an easy time on the Ferrari 430 however. The Porsche 997 driven by Xavier Pompidou-Marc Lieb did an excellent job grabbing 3 victories and a second place, an eighth at Monza and a rare DNF at Silverstone after a very strong race were the only glitches that prevented them to take the fight to the last race.

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

Behind these two teams the chances were pretty even. The 97 GPC Ferrari started with a bang at Monza but was not able to keep momentum during the year and a third place at Spa was the only other podium classification they managed.

Scuderia Villorba also started strong with Italian GT champions Caffi-Zardo grabbing two podiums at Monza and Valencia but fading a bit after that. Nevertheless the Ferraris showed a slight edge of superiority and the Porsche teams were not able to break that, except for the case of the blue 77 car of Felbermayr.

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos

Among the Porsche teams Farnbacher deserved better luck, always running strong but not able to translate this into results. A big shunt at Valencia was just the start of a troublesome championship for Le Mans winners IMSA-Matmut that could only recover with a second place at Silverstone.

Spyker saw it a bit differently this year, the Swiss dealer Speedy putting up a strong team which grew during the year (and deserved a podium at Valencia…) and a works car that had a full DNF record until Spa and then managed two strong finishes at Silverstone and Interlagos including a podium.

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos

The negative note in terms of performance was with LNT. Danny Watts and Tom Kimber-Smith demonstrated in their LMP2 run that the Panoz has stayed behind in terms of development and is simply not competitive. Not good to see the British team struggling this way.

Also the Markland Corvette was way off the pace and the Danish team should have requested help from Pratt&Miller to develop the car. A positive note was the good performance of all Brazilian-manned cars during the last round at Interlagos. Both Ferraris and the Porsche got good runs, the Negrão/Negrão/Mattheis car getting second in a well populated grid.

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos

For 2008 there are a number of questions, even if this will probably be the best populated grid. It is clear that the Ferrari-Porsche duel will continue but the Spyker evolution is one of the potential things to watch next year.

What will the teams with Panoz do is another big question as it is the potential entries of other manufacturers like is the case of the ALMS (Ford, GM, Dodge). The class is competitive, provides good racing and is attracting new teams every year. A healthy symptom for the LMS indeed.