Analysis

The Planetlemans Spa 1000 km preview

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

A reduced field of 44 cars will get to the Belgian Ardennes this weekend to take part in a real classic: the 1000 km of Spa-Francorchamps. Back to a spring slot in the LMS calendar, the race hosted at one of the most beautiful circuits on the planet will be the final European warming up for the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Clearly the main attractive will be the third edition of the LMS Peugeot vs Audi duel, this time spiced up by the definition of the Monza race and the proximity of the race of races at La Sarthe next month. While Peugeot has won both LMS races this year, Audi is working hard on several aspects of their car to reduce the evident speed gap that the French lion has been able to open in 2008.

On the Peugeot camp there is tangible justified optimism despite the driveshaft issues that ruined number 7’s race in Italy, two of the Le Mans-targeted stars joining as well as third drivers for this race: Jacques Villeneuve and Alex Wurz. On the Audi side, Spa should play the role of starting point for the catch-up motion that should bring the Ingolstadt cars back in contention for a Le Mans win. Audi’s tactical game cannot be underestimated however (as Monza demonstrated) and the ever-present chance of rain might be just what is needed to lift the chances of the German squad.

Behind the two diesel giants both Oreca and Creation will be missing the cars damaged two weeks ago and will have just 1-car teams coming down to Belgium. The Charouz Lola-Aston, the works Pescarolos and the ever-improving Epsilon-Euskadi will be going for the “best of the rest” position as will Rollcentre with the return of Portuguese ace Joao Barbosa after his Monza absence.

Another return will be the Lavaggi, hopefully having solved the AER engine “connection” issues with the LS01 that gave Giovanni’s team so many headaches at Barcelona. Chamberlain won’t be getting to Spa and the future of their LMP1 effort starts becoming uncertain after skipping two key LMS rounds.

In LMP2 nothing leads to believe the Porsche domination will stop and all three RS Spyder customer teams should be performing very well at Spa, Jos Verstappen in fact at his home race on a circuit he knows and loves. The Speedy-Sebah Lola will have another chance to shine and hopefully the Zyteks will be able to confirm their improvement, a very impressive Vergers-Rees duo complementing team owner Juan Barazi being their best bet for a good finish.

The Lolas (RML, Quifel ASM, Kruse-Schiller) will as usual be strong contenders even when their winning days seem to be over since the LMS deployment of the Zuffenhausen prototypes.

GT1 will see the Strakka Racing addition which should balance a bit the Larbre retirement of the championship as of last race. It will be interesting to see where the newcomers end but the re-edition of the Modena vs Alphand duel seems to monopolize all attention in this class, with the IPS Lamborghini still not at their level.

Virgo and Farnbacher will lead the Ferrari charge in GT2, the British team clearly frustrated after the Monza race and with a very motivated pair of drivers ready for a change of luck after a frustrating race two weeks ago. Porsche will be trying to avoid that comeback by all means with Monza winners Farnbacher and unlucky IMSA and Felbermayr hungry for victory.
Spyker will try to confirm their good form and advance a bit further in their hunt for a podium, probably the same objective as JMB who have also improved compared to last year and are collecting good point already this season. The almost certain absence of the JWA Aston Martin Vantage for the second time in a row opens a very big question mark on the future of this car, at least for this season. With only 5 races in the calendar skipping two on some of the most renowned circuits is certainly not the best of advertisements.

A classic track, a great atmosphere and all the tension and crescendo leading to Le Mans should be a perfect framework for a great race. The attractive of the “high-adrenaline” Peugeot vs Audi confrontation, the Dutch fan attendance triggered by the presence of Verstappen, Lammers and the Spyker team and the perspective of an unusual sunny race day: all good ingredients for a fantastic weekend which you will be able to follow at Planetlemans.