Le Mans Series

Kruse-Schiller Lola Mazda finishes at the Nürburgring

© Planetlemans - Gabriel Portos

For the first time since the 1000 km race in Monza the KSM Lola Mazda crossed the finish line – and because of a major problem this was questionable until the end.

During the free practice sessions and the qualifying session the car showed excellent reliability and ran like clockwork – but unfortunately the team could not get the tyres up to temperature which made Jean de Pourtales and Hideki Noda’s job rather difficult and left them with only moderate lap times. With a quickest lap time of 1:47,233 the team finished in 26th position (12th in class) overall in the qualifying session.

Race day came and the weather was excellent – regular Nürburgring visitors know that this can sometimes be different. Despite the fact that the start/finish area is a large construction site at the moment, the atmosphere was good and more than 20,000 spectators were watching this race. After an uneventful warm-up and a good start, Hideki made an early pit stop after 7 laps because of difficulties with the handling of the car – he assumed it was a problem with the tyres. After a check he was quickly sent back on track.

From then on everything was running according to plan, but regular LMS spectators know that recent races of the KSM team were rather ill-fated – and bad luck followed them once again. During the second regular pit stop they found out that the clutch had failed, and although they could continue to race it meant that the drivers had to use the starter engine to get the car back on track after each pit stop – a time-consuming procedure. The car lasted and at least KSM could finish the race – they had of course hoped for a better position.

In the end, after 172 laps it was a 21st position overall (11th in class) and the quickest race lap was 1:48,094. The team is now looking forward to the next and final round of the 2008 LMS season at Silverstone.

Hardy Schiller: “On the one hand this 11th position in class was much less than we expected; on the other hand it was important to finish the race, especially after events in Spa Francorchamps and Le Mans. The practice sessions did not go well, because we actually lost the first two free practice sessions trying to get the new Dunlop tyres to work, but without success. For the third free practice session we decided on the type of tyres previously used and our lap times then got better. However, the tyre situation did not allow us quick laps during the qualifying session. Our race speed was basically OK, but unfortunately the clutch release bearing failed after about one third of the race. As a consequence we lost plenty of time when restarting the car after the pit stops. The whole team did a great job and I would like to say thank you for that.”

Kai Kruse: “Of course it was nice to see the finish line again after such a long time, but the result was of course below our expectations, especially after all the positive preparations we had. We did not get the tyres to work properly which made the driving for Hideki and Jean very difficult; but in the circumstances they both did a good job. Our lap times during the race were good, we were competitive and could have scored some championship points. The clutch problem was caused by

the failure of a small part which is of course very annoying. Apart from that I have to thank the team for the good pit stops and for the reliability of the car which ran fine, except the clutch problem.”