Le Mans Series

The Planetlemans LMS 1000KM of Catalunya preview

© Planetlemans – Marcel ten Caat

Six months after the final race of the 2008 season and four weeks after the test days at Paul Ricard it is time to kick off the new Le Mans Series season. Even though Audi and Peugeot have pulled their works entries from the series there is still a lot to see at the opening round of 2009.

Kicking off the 2009 season will be the 1000 kilometers of Catalunya at the Circuit de Catalunya in Montmeló, near Barcelona, on April 5th. So far 43 cars have been entered for the race on the 4.655 meters long circuit. Last year Peugeot beat Audi here with Charouz Racing in third, this year the podium will be different.

Eleven LMP1 cars will battle for victory in the top category of the Le Mans Series. With no works Peugeot and Audi teams in action in the opening round in Spain several teams have a chance of winning the race on Sunday. During pre-season testing Team Oreca Matmut was fast with its Courage-Oreca LC70 AIM. The cars did not run in full 2009 spec so far though which makes it hard to compare them with other teams. Olivier Panis and Nicolas Lapierre have teamed up again in the #11 car, with Stéphane Ortelli joined by none other than Bruno Senna.

The biggest rivals for Team Oreca in the Le Mans Series will most likely be Aston Martin Racing with its new Lola Aston Martin and Team Kolles with the privateer Audi R10 TDI. Aston Martin has joined the series as the only manufacturer in LMP1. In testing the car was fast, but not as fast as Team Oreca and a crash at Paul Ricard HTTT made the team lose some precious preparation time. With Charouz, Enge and Mücke in the #007 and Turner, Primat and Ramos in the #009 the British manufacturer has a reasonably strong line up and should be able to give Team Oreca a run for their money.

The only diesel engined cars in the field are the two Audi R10 TDI entries. After pulling out of the series and debuting the R15 TDI Audi announced the entry of Team Kolles with two non-factory R10 TDI cars. So far the cars have not been testing with the other LMP1 teams and with new-to-endurance-racing crews in both cars it remains to be seen if the squads can really go for race wins. Car #14 is driven by Zwolsman-Krumm-Meyrick, the #15 by Bakkerud-Albers-Karthikeyan.

Outsiders in the LMP1 class will likely be the Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola B08/60 Aston Martin (#13 Belicchi, Fässler, Prost) and the Pescarolo Sport cars (#16 Boullion, Tinseau and #17 Jouanny-Barbosa). Signature-Plus is a new entry, but their Courage-Oreca LC70 should give them a decent chance of getting a regular point finish. Finally Strakka Racing, the only Zytek entry in the LMP1 class. Two fast gentlemen drivers and Danny Watts, the dark horse?

In the LMP2 category the three Porsche RS Spyders are no longer part of the 15 car strong grid and it’s Lola vs Zytek vs Pescarolo probably. In testing the Quifel-ASM Team Zytek (#40 Amaral, Pla) beat the Porsche RS Spyder and this car is a candidate for victory in the class. Up against this brand new Zytek will be no less than four Lola coupes. Speedy Racing Team Sebah is likely to be the best of the Lola entries, with familiar names as Kane, Leuenberger and Pompidou in the #33 entry. Erdos and Newton hope to return to the front with their #25 RML Lola, while after last year’s disaster Racing Box has ditched the Lucchini and returns with two Lola B08/80s. Racing Box did not attent the Paul Ricard test so it is hard to say where they are. The #30 line-up is very strong though with Bobbi, Andrea Piccini and Biagi racing together, while the #29 has Francioni, Ceccato and Giacomo Piccini.

It will be interesting to see what OAK Racing can do. The former Saulnier Racing team has not only changed name and colours, but the support of Mazda could help them get further up the field. Nicolet and Hein will race the #24, with the youngsters in the #35 Pescarolo (Lahaye, Aljani).

Gosselin and Ojjeh return with the Zytek 07S, albeit under a different name, and hope to surprise the top cars. All other cars in the LMP2 category will be depending on other teams to make mistakes or cars breaking down. KSM will enter its Lola B07/46 again after plans to get a Lola coupe fell through, Sini, Noda and Marsh will race the car. The Radical SR9 is back in the hands of Bruneau, Moseley and Greensall, but the car is unlikely to finish at the front of the class. The same can probably be said about the ageing Courage LC75, entered by Ibanez Racing Service (Ibanez, Cavailhes, Da Rocha) and Pegasus Racing (Schell, Thirion). Also entered are two Lucchini’s (Ranieri Randaccio and Q8 Oils Hache Team) and the WR Zytek.

LM GT1 has only four cars, but they include last years top three at Barcelona. Larbre has returned to the Le Mans Series and brings Berville, Dumez and Zacchia to Spain to race their Saleen S7R. Last year’s winner Luc Alphand Aventures brings one C6.R for Alphand, Goueslard and Clairay, while IPB Spartak Racing has again entered the Murcielago R-GT for Kox and Rusinov. Joining the GT1 field at Barcelona is the older spec Saleen S7R of ARC Bratislava-Kaneko Racing. Konopka and Edwards are confirmed drivers; the third driver could be Paul Daniels or Andy Studenic. In this class it is too close to call, with a small field everything can happen. No clear candidate for race victory at the moment.

And finally GT2. Thirteen cars have been entered for the opening race of the 2009 Le Mans Series season and there is a lot of variety throughout the field. Ferrari, Porsche, Spyker and Aston Martin have all entered a car; the new Lamborghini GT2 isn’t racing at Barcelona. The four car manufacturers will bring four tyre manufacturers: Michelin, Pirelli, Dunlop and Hankook.

The best drivers of 2008, Bell and Bruni, will again be racing a Ferrari F430 owned by James McWhirter. This year though the car will be racing under the JMW Motorsport banner rather than Virgo Motorsport. If it is going to be yet another Ferrari year the #92 JMW Ferrari is the main candidate for taking the championship. Hankook-Team Farnbacher has also drafted in a great line-up for their #89 Ferrari though. Schwager, Montanari and Simonsen will defend the team’s honours in Spain.

Team Felbermayr-Proton’s #77 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR has Porsche works drivers Lieb and Lietz, a great pair in what should be considered as the main Ferrari rival. The Felbermayr-Proton Porsche should be able to beat the Ferrari’s and be in the race for victory all the way to the end.
The second best Porsche is also one that could still win a race. Narac will be joined by French Porsche works driver Pilet in the #75 RSR.

Outsiders for podium finishes in the GT2 category are the #84 Team Modena Ferrari F430 (Garcia, Mansell), the #85 Snoras Spyker Squadron Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R (Coronel, Janis).
Drayson Racing hopes to bring the Aston Martin Vantage GT2 some nice results; Drayson and Cocker will do their best in the #87 entry.

The other car should be able to finish in the points but are likely not to finish on the podium under normal circumstances. The other cars at Barcelona are: #81 Easyrace (Ferrari), #88 Team Felbermayr-Proton (Porsche), FBR (2x Ferrari), Virgo Motorsport (with Vergers joining father and son McInerney in the Ferrari) and the Ferrari of JMB Racing.

More to come in a few hours when we kick off our Le Mans Series race weekend coverage in Barcelona.