24 Hours of Le Mans

24 Hours of Le Mans 2009 – LMP2 Preview

The LMP2 race in 2008 was dominated by just one brand: Porsche. Last year the Van Merksteijn Motorsport Porsche RS Spyder, driven by Jos Verstappen, Jeroen Bleekemolen and Peter van Merksteijn, was in a league of its own. The winning Porsche completed 354 laps in 2008 while the first non-Porsche, the Saulnier Racing Pescarolo, did ‘just’ 333 laps.

This year two Porsches have returned but they will be faced with several other fast cars, like the Lola B08/80 and the Zytek 09. In the first two races of the Le Mans Series the LMP2 class got back its ‘race of attrition’ name back when several cars dropped out before the end of the race. Let’s hope this will not continue at Le Mans. Who will be racing in the LMP2 class though?

© NAVI Team Goh

5-NAVI Team Goh: Team Goh won the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2004 and the Japanese team has everything in place to win LMP2 this year. The car is the 2008 winner, the former Van Merksteijn Porsche RS Spyder. Driver wise things look good as well: Seiji Ara was part of the 2004 winning squad, while Sascha Maassen bringing lots of Porsche experience. Keisuke Kunimoto is the only question mark, although the young driver showed his capabilities by winning the Macau F3 race in 2008.

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24-OAK Racing: The first of the Mazda powered cars in LMP2. This year the team has not really been lucky yet with a sixth place in Barcelona and a non-finish at Spa where the car retired even before the green flag had been shown. Regular drivers Jacques Nicolet and Richard Hein are joined this year by Jean-François Yvon. Yvon knows his way around Le Mans, although the last time he actually took part in the race was back in 2000.

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25-RML: So far it is a season to forget for Ray Mallock’s team. After an early retirement in Spain due to a fuel-related engine failure the team suffered the same problem at Spa. Let’s hope for Mike Newton, Thomas Erdos and Chris Dyson that the problem has been solved by now as another early retirement for the 2005 and 2006 Le Mans 24 Hours LMP2 category winner will be devastating for the team’s confidence and moral.

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26-Bruichladdich-Bruneau: Familiar names in a familiar car. Like back in 2008 Marc Rostan will race the Radical SR9, this time together with its drivers from the Le Mans Series Pierre Bruneau and Tim Greaves. In Barcelona the Radical ended just outside the podium taking fourth place, while it was disqualified at Spa. It has at least shown it can finish; something that could get a car on the LMP2 podium at Le Mans. Will have a tough race against more developed cars though.

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30-Racing Box: Back in 2008 the team was not allowed to take part after failing scrutineering, but this year the Italian team is back! Ditching the Lucchini chassis and opting for a Lola B08/80 Judd turned out to be very successful as the team won at Barcelona. Unfortunately damage prevented them from finishing at Spa, but Matteo Bobbi, Andrea Piccini and Thomas Biagi are highly experienced drivers and they should be able to secure a podium finish, if all goes well.

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31-Team Essex: Last year the Danish Porsche RS Spyder finished second in LMP2. This year the team is back for more, although it will have to fight with Team Goh for the Porsche honours. Casper Elgaard is the only driver of the 2008 crew to return. He is joined by fellow Dane Kristian Poulsen, an FIA WTCC driver who did quite well at Spa, and Porsche expert Emmanuel Collard. On their only race so far, the Spa 1000KM, this car beat all the other LMP2s.

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32-Barazi Epsilon: Back with its Zytek 07S at Le Mans. Even though the team was at the top in LMP2 a few years ago it fell back in recent years and despite lodging a full season LMS entry it only showed up at Spa. Fernando Rees was expected to race at Barazi but like in 2008 he will be not be there. Team owner / driver Juan Barazi will be joined by Stuart Moseley again for this year while the third seat will be taken by GT veteran Roland Bervillé.

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33-Speedy Racing Team Sebah: Another candidate for victory in the LMP2 category. The team’s Lola-Judd was close to victory at Spa last month, finishing in second place behind the Essex Porsche, despite a big crash in testing at Le Mans only two weeks before the race. Jonny Kane will probably be cautious on his first laps out next week before going flat out again. Experienced and quick drivers Xavier Pompidou and Benjamin Leuenberger complete the strong line-up for the Swiss squad.

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35-OAK Racing: The second OAK Racing car will see regular drivers Mathieu Lahaye and Karim Ajlani team up with Guillaume Moreau. Moreau raced an LMP1 Courage LC70 at Le Mans back in 2007 before moving to Luc Alphand for 2008. This year he was expected to race for LAA again, but a shock announcement last week confirmed him at OAK Racing. Lahaye knows the team and finished 3rd at Le Mans last year. A top 5 finish is possible again.

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39-KSM: Kai Kruse and his team are back at Le Mans with their Lola-Mazda. Hideki Noda and Jean de Pourtales will share the car with Matthew Marsh this year. Noda rolled the Lola several times last year in qualifying. The Japanese driver got out of his heavily damaged car although the mechanics did a hell of a job getting it back in one piece. Let’s hope for the engineers at KSM that they will have a more relaxed time this year with their car still in one piece at the end of the race.

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40-Quifel-ASM Team: The top Zytek car in LMP2 is this one. Classified in fourth place at last year’s Le Mans 24 Hours Miguel Amaral and Olivier Pla hope to end up on the podium this year in their new Zytek 09S. Like in 2008 sportscar ace Guy Smith will join, making it a strong line-up again. Should the Porsches not have a perfect race, than this car will be one of those able to go for the win in the LMP2 category.

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41-G.A.C. Racing Team: Effectively a renamed Trading Performance team. Karim Ojjeh and Claude-Yves Gosselin are back again in their Zytek 07S and hope to do some more laps than the 22 they did last year. Philipp Peter will bring some extra experience to the team for this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours, although it remains to be seen if this is enough to get into the top places in France.

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