24 Hours of Le Mans

24 Hours of Le Mans 2009 - LMP2 Review

© Planetlemans - Marcel ten Caat

In 2008 the fight was on between Van Merksteijn Motorsport and Team Essex, both racing their Porsche RS Spyders. They had quite a nice fight, something that people hoped to see again in 2009. The two Porsches tried to fight each other this year, but it was soon clear who was the best team out in the LMP2 category. Unfortunately LMP2 had a high attrition rate again in 2009.

5-NAVI Team Goh: The winning car of 2008 was unable to repeat this performance in 2009. For the first eight hours the Japanese Porsche RS Spyder was close to the Essex Porsche but two extra pit stops before midnight meant the car lost two laps. Shortly after midnight a front bodywork change meant the loss of another two laps and a trip through the gravel later in the night meant the chances of winning had kind of vanished. Around 1.45 p.m. Seiji Ara hit the guardrail at the Playstation chicane before going through the tyre barriers, destroying the #5 Porsche RS Spyder.

24-OAK Racing: Despite problems with the front bodywork on the #24 Pescarolo-Mazda the OAK Racing car of Nicolet, Hein and Yvon did well in the remainder of the race. Richard Hein had a minor spin during the night but all the way until about an hour and fifteen minutes before the end of the race there wasn’t a problem and the #24 was running fourth in class. At 1.50 p.m. the car came into the box with an engine problem but the team sorted the problem and sent out the car in time to take the chequered flag. With the #5 Porsche crashed out it meant the OAK Racing team took third in LMP2.

25-RML: Unfortunately it was another case of déjà vu for RML at Le Mans. Despite a rather trouble free first part of the race. At 2.17 p.m. the Lola Mazda came in to have its engine checked and after the plugs were replaced Erdos was sent out again. Newton and Dyson went out for stints and again had no problems, but just after 10 o’clock in the morning while running in fourth place Erdos suddenly lost power and not much later the Lola Mazda was retired with the third engine failure of the season. After identical problems at Barcelona and Spa it remains to be seen what the team will do post-Le Mans.

26-Bruichladdich-Bruneau: A rather disastrous weekend for the Bruichladdich-Bruneau team. Marc Rostan and Pierre Bruneau completed one stint before handing over to Tim Greaves. Unfortunately just after 7.30 pm Greaves was literally pushed off the track by the #009 Aston Martin at the Ford Chicane, hit the wall and then slammed into the tyre barriers at the pit entrance. As a result the rear of the Radical suffered serious damage, but Greaves managed to get back into the pit. Several hours later (just after 2 a.m.) it was back in the race, but one hour later it was back in for another long stop, something that happened once more at 5 a.m. At 6.30 the team withdrew the car after suffering an engine failure and a fuel leak.

30-Racing Box: The Racing Box Lola Judd wasn’t able to repeat the success from the opening race of the LMS. But at least Racing Box made it into the race this year. Already in the opening hours the team suffered problems and had bodywork fixed. Through the night things went reasonably well until Matteo Bobbi ended up in the gravel trap at 4.30 and only managed to get away some twenty minutes later. Just after 5 the car went straight into a wall and the team lost another 30 minutes in the pit. One hour later the race came to an end when engine expired.

31-Team Essex: Having finished second in 2008 the Team Essex Porsche RS Spyder was in a league of its own in 2009. The Team Goh Porsche was the only car that was able to follow the Danish entry, but when that car hit trouble it was a matter of finishing and winning the class. There was no rush in completing pit stops as the opposition dropped out of the race and the team took its time to replace parts. After 24 hours the #31 Porsche crossed the line in first place, the Elgaard-Collard-Poulsen car finished 14 laps ahead of the second placed car. A complete walk-over for Team Essex.

32-Barazi Epsilon: Barazi, Moseley and Bennett had a rather anonymous race. In the first couple of hours the car did its laps and had slowly moved up into fifth place before losing 50 minutes in the pit with throttle problems. After that the car went out in eighth place and stayed in that position for the entire night. Early in the morning a battery was changed, which cost the team another 10 minutes. Just before eleven o’clock Barazi came into the box again and the team started working on a problem with the exhaust. One hour later Bennett went and took the car over the finish. Eventually the Zytek 07S was classified fourth in LMP2.

33-Speedy Racing Team Sebah: Best of the rest in LMP2 this year. Like in 2008 the Porsche RS Spyders were no match for the Lola. As the #33 was much quicker than the other cars the team had rather uneventful race. At night Pompidou had to stop a bit longer for some small repairs and then he went straight twice. Later in the night and early in the morning three other longer stops were made for small repairs. Two similar stops were made in the final hour. After six hours the gap to the leading Porsche was 2 laps, at 12 hours it had gone to six laps and at the finish it was 14 laps. Yet the OAK Racing Pescarolo in third place was another 18 laps further down the road. Well deserved second place.

35-OAK Racing: A troubled race for the second OAK Racing Pescarolo. Mathieu Lahaye came into the box just after half past seven in the evening and a mechanical problem kept the car in the pit for almost 12 minutes. At 2.45 the car went into the box for another 12 minutes with the team replacing several parts. One hour later mechanical problems returned and Moreau returned to the pit where the car was serviced for another 18 minutes. At 5.30 Lahaye returned to the pit again with another problem that would eventually turn out to be terminal. The Pescarolo was seen leaking oil and the team tried to change an oil pump and the turbo, but after returning to the track the car retired with an engine failure just before 8 a.m.

39-KSM: Things could not have started more worse for Kai Kruse’s team. After a big shunt in practice the race had hardly started when De Pourtales brought the car in with an oil leak and a faulty turbo. One hour was lost and the chance of a decent result was gone. Just after 5 pm a clutch problem meant another hour was lost. More time was lost in another pit stop, but then the team had an untroubled run of around 8 hours. On Sunday the team hit trouble again with the climax being a fire at the pit entry. After it was finally extinguished the car was pushed into the box where it was retired. Hours of problems finally came to an end.

40-Quifel-ASM Team: Despite being named the top Zytek car in LMP2 in our preview Le Mans 2009 was an edition the team wants to forget as soon as possible. In the first hour Guy Smith was already in the pit more than he wanted, losing valuable time. Amaral took over from Smith but spun just minutes after taking over. Half an hour later he hit the wall but was able to continue and 20 minutes after the first incident Amaral was in a tyre wall again. The damage turned out to be terminal as the team withdrew the car only a few minutes later.

41-G.A.C. Racing Team: The Zytek of Ojjeh, Gosselin and Peter was another of those LMP2 cars that did compete this year but was rather invisible and quickly disappeared. From the start to late in the evening things went reasonably well, but just after 10 p.m. the car came in when an ECU had to be changed and an exhaust problem needed attention. The problems were more serious though and at 10.54p.m. the team withdrew the Zytek with a broken engine.

Conclusion:

Once again the Porsche RS Spyder was the car required to win Le Mans in the LMP2 class (and the Michelin Green X Challenge). LMP2 was rather disappointing though with only four out of twelve entries making it to the finish. Team Essex did everything it should do and crushed the opposition. 14 laps advantage over the second placed car, 32 laps over the number three in the classification and a stunning 51 laps over fourth place need no further explanation. LMP2 was Team Essex.