Spa race report

The final results can be found at www.fiawec.com

It is good to report that around 14,000 members of the public turned out in force to sit in the sun and watch some top of the range motor sport.

During a short pause in hostilities before the start we had a chat with Paul Truswell.. the amazing combination of voice and analytical brain that we know so well from Le Mans. Not surprisingly he had a few thoughts… He suggested that it would need a simply huge c*ck up for Audi to lose this race, in fact it would probably take a huge c*ck up to keep them off the top three steps of the podium. So why no Toyotas in the frame? The ‘new’ #7 car is geared up more for Le Mans in June and is brand new.. the #8 car on the other hand is now out of date. As far as Le Mans goes Toyota will probably miss out tactically by not having three cars to deploy at La Sarthe. We also discussed LM P2 and how hard it was to keep up with them during the race and on TV. The problem sort of lies with the fact that as far as sponsors are concerned there are no really big, distinctive ones that highlight the cars, which makes them hard to identify in the midst of the action ( and during the TV edit) Equally while they have some very experienced and quite famous pilots they are short of big name endurance super-stars. We all agree that despite all this they do give us some cracking racing even if goes unnoticed for some of the time. In GT Porsche may well continue to struggle until they can get their hands on the new 991 engine ( good old Porsche .. keep us guessing on these numbers!). There was only one safety car session and it caused a couple of teams problems not just with pit lane access but also with getting stuck behind the safety car.

The LM P1 lead sort of ‘went with service’ for a sizeable part of the race. The analysts amongst us were told that the lead changed around 13 times. The #7 Toyota took up the lead several times occasionally on merit but generally during the pits stops. All the same the new car did lead the race until that is with three hours or so to go it wound up in the pits and expired with what was clearly a brake overheating problem but we think that may have been related to the ‘Hybrid’ systems. The Toyotas would appear to be able to match the Audis, broadly speaking, on pace and apparently beat them in the fuel consumption stakes. As you may have gathered we are fans of the Rebellion Racing Team, the only problem is that being ‘petrol powered’ they have nobody much to race against apart from each other! Even so this is a highly professional and superbly managed team… now .. have a think ..what if …?! The #25 Strakka Racing Morgan Nissan is not truly competitive but they are heading for Le Mans come what may! Back with Audi they did suffer with a puncture on the #1 car but in the true tradition of Audi it didn't appear to faze them at all and the team carried on in its unflustered way. Incidentally the #3 Audi was running in ‘Le Mans’ specification which didn't suit Spa but the casual onlooker might be hard pressed to spot the difference. The new fashion is ‘Long Tails’ everybody is trying them, maybe as a tribute to the Porsche 917 Lang Heck!

In LM P2 it goes almost without saying that we will see some close racing and today was no exception. It was eventually won by #49 Pecom Racing Oreca 03. This was probably due in no small way to presence of one Mr Nicolas Minassian who is immensely quick. Even so they came home just 12 seconds ahead of the #24 OAK Racing Morgan Nissan which was only 16 seconds ahead of the third placed #38 Jota Zytek Z11SN. The Lotus T128 fared much better than they had done at Silverstone and despite the #31 car hitting problems but still finishing the #31 car saw the chequered flag. All the LM P2 cars finished the race except the #25 Delta ADR which crashed out. They are quick, reliable and well worth watching when they get to Le Mans.

For Aston Martin things didn’t pan out as well here as they had at Silverstone. We did wonder if the other teams might have been holding back at Silverstone. Maybe they were because this time in LMGTE Ferraris came alive with the two AF Corse Ferrari F458 Italia’s looking much more dangerous in ‘Pro’ . This was helped by the Astons getting caught out by the safety car. Porsche didn’t have a great weekend, it was summed up rather well when, with about 45mins to go , the #51 AF Corse Corse Ferrari punted the #91 Porsche up the back end and took it out of the race! With around 40 mins to go a flurry of stop go penalties kicked in after that safety car business hours ago. This involved the two factory Aston Martins #97 and 98. Team boss David Richards reckoned it was all entirely legal so we suspect this might involve a protest form Aston Martin Racing.

In ‘Am’ it was Ferrari again and they did well with the #81 Ferrari 458 Italia seing off the #95 Aston . The #50 Chevrolet had a steady race and came home 3^rd, again ahead of an Aston Martin, this time the #96 car. So not quite the spectacular performance we saw at Silverstone. But everybody is now heading for Le Mans so all bets are off !

After 168 laps only three cars retired from the race , these were the #7 Toyota, The #25 Delta-ADR which crashed out after 25 laps and the unfortunate Patrick Pilet in the #91 Porsche who crashed out after being hit by #51 Ferrari driven by Bruni. As a curtain raiser for Le Mans? Well .. guess what Audi do look incredibly strong but Toyota have the pace and the economy and maybe with a bit of luck they might see the podium.

The final results can be found at www.fiawec.com

Things you might already know….

Ever since Rebellion appeared at Le Mans in 2011 we have been wondering what Rebellion was and what it did for a living. So off we went to good old Google for a look!

Extraordinary fact one is that, allegedly, in 2012 roughly one person in five on planet earth still buys a watch each year. Extraordinary fact two is that Swiss watches only account for 2% of this volume but this represents more than half the value of the worldwide watch market.

There are a couple of things you need to know about Rebellion.. firstly they don’t produce ‘watches’, they produce ‘timepieces’ and secondly you won’t find them on offer at Argos! For example The Rebellion REB-5 Black Diamond retails in the region of $930,000! This is the cheapish one.. the limited edition T1000 will set you back somewhere in excess of $1.2 million. They only plan to make 25 of them so the revenue would go some way towards the tyres and fuel for Le Mans and WEC.

This might account for why watch companies have a rich heritage in motor racing. At Le Mans you can’t fail to spot Rolex sponsorship all over the place… Richard Mille sponsors the Le Mans Classic.. Blancpain have their own Endurance Series under the watchful (!) eye of SRO. In fact there are so many deals in motor sports from Tag Heuer to Tudor ( who, as an offspring of Rolex, are involved here at Spa) and sailing ( Corum, Boss etc) so maybe the watch industry is the new tobacco sponsor.

All this makes my £13.99 Sekonda watch purchased duty free on the ferry look a wee bit modest.. mind you it does tell me what time it is ! 

Spa WEC Qualifying

Will it work? Was it exciting? The jury is still out, certainly amongst one of two of the drivers that were interviewed. Compared with Round One at Silverstone the good news was that at least it all worked. The timing screens are mighty complicated as those of you watching ‘Live Timing’ will perhaps agree. If you take the live timing screens and the main TV timing screens here in the media centre you have either twelve or fourteen columns to try and keep up with. It was refreshing that Kamui Kobayashi freely admitted that really didn't have a clue what was going on and what was needed from him!

So how did LM GTE pan out ? Aston took pole in Pro with the #98 car, between them Bruno Senna and Frederic Makowiecki always looked promising and they saw off the two AF Corse Ferraris, #51 and #71. The Porsches again didn't shine. In ‘Am’ it was Aston Martin #95 that took pole ahead of the #81 Ferrari and the second of the Aston Martin Racing machines.

The final results can be seen on http://live.fiawec.com/

With no time to take breath the LM P1 & LM P2 cars are already out. Except initially the #28 Gulf Racing Middle East Lola Nissan which is back in its garage with what might be a starter problems.

#41 has gone off at turn 9 with Dyson driving … there is a red flag so the clock has stopped and no doubt some team managers are having to think mighty fast and re-plan their strategy. When lights went green there was an ugly rush to get out…whether it was all legal is questionable.

The top speeds are soaring and are now over 300 kph which is round 190 mph. Degrassi in the #3 Audi has set a high benchmark and was running with just about enough fuel to get the job done. At this stage the Toyotas still seem down on speed. It is perhaps a bit  disappointed that the new #7 Toyota isn’t significantly quicker than the ‘old’ car but it may be running in a ‘Le Mans’ specification aero pack. Once again the Rebellion Lolas with their Toyota petrol powered have done astoundingly well against the might of Audi and Toyota.

The #41 Greaves Motorsport Zytek Nissan came back to pits on the back of a lorry so it will start from the back of grid since it didn’t do anywhere near enough laps.

Qualifying is not utterly crucial in a six hour endurance race but it certainly gives us some indication of what might happen tomorrow.

Final Free Practice ..

FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps.

Club Arnage

Final Free Practice

Free practice probably doesn’t prove much but ‘bragging rights’ are still important. Audi have been their usual systematic, organised selves with their three cars lying 1^st, 2^nd and 3^rd. Possibly less relaxed might be Toyota since the #12 Rebellion Racing Lola has got ahead of both the works cars. This may or not really bother Toyota but great credit to the plucky petrol powered Rebellion lads.

It was a quick, dry session with the sun actually warming up the track and tyres at last. The front runners all cracked Fassler’s 2:01.851secs. Remember we still have qualifying to come so, despite the weird system, it could be a bit lively.

One or two of the cars are, as we mentioned, sporting ‘long tails’ so top speeds may be going up! The #3 car hit 296 kph at Kemmel and some have gone quicker still. That is about 185 mph! The Rebellion cars also have longer tails.

So let us sit back and see what happens later this afternoon and evening. The LMGTE Pro and Am cars are out between 18:50hrs and 19:2o hrs ( local time) and the LMP1 and LMP2 cars are out from 19:30hrs to 20:00hrs. At Silverstone things were a wee bit tense as far as squeezing everything in so this time both sessions are 30 mins rather than 20 mins.

FIA WEC 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps..

Club Arnage

Free Practice..

Your CA team is in place and free practice has passed reasonably quietly except for #24 Oak Racing Morgan Nissan. The culprit behind the wheel was David Heinemeier Hansson he went off at Pouhon. Fair enough.. it was a bit damp in places.

We have another cracking grid of 35 cars including of course the big banger LMP1 cars from Audi and Toyota. This is their last chance to scare off any gremlins that might be lurking about prior to Le Mans.

The new qualifying procedure is back despite its rather murky debut at Silverstone. It seems that the computer software didn’t cope particularly well and got in a huff and went home for an early bath but the chaps that know about these things have, we are told, got it all sorted out now. So once again we are looking forward with eager anticipation to the following:-

Driver One goes out and does at least four laps and the computer remembers the best two of them… then Driver Two goes out and also does at least four laps, and again the computers remember which were the fastest two. Now the clever bit.. these four times are averaged out to give a final time that gives the car its place on the grid. Get it? Simples!

Now a few ‘Michael Caine’ moments… did you know that:-

All the cars are fitted with three lights in a vertical row beside the number decal.. one light ‘on’ means the car is leader its class.. two lights second in class and three lights third in class. These are triggered by the transponders and time keepers. These were not working all that well either but we are assured that will be tickety-boo by Le Mans. If you are watching on TV the LMP1 Cars have Red numbers.. LM P2 have blue ones… LM GTE Pro are green and LM GTE Am are orange.

Nine drivers here today have taken part in F1 Grand Prix… Allan McNish, Alexander Wurz, Anthony Davidson, Sébastien Buemi, Luca di Grassi, Marc Gené, Stéphane Sarrazin. Kazuki Nakajima and Nick Heidfeld.

Fuel tanks on petrol powered LMP1 and LMP2 cars are allowed 75 litres… the diesels get 60 litres.. LMPGTE Pro and Am also get 60 litres.

Just looking at the programme and noticed that it claims Marcel Fassler clocked a 1:01.851sec to claim the fastest lap in the 2012. A mere 205 Kph… in fact this would have been nearer 400kph which would be about 250 mph!! Maybe it should read 2:01.851secs!

My guru Tony tells me that the #7 Toyota is a new car and the #3 Audi has the ‘long tail’..remember the 917 Porsche ? Well this one is a massive few cms!

35 Cars…8 in LMP1..11 in LMP2…7 in LMGTE Pro and 9 in LMGTE Am

Back after practice and qualifying