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Estoril ELMS

15/07/2001

Race

Report

You have to begin to wonder what Stefan Johansson has to do to win an A or E LMS race. He set the pattern by easing away from Jean-Christophe Boullion during the first double stints from these two, Patrick Lemarie escaped from an off through the gravel at the final turn, and a slow penultimate stop from the Courage left Tom Coronel exactly a lap ahead of Boris Derichebourg. These two put on an entertaining demonstration, the Dutchman ahead, then the Courage unlapped itself as the Corvette got in the way, Coronel ahead again, then the final stops saw the Courage not put on new tyres for the second time, to leave Derichebourg ahead on the track again - still a lap down of course.

Then it all went wrong on the pits straight. Coronel slip-streamed by, Derichebourg moved right, and somehow the green Courage punted the Audi on the right rear. The Gulf car slewed around, air started to get underneath it, and it rammed the fence, backwards, on the outside - scattering the marshals, one or two of whom were cut by flying debris. There was a lot of it. The wreck ran on into the gravel trap and fairly gently into the tyre wall, Coronel waving that he was OK. It might have been an awful lot worse. "He ran into the back of me. It's not bad luck, he just ran into the back of me."

Presumably the result will stand? - the Courage 12 laps ahead of one Saleen (RML) and 16 ahead of the other? No it won’t. The Courage was disqualified for persistently ignoring blue flags...so our overall winner is the RML Saleen. Indeed, a Saleen 1-2. An appeal from Henri Pescarolo seems likely. The GT class saw some excellent racing, Xavier Pompidou in the Freisinger Porsche finishing less than three seconds ahead of Robin Liddell in the PK Sport / Ricardo GT3RS. The next three were in a close group too, partly as a result of the Safety Car period that resulted from the Coronel accident.

Final GT drama was the engine of the Pompidou car seizing in parc ferme; it wouldn't have lasted this long but for the SC period for the Coronel crash.

Some might argue that this wasn't an entry to justify the LMS tag, but this writer is inclined to disagree. The two LMP900s put on an excellent show, these two among the very best prototypes available anywhere outside the silver R8s. The RML Saleen produced an immaculate performance and would beat any other GTS anywhere - it would have won GTS at Le Mans, after all, but for engine ailments. And the GTs produced a great show. Job or Schnitzer cars would have whopped the lot, but the racing was hardly less spectacular for their absence.

Some dismiss the GT Porsches as not real racing cars. 440 bhp, cars moving around, worn tyres at the end of long stints? - they're great fun to watch. With the prototypes moving past them, there's always something to see and admire, always cars close together on the track.

The Le Mans format works at Le Mans; it also works away from the French eight miler, even with an entry of 19. Fourteen of them finished too.

With Johansson easing away from Boullion in a fairly predictable manner at the start, you had to look to the other classes for drama in the opening laps. David Dussau was hanging on ahead of the three GTSs, with the new Debora (in a very fetching lilac), the two Saleens in the order Konrad-Lambert ahead of the Brookspeed Viper. The latter was dropping back in the hands of Pedro Mello Bryner, and a spin and then Safety Car would see the V10 a lap down to the two Ford-powered rivals before long.

Luca Riccitelli was one man setting the GT pace, up into third place after four laps and hounding Terry Rymer and Xavier Pompidou. Rymer had made a great start, and would reinforce his reputation with fastest lap in the class. Richard Dean was enjoying a much less happy ride in the unsponsored Skea Porsche. Contact with someone saw flapping bodywork and then much worse; a pulley had been dislodged, the power steering packed up and oil was then dumped on the track. Cue the SC, cue a long stop to try and fix it. Nine laps were lost, and Dean and Johnny Mowlem were thereafter chasing a too distant target. When the power steering stopped again much later, the car was withdrawn. Skea Racing’s reputation was hardly improved by the second car, the slowest in the field – even slower than the Corvette.

Dean’s troubles promoted Mike Youles a place when the SC appeared after 20 minutes. There wouldn’t be another convoy until the Coronel / Derichebourg clash. Magnus Wallinder was also shining in GT, but both he and Xavier Pompidou spun once racing resumed, which was also the cue for Johansson to motor away again at up to a second per lap. Franz Konrad was struggling with inadequate ventilation at slow speeds, so he pitted early, but his partners couldn’t match Lambert, McKellar and Goodwin. The RML Saleen breezed onwards, untroubled, to a very convincing, soon to become overall, win. The Viper was running well until the brakes started playing up. Bobby Verdon-Roe had one spin at the end of the pit straight, then another monster one as soon as he touched the middle pedal; the rears were locking, and he did very well to bring it to a halt. Long stops for bleeding failed to solve the problem, so the Viper men cruised home at reduced pace.

LMP 675 was reduced to no cars when Dussau lost a wheel after 57 laps. It had been a promising run until then.

Round about 20 laps saw Riccitelli leading GT from Rymer, Youles, Sylvain Noel in the del Bello car, and the recovering Pompidou and Wallinder. One hour gone and Johansson had only completed 32 laps, and still hadn’t pitted thanks to the economy of the cars while behind the SC. He pitted after 33, had four new tyres fitted and was away for a second stint. Boullion repeated the procedure but didn’t change his tyres, but was still out behind Johansson. “That was the only way to try and stay with the Audi, run two stints on the tyres,” said the Frenchman. Laurent Redon had inflicted enough wear on his fresh tyres for his first stint that he did new new ones for his second, while Derichebourg followed Boullion’s example.

The first two only had three more dramas between them – and they all befell the Audi. First came Patrick Lemarie’s drive through the gravel at the last turn, but he pressed on without further delay. Then Tom Coronel had a tyre sensor indicate a loss of pressure after two laps, which brought him back out just ahead of Derichebourg on the road…which finally led to the accident on lap 193. The Courage was undamaged, and cruised home to win.

With GTS going the way of RML, the GTs had to provide the entertainment. They typically ran over 90 minutes for the first stints, after which Robin Liddell took control in the lead PK Porsche. Terry Rymer led at the end of his 95 minutes, but Gavin Pickering lost time in stint two, before handing over to Adam Simmons. The class looked to be between the Dumas / Pompidou entry and the #60 PK GT3RS, the more so when the Seikel car somehow had its door come off at a pit stop.

PK were ahead with Liddell at the wheel, but dropped back to second in the third stint with Piers Masarati at the helm. The final stint was the Pompidou / Liddell scrap, with the Freisinger car taking the win and the Le Mans spot for 2002 – and then its engine seized.

The Harlow Porsche just pipped the Geoff Lister / Magnus Wallinder / Manuel Mello Bryner Seikel car, these two one lap ahead of the Paco Orti Porsche, with the Luc Alphand and second PK entries next up.

Then the stewards met, the Pescarolo car was disqualified and the RML squad took the overall victory. A GTS car wins overall. Was this Daytona? No, nothing like it, but the unexpected was always likely at this one. More Prototypes please, but otherwise more of the same.