How ironic that the Le Mans Cup's next race (or rather, pair of races), should be held at it's namesake circuit. This is Le Mans, in France, where endurance sports car racing, was born, nearly a century ago, and the Le Mans Cup shall run two support races to the fabled 24-classic, a race that we covered when it happened, back in June, right here on the blog. Instead of this event being one, single hour and 50-minute event, for the race weekend here at Le Mans, with all the on-track activity for the 24 hours, there shall be two races, 55 minutes apiece. That is the schedule and how it will work out. This is a special round of the championship, hence the format changes.
LMP3 and GT3 cars at Le Mans. It won't be long until GT3 production cars become a mainstay of the 24 Hours of Le Mans itself. As proof of what a highlight this race is, the entry list contains 50 cars. This is the curtain raiser to the 24 Hours of Le Mans. Tony Wells for Nielsen Racing says it is a great honor and pleasure to be at Le Mans and that while the circuit is daunting at first, it is also very exciting to drive such a fabled piece of road. Qualifying is important because according to Kristian Poulsen for GMB Motorsports, driving flat out from the beginning here at this track, in this place, is the goal of everyone. Drivers will be giving it everything. Leonard Weiss and WTM Racing are here to enjoy the races that are about to happen.
Gino Forgione is living out his dream as a driver racing at Le Mans. The race, the organization with the ACO, and the whole event are fabulous. Mikey Benham is not racing with Cool Racing here at Le Mans but instead he is racing with United Autosport as Duncan Tappy, a regular with United Autosport in Le Mans Cup, has other commitments this weekend. Mike Benham will be in the car. Before we go racing, let's have a look inside the #44 Bullitt Racing Aston Martin Vantage GT3 with Stephen Pattrick. The Aston Martin Vantage is a great, stable automobile to drive with it's 4 liter turbocharged V8 engine with about 400 horsepower on tap.
It gives Am drivers lots of confidence and the brakes are good on it. It can stop quickly. Depending on the track they are racing on, the rear wing of the Aston Martin GT3 car is adjustable. Having the wing sticking right up in the air slows you on the straightaways, but it will give you more grip in the corners. So, there is a wee trade off here at Circuit de la Sarthe in that respect. Like all modern GT and prototype sports cars, there is a lot of switchgear on the steering wheel for the driver to operate to optimize the car.
Traction Control is one of those systems. Antilock brakes as well. These systems are a part of the GT3 car and it becomes natural even though there is a lot of bandwidth a driver's mind must use in testing and setting up the car, just to learn how it all works before stepping into a full on, full metal racing situation. One component of these modern endurance cars that is commonplace in GT's and prototypes alike is a rearview camera as opposed to a conventional rearview mirror to see what is going on behind and around you. There are the outside mirrors on the car, but the camera really gives more perspective and works well for the most part.
This is a big, easy to control race car and Bullitt Racing hope to do well this weekend at the greatest racing circuit in the world. Passion meets work. Patrice Lafargue is a French businessman and President of the IDEC Group. He is also a mega motorsports fan. So, if you are all of those things, logic shall dictate that you create your own racing team and in 2015, that is exactly what Lafargue did. Patrice Lafargue and his team are currently fifth in the LMP3 category standings going into these races in the doubleheader here at Le Mans.
Patrice Lafargue is paired up with experienced racing driver Dino Lunardi of course. We have called their number in the last few Le Mans Cup races you have read about on the blog. Patrice Lafargue has run the 24 Hours of Le Mans before and is so happy to be back at the greatest circuit in the world. Lafargue explains the LMP3 cars are great fun to drive and that as a teammate, Dino Lunardi is fun to be around and work with and is very supportive of Patrice as a driver. Pleasure is what he gets from it. Patrice Lafargue considers Le Mans a magical place. He has raced in the big show, the 24 Hours of Le Mans, twice. In 2011 and in 2017, he raced here, both times in the 24 hours, in an LMP2 car.
Le Mans will always be here with the straightaways, the massive top speeds, racing through the forest, the atmosphere is totally unique. OK. It is time now to go racing in race one of two this weekend.
Race 1:
It is Thursday afternoon here at Le Mans, time for race one of two this weekend in the Le Mans Cup before the big show on Saturday. Pole position earned by the #3 DKR Engineering Duqueine M30-D08 Nissan with Jon Brownson, the American driver, at the wheel. Maurice Smith from Cool Racing at his elbow in car #69. Next on the grid is Alexander Matschull, the German, in the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier JS P320. We've got a green flag and we're underway here at Circuit de la Sarthe! Remember, this is the first of two races this weekend. So we get a double dose of action. If this race satisfies your appetite and you want more, make sure to make room for seconds.
Green flag in the air! Away we go! Poking his nose in there is Nicholas Schatz making a move early. Schatz sharing the #6 car with Jonathan Brossard, the Swiss driver. This race is scheduled for 13 laps in total around this 8.48-mile circuit. All told we should run about 110 miles in each of these races. Alexander Matschull wants to look inside for a shot at the lead but gets the door slammed in his face as they hit the Dunlop curves for the first time. They are three, four, five wide through there! Holy cow! It is a short race. So, unlike the 24 hours later in the weekend, chaps, have at it. Just go for it.
There's brake lockup and contact all over the place and we have trouble already for a GT3 Ferrari! This doesn't look good. Hugo Delacour in a spot of bother and in replay, let's see how this pans out. Andrew Ferguson in the #27 24-7 Motorsports Ligier spins off the road and then gets clobbered by the Ferrari! Ker-runch! That is the #52 Spirit of Race Ferrari 488 GT3 of Frenchman Hugo Delacour. Delacour was an innocent bystander after Ferguson's car stalled. Delacour sharing the Ferrari with experienced sports car racer, Cedric Sbirrazzuoli of Monaco.
We have seen Sbirrazzuoli compete before in GT3 machinery. I don't know if he is going to get a chance to do so here at Le Mans. Not today. Maybe in the next sprint race in a couple of days. But for race one I would say it is game over for this team. Jon Brownson on the left-hand side of the road as the LMP3 cars thunder down the Mulsanne straight for the first time, with their Nissan V8 engines providing and bringing the power. Brownson thinks he has the corner going into Mulsanne, but steaming by him, Alexander Matschull has other ideas and says, "thank you very much. I will lead the race for a bit."
Nicholas Schatz ducks into second spot in the chicanes on the Mulsanne put in around 1990 to slow the track down as before that, Le Mans had the Mulsanne straight, but all four miles of it were a straight ahead blast at 250 miles an hour plus, especially in the days of cars like the Ford GT40, the Porsche 908, Porsche 917, and Ferrari 512, and then on into the '80s with the awesome Group C prototypes. But, in the early '90s in the waning years of Group C, the organizers knew they had to slow it down and hence the chicanes being there to this very day as a safety measure. Through the next chicane Jon Brownson is losing time to Tony Wells. Wells has a head of steam, and contact!
Torsten Kratz in the #11 Wochenspiegel Team Monschau Ligier gets spun 'round. He is back on the button and into the fray again while Jon Brownson is doing what he can to point the DKR Engineering car in the right direction. Good battle for the lead in the GT3 class between Arnold Robin in the #34 Belgian Audi Club Team WRT Audi R8 LMS Evo II., being chased by the Honda NSX GT3 of Mikkel O. Pedersen, car #88 Pedersen sharing the #88 entry, one of three GMB Motorsports Honda's with Lars Engelbrecht Pedersen.
Maxime Robin in the aforementioned Audi cops a drive through penalty. This is for contact earlier. Big trouble in Tertre Rouge corner! Car #83 is spinning and headed straight for the barrier! Smash! It's the #83 Racetivity Mercedes AMG GT3 of Charles-Henri Samani of France piling into the Armco! He was to have shared that car in an all-French duo with Le Mans 24 Hours veteran Jean-Bernard Bouvet. But, with the amount of damage to the front end of the car, I don't think they will see further action in this race or even the next one.
That is on the driver's right, and the car is completely destroyed. I don't think they will be back racing on Saturday morning. Pit stop time now, exactly halfway through the race. Maxime Robin is one of the pit callers in the Audi and so, the #88 Honda NSX GT3 from GMB Motorsport takes the GT3 lead with Lars Engelbrecht Pedersen at the wheel of it. The sister #44 Honda for GMB Motorsport is second now with Jens Moller driving. Third in class is the Bullitt Racing Aston Martin. Car #99 now being driven by Frenchman Valentin Hasse-Clot having taken over from Stephen Pattrick.
A lead battle as the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier of Tom Dillman passes by the #76 Reiter Engineering Ligier of Mads Siljehaug. They were in the pit lane together and Dillman took the advantage. But now, Siljehaug is pressing Dillman hard through the chicanes on the Mulsanne straight. Siljehaug has just now taken over the #76 car from Freddie Hunt who was in the lead of the motor race until the pit stop. Freddie Hunt, the son of 1976 Formula 1 World Champion, James Hunt, hence the car number.
Siljehaug though, he is pushing hard. Josh Skelton in the second car for Racing Spirit of Leman is also making a pass on Mads Siljehaug. That is the #43 that Skelton, from England, shares alongside Jacques Wolff of France. Wolff, here at Le Mans, is in his home race. Skelton is a determined chap because he was in the slipstream of Siljehaug, sticking right on his six all the way to Mulsanne corner. So, Racing Spirit of Leman run 1-2 while Reiter Engineering are now third. A car is off in the gravel trap on driver's left, just before the Dunlop bridge. Two cars are tangled up in the gravel traps down there. Ian Rodriguez, the Guatemalan driver and the Honda NSX GT3 of Lars Engelbreckt-Pedersen, the #88.
Rodriguez aboard the Virage Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan for Team Virage. That is car #33 for the Polish team that he shares with American driver Rob Hodes. Lars Engelbreckt-Pedersen spins off the road. But now, he seems to be back on the button. Great battle for second place in GT3, look, headed to Mulsanne corner. This is Fabio Babini trying Arnold Robin into Mulsanne corner and Robin says "no you don't, sunshine", and slams the door in the Italian's face. Robin goes wide! Babini is not going to stand getting the door slammed in his face, and opens it up again, look. He is on the outside, on the preferred line up the hill.
Babini nabs second and now is going to fly after Jens Moller for the GT3 lead. So, we are soon going to see a Honda vs. Porsche scrap for the GT3 lead here at Le Mans. The sister GMB Honda is in fourth with the Ferrari now fifth in the hands of Andrea Montermini. Into the slow zone at the Ford chicane, and Montermini runs right up the back of the Honda, gets sideways, goes off the road and plows into the Rolex signage at the side of the track! So, he is carrying that green and yellow Rolex watches banner and it has to fall off the front of the car, somewhere.
How on earth did he not know that was a slow zone? A driver of his experience level. Strange. He has got a couple of Rolexes. But they are sadly just the banners. Not going to win the watches if all you can pick up on the road are the banners, sunshine. This might be the final lap for the GT3 cars in race one. Arnold Robin and Audi lead in the GT3 category while Fabio Babini in the Porsche runs in second spot. Positions chopping and changing everywhere as the two Honda's are the buns and the Ferrari of Andrea Montermini, he is the meat in the sandwich, look.
Yellow flags being displayed as the Inter Europol LMP3 machine seems to be slow. Speaking of LMP3, at the top of the shop, on the final lap, it is just half a second between the leaders. It is the battle of the teammates between Tom Dillman and Josh Skelton. I have to say, I think Dillman, the Frenchman, has the edge as we head for home in race one here at Le Mans. Into the Porsche Curves for the last time of asking in race one. It is going to be a Racing Spirit of Leman 1-2. Nielsen Racing earns the final step on the podium. Victory for Tom Dillman! Winner, winner. Chicken dinner.
Well, well, well. The GT3 scrum is not over yet! We see Babini right on Robin's six, still, down the Mulsanne. Nothing has changed there. We've been here before. Deja vu. Second chapter of the book same as the first. Robin outbrakes himself, again into Mulsanne corner, and almost wipes out Babini in the process! Jeepers creepers! These two are going for broke. Andrea Montermini is getting feisty knowing it is indeed the final lap. He wants past at least one Honda. Babini hanging on by his fingernails!
Into Indianapolis, and not enough steam for Robin to make the move. One more time into the Ford Chicane. There it is. Babini brings it home! The Ebimotors Porsche 911 GT3R is going to win the GT3 class with the Italian duo of Fabio Babini and Emmanuele Busnelli. What a motor race! Have you ever? No, I've never!
LMP3: #10 Dillman/Mattschull Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GT3: #46 Babini/Busnelli Ebimotors Porsche 911 GT3R
Stay tuned ladies and gents because we still have race two to come here at Le Mans and that one will be awesome to watch judging by the excitement of the first one! 48 cars started the race (as many as used to start the Le Mans 24 Hours several years ago). That being said, a lot of them will need major repairs before race two on Saturday. The podium celebrations for race one though, can start and look at Emmanuelle Busnelli. What a happy racing driver he is! The same surely can be said for Fabio Babini.
Busnelli said he cried tears of joy in victory lane and well, there's nothing you can say about that. That is the thrill of victory right there, ladies and gentlemen. He says, "this is magic." Kristian Poulsen and Casper Jensen took third place in the Honda. Second place to Arnold Robin and Maxime Robin. The GT3 winners, Fabio Babini and Emmanuele Busnelli. Folks don't go away. We still have one more whole race to run here at Le Mans. Stay tuned for that. Read on to find out more about it.
Racing Spirit of Leman finish 1-2 and Alexander Matschull has achieved his goal of winning at Le Mans! Third place, Tony Wells and Colin Noble driving the #7 Nielsen Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan. Second spot to the #43 Racing Spirit of Leman entry for Josh Skelton and Jacques Wolff, and their teammates, in the #10 car are number one on this day. Victory goes to Tom Dillman and Alexander Matschull! Spray the champagne and celebrate, boys! You deserve it.
OK. Race two here at Le Mans for the Le Mans Cup is on deck.
Saturday morning, just before the "great race", the 24 Hours of Le Mans, is set to get underway. We have Torsten Kratz and Alexander Matschull on the front row. 47 cars start this race. Mikey Benham and Jacques Wolff start on row two. Lights out, and away we go! Kratz on the outside headed for Dunlop curves. We are watching closely both Matschull and Benham as both of them are making their move right from the word go. No dice for Benham though as Torsten Kratz closes the door on him. You can tell Torsten Kratz is a man on a mission.
A couple cars scattering to the escape road on the outside and a couple lockups. I think everyone is staying on the circuit. Rob Hodes is currently running ninth aboard the #33 Team Virage Ligier. Freddie Hunt, meanwhile, flying down the Mulsanne straight and he has the #76 Reiter Engineering Ligier up to fourth spot. He has picked up one place after starting fifth, making a pass on Jacques Wolff into the first of the two chicanes on the Mulsanne straight. That is the Daytona chicane and of course the reverse is true that there is a corner called the Le Mans chicane at Daytona International Speedway in Daytona Beach, Florida, the other namesake speedway that holds a major 24-hour sports car race as you well know.
Freddie Hunt has his elbows out, look, and a little argy bargy between he and Mikey Benham. Hunt up to third. Trouble for Jon Brownson at the exit of the Gord Chicane! Brownson has hit the wall after contact with the #44 Honda NSX GT3 of Jens Moller. That is the first of the three Honda's entered in GT3 for GMB Motorsport. Oof! Synchronized spinning, and both spin and poor old Brownson has hit the wing on the... boom! Oof! Double oof in fact. A good battle simmering now in LMP3 for 12th place. Felipe Fernandez Laser, the German driver in the #30 Frikadelli Racing Team Ligier racing with Luis Sanjuan in the #40 Graff Racing Ligier sharing with fellow Swiss driver Theo Vauchet.
Another good battle up the road for eighth place between DKR Engineering's Alexander Bukhantsov in car #14 and #29 for MV2S Forestier Racing driven by Jerome de Sadeleer. DKR loses a spot into Indianapolis with their one healthy car. Felipe Fernandez Laser in the meantime looks outside passing the United Autosports car. Laser, into the chicane on the Mulsanne now makes his move on Bukhantsov as well, look. Oh dear! Somebody has had a big accident! What is going on. We'll have to have a good look at this one.
That is Jonathan Brossard in the #6 ANS Motorspott Ligier. The Frenchman has clobbered the wall and the whole front end of that car is all torn up! Nico Schatz, co-driver and team owner has a worried look on his face and understandably so. The damage is extensive. That is a rather secondhand motorcar at this point. Plus, we hope and pray Jonathan Brossard is OK. He is. He is getting out of the race car under his own steam. Thank God for that! That was a heavy impact. Quite the lick indeed. He got loose running off the road over the exit curb at Chemaine aux Boeufs and spun, clobbering the Armco on the inside.
Brossard is fine but it is game over for the ANS team. Full Course Yellow and so Arnold Robin takes the opportunity to hit the pit lane in the WRT Audi car #32. What opportunity? Scratch that. It is not for a pit stop. It is for a second drive through penalty for that team. So, the stewards must not approve of something out on track and thus, Monsieur Robin is paying for his transgression. Arnold does get a thumbs up from his brother Maxime though as consolation. But it cannot be a good day at all now for the Robin brothers. Apparently, the penalty is for not respecting the starting order.
OK. So, leading the GT3 class is Kristian Poulsen in the #55 GMB Motorsport Honda NSX GT3. Kristian Poulsen has won the 24 Hours of Le Mans before and did so in the LMP2 class a long while ago in a Porsche, a Porsche RS Spyder. Reiter Engineering pit the #76 car and Freddie Hunt finishes his stint handing the car to his Norwegian co-driver Mads Siljehaug. They pit from second place in the order while Leonard Weiss is also in the lane at the wheel of the #11 Wochenspiegel Team Monschau Duqueine M30-D08 Nissan. He takes over the car from co-driver Torsten Kratz who started the race.
Drama and damage for Frikadelli Racing Team, as the left front of their #30 Ligier is crumpled and actually torn away. Felipe Fernandez Laser runs wide out of Arnage following behind the MV2S Forestier Racing entry and drags the car against the tire wall! That was a weird one! Arnage is the slowest corner on the whole circuit here at Le Mans. I am surprised that he couldn't turn and just dragged the car along the tire barriers. That is strange. Wow! It is like Grand Central Station down at United Autosport with four of their five cars in the race, into the pit lane for service, simultaneously! This is going to be interesting to watch. Five cars fueling up, simultaneously.
Deja vu all over again, as Yogi Berra would say, for Mads Siljehaug. He was leading in race one when he took over the car from Freddie Hunt, and today in race two, it is the same story. Hunt is being harried now by Leonard Weiss from WTM. We move back to the battle for third as well as this one is simmering nicely, thank you. Tom Dillman is now running behind Duncan Tappy. Tappy driving the Cool Racing #25 he shares with Mike Benham. The safety car is deployed. For the first time ever, we are seeing the H24 hydrogen prototype race here at Le Mans.
Stephane Richelmi is driving the car, the Monegasque driver. What is up in GT3 land? Well, Casper Jensen is leading in the class for Honda and GMB Motorsport ahead of Fabio Babini in the Porsche for Ebimotors. Maxime Robin in the Audi for WRT is in third place. We are set to go green before this race ends. Mads Siljehaug leading with Leonard Weiss in hot pursuit. The third-place battle is hard fought. Duncan Tappy running ahead of race one winner, Tom Dillmann. Duncan Tappy has a lot of experience. Three wide down the Mulsanne straight! Tappy over on the hard shoulder, across the white line and he makes the pass on Mads Siljehaug.
Tappy went one way while Siljehaug went the other and Tom Dillman too, he is not out of the game yet either. He still wants a piece of the action, a bite of the cherry. Josh Skelton running fourth, he finished second in race one on Thursday. This is Saturday, just before the 24 Hours of Le Mans is set to take place. Dillman runs wide and he is a jolly lucky chap to pass Leonard Weiss but is still in no man's land, certainly. Josh Skelton pulls out to pick up the slipstream from car #11. That is Weiss at the controls of course. Josh Skelton will also pass. We have a note from Race Control atop the screen and apparently, two cars have been pinged by the stewards for speeding in the pit lane.
So, the #19 Leipert Motorsports Lamborghini Huracan GT3 with the American duo of Greg Gorski and Gerhard Watzinger will be penalized. We are used to seeing them campaigning Lamborghini's, if I remember right, in SRO GT World Challenge Europe and in the Creventic 24 Hour Series. The other car getting caught for speeding, is the #44, the GMB Motorsport Honda NSX GT3! Jens Moller and co-driver Gustav Birch will have their race ruined by that! Not good. You must be very cautious with how you physically set the pit lane speed limiter in the car, or these things can happen when you least expect them.
Leonard Weiss makes a move on Josh Skelton and moves to fourth spot. Duncan Tappy now leads this motor race as we are approaching the finish here at Circuit de la Sarthe. CD, Sport, DKR, Engineering, Cool Racing, and the rest are battling like crazy. GT3 is just as closely contested, and now, the #99 Bullitt Racing Aston Martin passes the #46 Ebimotors Porsche. That is a pass by Valentin Haase-Clot on Fabio Babini. Casper Jensen, too, under tremendous pressure from Maxime Robin. Robin pushing with all he's worth to pass the Honda. Robin is trying around the outside into Mulsanne corner. Will he be able to make it stick? No dice. Jensen keeps him at bay.
The leaders in LMP3 are headed for the Ford Chicane for the last time, awaiting the checkered flag. Victory in Road to Le Mans race two for Duncan Tappy and Mikey Benham! Wow! Cool Racing win Road To Le Mans! GMB win in GT3 for Honda!
Overall/LMP3: #25 Benham/Tappy Cool Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GT3: #55 Jensen/Poulsen GMB Motorsport Honda NSX GT3
Jensen and Poulsen top the points standings once again as Duncan Tappy and Mikey Benham. Benham is an amateur driver, and he has won at Le Mans! He has won at the greatest racetrack in the world. Mads Siljehaug and Freddie Hunt finish second while third place goes to the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier of Tom Dillmann and Alexander Matshcull. The next race is back in Italy at the Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, the "Temple of Speed" in Italy, another of the world's great motor racing palaces. Au revoir from Le Mans.
We'll see you at Monza everybody. Bye bye.
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