Ciao a tutti. Once again, we are racing in Italy, at another fabled motor racing circuit. That said, this time, we are at Italy's first racing circuit. The Autodromo Nazionale di Monza, located near Milan. It is time for yet another Le Mans Cup race to commence, in support of the European Le Mans Series, after the championship had a doubleheader of standalone sprint events to support the 24 Hours of Le Mans at Circuit de la Sarthe last time out. At Monza, "The Cathedral of Speed" or interchangeably, the "Temple of Speed", we enter the second half of the 2022 Le Mans Cup season. So, it is coming down to crunch time insofar as championships and so on.
This is going to be a mega race. Check it out. Drivers are racing through the greenery of a national park here at Monza. This a great track and fun to drive, and like Le Mans and Inola, this is a special place. Ascari curve is one of the biggest overtaking places. Let's have a look at the points standings, at least first off in the LMP3 class. Right now, this is how everything stands.
1. #10 Racing Spirit of Leman CHE. 49 points
2. #69 Cool Racing CHE. 31 points
3. #7 Nielsen Racing GBR. 25 points
4. #23 United Autosports GBR. 24 points
5. #29 MV2S Forestier Racing FRA. 23 points
6. #11 WTM Racing GER. 21 points
That is the top six, separated by only 28 points and some even closer separations between third and sixth place. Here are the GT3 points as well.
1. #55 GMB Motorsport DNK. 59 points
2. #44 GMB Motorsport DNK. 51 points
3. #99 Bullitt Racing ESP. 45 points
4. #46 Ebimotors ITA. 44 points
5. #88 GMB Motorsport DNK. 32 points
6. #61 AF Corse ITA. 30 points
Davide Oldani, a great, five-star rated Michelin chef (no, not the tire company but a different entity altogether) I believe, gave LMP3 driver Freddie Hunt, a lesson in Italian cooking. Freddie Hunt grows his own vegetables and raises meat as well. So, let's see what they have here. OK. Whatever itis, it looks delicious. Three or four ingredients. Buratta, lemon, and mint. This looks like an appetizer or something. I wish I knew what it was. Freddie shows Davide his Ligier LMP3 car. He knows of Ligier from their days in Formula 1. Oh, Davide! Maybe stick with cooking. I think you are a tad too tall for the race car, mate.
Freddie Hunt shows Davide Oldani the paddle shifter on the car and is going to let Davide take the car out for a lap on the circuit! Now, that's fun!
Felipe Laser was driving a GTE car in the European Le Mans Series, last year, a Porsche 911. This year he is racing LMP3 for Frikadelli Racing. It is his first season in a prototype racing series, and he says there are still some unknowns. However, he seems to be adjusting well to the LMP3 car. Frikadelli Racing and their LMP3 team are starting right from scratch but they are learning. Laser says that he is learning well. He is discussing braking with the team and says he wants to get the right input and find the time to be consistent and competitive with the other LMP3 teams. A great objective.
Now, Emmanuele Busnelli in the #46 Ebimotors Porsche 911 GT3R, he will take us around the track here at Monza, the man who won one of the two races in the doubleheader at Le Mans the last time we were with you covering the Le Mans Cup. Let's go for a ride with Emmanuele Busnelli. Down the straightaway, we start the lap in sixth gear. We are traveling at least 170 kilometers an hour into the first corner, the Variante del Rettifilio. Through the chicane and then go all the way back up to fifth gear. This is through Curva Grande, Variante della Roggia, and heading towards the Lesmo's.
Stay to the left to avoid the bumps through the Lesmo's. Accelerate into the Lesmo's. Fourth gear, the second one is easier. Onto another short straightaway before hitting Curva del Serraglio. Brake at the 120 meter mark for the Ascari chicanes named after Formula 1 World Champion, the late, great Ferrari driver, Alberto Ascari. Up into third gear, and then fourth gear. Punch it, down another long straightaway setting up for the next corner which is the most difficult one on the entire circuit here at Autodromo Nazionale di Monza. This is the final corner, turn 11, Curva Parabolica.
Brake at 50 meters, downshift from sixth to third gear, up to fourth, feeding it into the corner and crossing the start/finish line to begin another lap here at Monza. There's your lap. We are just about set to go for a start here at Monza. The anticipation is building for a great one. We will run 1 hour and 50 minutes duration in this event after the previous races at Le Mans were split into two 55-minute events. Freddie Hunt and Reiter Engineering have pole position in LMP3, the #76 Ligier the Briton is sharing with Norwegian driver Mads Siljehaug.
In GT3, Emmanuele Busnelli and the home team of Ebimotors, they are on pole in the Porsche. Busnelli sharing the driving chores alongside fellow Italian Fabio Babini. Round five of the Michelin Le Mans Cup for 2022 here at Monza, is go! Freddie Hunt paces the field and Emmanuele Busnelli on pole in GT3 in the Ebimotors Porsche. Freddie Hunt holds the lead over Jerome de Sadeleer in the MV2S Forestier Racing Ligier, car #29. The Swiss driver starts the race and will hand over later on to French co-driver Louis Rousset. It looks like we have a clean start so far here at Monza even in the GT3 field towards the back.
They fly two by two through Curva Grande for the first time of asking. Trouble for Steve Parrow in the Rinaldi Racing entry. That is car #66 Parrow shares with Daniel Keilwitz, two German drivers, or at least one in Parrow, who holds a German racing license even if I think he is British. Keilwitz is a native of Germany. Parrow misses the chicane and now the marshals, the orange army, goes to retrieve a big chunk of debris off the racing line. Marshals have had lots of experience of cleaning up debris after lap one, turn one contretemps here at Monza. Formula 1, sports cars, other open wheel championship, touring cars, you name it.
Steve Parrow again, look, is in a world of trouble, losing the right front fender off his LMP3 car. There had to be contact someplace as we see it all again, in slow motion. Car #3, the DKR Engineering Duqueine M30-D08 Nissan, Jon Brownson at the wheel of it, the America has spun into the gravel trap, in big, big trouble. Hopefully he hasn't beached it. There was a huge dust cloud obscuring the car while he was taking an unplanned turn on the whirligig. Full Course Yellow. Safety Car deployed. The marshals will have to rescue poor old Jon Brownson from that sticky situation. Freddie Hunt leads this motor race as Steve Parrow makes his way back to the pit and the team changes the nose on his #66 Duqueine as we speak.
Jon Brownson has also made his way back to the DKR Engineering pit. Safety Car in this lap according to the Race Director over the radio. Green flag flies again. Just over an hour and a half of racing still to go as Freddie Hunt tries his best to be the king of the late brakers into Curva Grande and misses it by a mile. Well, well, well. He has improperly gained an advantage over Jerome de Sadeleer and so the stewards shall bring him to pit lane for a drive through penalty, I am sure of it. Jerome de Sadeleer has heat in the Michelin tires and he is going to pass Hunt as we speak. Hunt on the inside line but it doesn't matter as de Sadeleer makes his move to the lead.
So, MV2S Forestier Racing now are at the top of the shop. But there is trouble, look, for the Revere Coffee sponsored #22 United Autosport entry. It is stopped on course. This is the all-Australian duo of Andres Latorre and Garnet Patterson in trouble and Latorre is driving the car for the opening stanza of the race. Safety car dispatched, again, and Latorre is not alone. We look in replay at Variante del Rettifilo, and through the dust cloud we can see the #57 Graff Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan tangled up in this incident as well, being piloted by Stephan Rupp from Switzerland. Rupp is sharing that car with British driver Ryan Harper-Ellam.
Safety car in this lap. Now, let's see if we can't get some clear racing. Jerome de Sadeleer leads the motor race ahead of Freddie Hunt. Now, settle down, lads. We don't want any more argy bargy and any more safety cars and are looking for some clean, green flag racing here at Monza. Still an hour and a half on the board. We've only run for 30 minutes to this point I think, and in that time, we have had two safety car scrambles already. Oh, good grief! What did I just get through saying? Settle down! Criminy! This is dodge 'em car stuff. A yellow LMP3 car has spun at the back of the queue. One of the United Autosport entries has spun the #13 Haegeli by T2 Racing Duqueine. That is their traditional livery.
The red and predominantly yellow car, or, as I call it, from seeing them with a Porsche in other championships like the Creventic 24 Hour Series, the "berries and custard" car. Pieder Decurtins, the German, is hung up on the curb in the Rettifilo or the Curva Grande. He's a lucky bloke and still has fire in the hole and avoids the gravel trap continuing on his merry way. No harm no foul. Poor old Decurtins is now trapped among the GT3 cars and will have to work his way back up the order. Under the classic banking here at Monza we have a car smoking. Do you mind if I smoke? If you insist. Well, this looks like tire smoke, and fender damage on the right front of an LMP3.
Deary me. That's the #20 Optimum Motorsport Duqueine. The full-season, all-British entry of Mark Crader and Alex Mortimer. Crader at the controls is doing all he can with a cut down tire and with bodywork damage to the automobile. That's tire rub and a damaged right front corner of the car. That's looking pretty ugly as poor old Crader is headed for the lane to have the pit crew fix the damage. They will have to either pull the fender away from the tire or better yet just slap a whole new nose cone on that race car. He's a lucky luck boy to have the pit box right at pit in so the crew can pounce on the car and fix the damage instantaneously.
More trouble in LMP3. Nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows my sorrow. Ugh! This is a musical reference to the great African American spiritual song covered by the likes of Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Harry James, Paul Robeson, and Sam Cooke. Looking for a positive light during this race as we have seen spins and other incidents all over the place. Alexander Bukhanstov is off the road for DKR Engineering as well, scurrying his way through the escape road. Freddie Hunt too is slithering off onto the escape road which leads me to surmise someone has dropped oil or a form of fluid on the road. There is a car with a sick motor, transmission, or radiator or something, puking fluid all over the course. Bukhantsov skidded into the grass. Look at the dust all over the shop. Goodness me. This is a right old mess.
John Schauermann, the American driver in the #23 United Autosport Ligier has spun in the Parabolica. Full Course Yellow, understandably. Poor old Schauermann had to take evasive action and in doing so got it wrong and just barely touches the gravel trap. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Full Course Yellow removed as Schauermann and co-driver Wayne Boyd are out of the race here at Monza with the #23 United Autosport entry being craned away. Game over. Green, green, green. Go man, go! Jerome de Sadeleer leads ahead of Freddie Hunt and you know that Hunt is going to be on top of de Sadeleer and right on his six, soon.
Hunt is pushing and he pushes hard enough that he is in the gravel trap at least with two wheels. Oh dear. Let's not do anything silly! This is a major indulgence in rallycross for Freddie Hunt and finally gets onto the pavement at the Lesmo's. Good grief! That was a wild ride. How to turn your LMP3 car into a bucking bronco. Talk about a driver with alarm bells ringing, seeing red during that little fracas with the gravel going off the road! That was Freddie Hunt right then and there. In the GT3 class it is one of the GMB Honda's, the #55 entry that is leading the class. So, that is the Kristian Poulsen, Kasper Jensen driven machine.
Poulsen at the wheel, he won the Road to Le Mans race at Le Mans on Saturday morning. Watch out! Frikadelli Racing on the inside Klaus Abbelen is going for a ride! Locks up under braking for Variante del Rettifilo, and skitters across the track wildly. Boom, bang, right over the curbs. Again, another lucky save as he misses clobbering Rob Hodes in the #33 Team Virage Ligier the American is sharing with Guatemalan driver Ian Rodriguez again this weekend. Good battle in the braking zone now with 40 minutes on the board, between Valentino Cattalano and Christoph Cresp. Catalano, the German licensed Italian sharing the #53 RLR M Sport Ligier with Simon Butler of England, this weekend.
Catalano makes a clean pass and gets it right under braking for Variante del Rettifilo. Cresp is driving he sister car to the leader for MV2S Forestier Racing. That is the #28 he is sharing with Emilien Carde in an all-French lineup. More trouble at Variante della Roggia as Stephen Pattrick spins the #99 Bullitt Racing Aston Martin he shares with Valentin Hasse-Clot. Patrick finds himself going into the corner a little too hot and avoids contact but does not avoid getting buried in the gravel. Aston Martin struggling with weight in the Balance of Performance this weekend but the Honda's for GMB Motorsport seem to be running in fine shape. Kristian Poulsen leads the motor race in GT3.
Christophe Cresp has Jacques Wolff all over him and now, I do believe the pressure was way too much for poor old Cresp as Cresp is slowing! This can't be driver error. It looks like there is some kind of mechanical malady on that Ligier. Oh shucks. Cresp has crawled to a complete stop. Well, ye olde plot doth thicken, look. Again, like the spiritual hymn, nobody knows the trouble I've seen. Nobody knows my sorrow. Cresp will be frustrated. More trouble? Yup. Si senore. More trouble and this time it is the Bullitt Racing Aston Martin! Oh fiddlesticks, eh? Steven Pattrick was just rescued from the Lesmo's and now, he's caught up in the gravel trap at Variante della Roggia. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Full Course Yellow.
Disaster for the Pattrick/and Hasse-Clot! The team have just heard from Pattrick on the radio saying "I've gone off, again." They throw their hands in the air from their pit box thinking, "what do we have to do?!" The Aston Martin will be winched away to retirement and everyone else will be trundling 'round behind the safety car at 80 clicks. Honda NSX #88 for GMB Motorsport in the lane for a driver change. This is the Lars Engelbreckt Pedersen and Mikkel Pedersen car. Everyone is diving in. GMB have three cars in the race and the deal is that they must get the right tires on the right car, even though all three look so similar with their red and black paint schemes, or they will be disqualified, excluded from the race results by the stewards if they don't.
#44 to the lane leading GT3. #88 has its own tires and now the #44 car must also have its own tires and not the set of skins intended for the #55 car. Such are the pitfalls of running three identical GT3 cars which is exactly what GMB Motorsports are doing. Mercifully, finally the Bullitt Racing Aston Martin makes it into the lane. Stephen Pattrick hands the car off to Valentin Hasse-Clot. More cars coming to the lane as we have the call from the Race Director to go back to green flag conditions here at Monza. The GT3 battle now sees Kasper Jensen trying his best to stay ahead of Fabio Babini. GMB Honda vs. Ebimotors Porsche and now, there is a stationary car on the side of the road! That is another LMP3 entry.
That is the Team Virage car of Ian Rodriguez, the aforementioned Guatemalan driver. Rodriguez in the #33 Ligier sharing with American Rob Hodes of course. Marshals vigorously waving the yellow flags on the run down to the Parabolica and hence why the drivers smartly backed out of the throttle instead of foolishly continuing to scrap for position, the Honda and the Porsche. One of the United Autosport LMP3 cars is going to try passing both of these dueling GT3 cars. Three wide into the braking zone with the LMP3 car on the outside! This could get messy! The Honda stays ahead of the Porsche while Max Lynn in the #2 United Autosport Ligier sharing with fellow Englishman Matthew Haddon, has to back off the gas a wee bit.
Full Course Yellow. Th ehavy wrecker, the crank tow truck has been sent to rescue Ian Rodriguez because that LMP3 racer is going nowhere fast. Again, everyone is limited to only 80 kilometers an hour while the circuit is under Full Course Yellow conditions. The rescue truck comes down along the hedge row separating the racetrack from the back of the paddock area here at Monza. Rodriguez somehow found the fire in the belly of the beast before the truck needed to rescue it. Without doubt he'll head for the pit lane. How bizarre this all is. You couldn't scripted this race. There's just no way.
No different than when you are on the motorway and your car breaks down and you need the break down truck and then the car decides by hook or by crook it will get running again under it's own steam. More trouble and it's GMB Motorsport and the leader in GT3, the #44 Honda NSX GT3 of Jens Moller! Oh man! He's stuck in the gravel with no power and has to be winched away by the crane as you see the marshals reaching in and mounting the cherry picker to the roof of the car. This is at the Ascari chicane where he is buried. At the same time, the marshals continue recovering debris.
Was there contact? He is buried. Tom Dillman goes around Louis Rousset and then comes back and takes the lead of the race as Rousset has to defend. We are within the final half hour of the race and of course Racing Spirit of Leman came in 1-2 last time out at Road to Le Mans at Circuit de la Sarthe. Now, the #73 LMP3 car is stopped on track. That is the TS Corse Duqueine M30-D08 Nissan piloted by Pietro Peccenini of Italy and Indian driver Parth Ghorpade. Ghorpade in the car, being craned away at Variante della Roggia.
In GT3, a battle for second place with absolutely nothing in it. Fabio Babini making his move on Kasper Jensen! Babini goes to the inside and gets the job done! Into the race's final ten minutes and things are really beginning to heat up as we race to the checkers here at Monza! Leonard Weiss for WTM Racing, the German, being chased down by Josh Skelton for Racing Spirit of Leman in the sister car for the Swiss team, the #43. Oh no! More trouble! The #53 LMP3 car has spun and high sided the curb. That is the #53 RLR MSport Ligier of Simon Butler. Backed up into the gravel is Butler. He is stranded with rear wheels in the gravel trap.
Five minutes to go before the race is over and the 2-hour time limit expires. So, I have my doubts that we are going to see more green flag action today at Monza. I think we are going to see this race end under yellow. #53 is efficiently craned away. Two minutes left on the clock. I stand corrected, and we shall see what might amount to a one lap dash for cash! Man, oh man! Cinch down those belts and get ready. This is going to be off the wall! Josh Skelton takes a big lunge on the outside of Leonard Weiss and makes the move stick! Weiss is struggling. Here comes LMP2 veteran Charles Milesi in the #9 AT Racing Team Ligier. Milesi, the Frenchman, sharing with Alexander Talkinitsa Sr. from Austria.
Milesi squeezes by Weiss for fourth and now Weiss is off the road! He is in no man's land over the dirt! He runs out wide in the Lesmo's and thankfully gets back on track without hitting the signboards, the brake markers! With that off course excursion, Weiss drops to fifth place. Tom Dillman and Alexander Matschull who won the season opener at Paul Ricard in Le Castellet, France, could very well be on their way to a second win of the 2022 Le Mans Cup season here at the Cathedral of Speed at Monza. They won the first race at Le Mans and have now won Monza! Their third win of the year. GMB Honda #88 wins GT3!
Overall/LMP3: #10 Dillmann/Matschull Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GT3: #88 Pedersen/Pedersen GMB Motorsport Honda NSX GT3
Finishing second, MV2S Forestier Racing and the second Racing Spirit of Leman entry finishing in third. The GT3 podium has the #88 GMB Motorsport Honda winning followed home by the sister car and Bullitt Racing with the Aston Martin on the podium even with the twists and turns of their race today. There is a two month break between races. However, we will have the next race for you, soon as the points lead for Racing Spirit of Leman is over 30 going into the last couple races of the year.
In the GT3 points, with their win, Pedersen and Pedersen are now within 20 points of their teammates in the #55 Honda NSX GT3 who lead the championship table. Next up, we will have coverage of the next race which took place in September at another speed palace, Spa Francorchamps in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium. We'll see you soon for that race, and don't forget, coming up, European Le Mans Series action, from right here at Monza. Arriva derci for now. See you for the ELMS race in a wee while. Take care, everybody.
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