We have reached the halfway point in the 2023 European Le Mans Series season. Welcome, to the baking hot desert of Aragon in Spain. We are looking forward to a great race and before we get started, we have another driver profile. This time it is Danish LMP3 star Malthe Jakobsen. For Malthe, family is his priority. For Jakobsen, a way to recharge the batteries after a race is going for a run or a walk in the middle of nature. Ah. A man after my own heart. Sports car racing is one hobby as I am sitting here, watching, observing, writing about it. But taking walks to enjoy nature’s splendor is another part of life I too find inspiring and satisfying.
It is good for your mind to get away from the racetrack to clear your mind and when you come back to racing you are a completely different person. Malthe Jakobsen is a young charger in our championship, driving for Cool Racing in LMP2, at age 19. Car #37 is the one he drives. Being at the racetrack, you have two families. One family is his mother and father, and he has a good relationship with his mom. It is important to have something else to think about away from the track. Malthe’s mom, Anette, says she cannot give her son tips about the race, but is very supportive of her son.
When he is at the track it is like Cool Racing is another family. It is time for a team debrief after the summer break has concluded. Cool Racing Sporting Director Anthony Megevand is speaking to Malthe Jakobsen about expectations for how the race weekend ought to turn out. He knows Jakobsen will get into the game. There are no excuses in racing, even if you are a young driver getting your feet wet in the top category. It is expected of you to perform and to be on the same level as your co-drivers and your competitors.
Malthe’s mother is proud of what he can do on the racetrack. Your family must be supportive if you want to go racing. This is the first time the European Le Mans Series is racing at Motorland Aragon. So, it is time for a track walk with Job van Uitert, driver for Panis Racing in LMP2, to find out the ins and outs of MotorLand Aragon. Job is showing us his favorite turns on the circuit and the first one he points out one of the corners (I don’t think he specifies exactly which), is critical insofar as carrying speed straight through and slowing gradually to set up the exit of the turn.
The exit is the pivotal point. OK. That is turn five. From there, focus on corners six and seven. Now, we walk a tad farther up the road and are examining corners eight and nine. Eight and nine is a double apex chicane that is downhill. Nine is a blind corner, a long lefthand turn, and on the inside, there are “bananas” which are these yellow rumble strips on the inside of the circuit that you don’t want to hit in an LMP2 car. Once again, corner exit is critical to build speed onto the backstretch. Turn 16 is the final corner on the circuit here at MotorLand Aragon.
16 is the slowest turn on the whole track but the cars arrive at it at the highest sustained speed. The benefit here will be the ability to overtake, and once again, the corner exit is pivotal. It is not easy as you stand on the accelerator, but there are two kinks and to get the drive out of the final turn, tire management particularly on the rear tires, will be something to be aware of. Aragon is a night race. What is it like? What will be different for the drivers. Driving at night is a tradition in endurance sports car racing. But it is not often you have a sprint event fully at night.
This will be different to a race like the 24 Hours of Le Mans for instance. United Autosports driver Oliver Jarvis loves driving at night and being in the dark and one with the race car. It is very different from driving in the daytime. It is difficult. Focus and references are crucial. Louis Deletraz says you must have all your corner references memorized because they appear differently in the darkness than in the daylight. Brake markers are helpful according to Neel Jani. If you miss a corner, don’t get out in the gravel.
Try to find references at night if you can. There is less of a visual approach. Rely on your senses, says driver Gael Julien who races in LMP3 in the #15 RLR MSport Ligier. It is a wild, rollercoaster ride. In the #15 car, Gael Julien of France is sharing with co-drivers Horst Felbermayr Jr. of Austria and Mateusz Kapryzk of Poland. The mechanics on the race teams are just as important as the drivers. Very much like at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, we will now see a pit-stop competition and see how quick the mechanics are in doing their job of servicing the cars as quickly and efficiently as possible. The rules of the TotalEnergies pit stop challenge are very simple.
All ELMS categories are eligible. Each car will see three mechanics change four tires in the fastest possible time. So, it is up to the air wand/air jack operator and the mechanics with the rattle guns, the air impact guns, to change the tires. There is no practice. Each team gets only one shot at it. Let’s go. We can see how athletic the pit crews are, ducking and diving to install the tires and then, the man with the air jack pulls the hose out and gets the car back onto the deck. Sports cars of course, have built in air jack systems unlike say a stock car or a Formula 1 car.
Who are the fastest pit crews in each class? Here are the winners. GMB Motorsports wins the GTE category with the fastest pit time. In LMP3 it is Ultimate. In LMP2 the winners are IDEC Sport. These three crews will have some serious bragging rights as the race weekend continues here in Spain. The race is coming up soon. But before you can race, you must qualify. So, qualifying highlights are coming your way, right now. Let’s get into it.
We are focusing on the effort of Algarve Pro Racing, one of the top teams in the LMP2 class. The crew chief at APR is giving his driver instructions for moving to the working lane in the pit lane to prepare for a hot lap. We hear conversations about the brakes and the driver is concerned during his qualifying run that the rear brakes are not working properly. The temperatures on the rear brakes are high. James Allen wisely stops on course. The concern for him and for the team is that the rear brakes are on fire.
There is nothing more fearsome to any racing driver in any discipline of motor racing than fire. Alex Lynn is told that he is not starting the car. He asks, “why not?” and the crewmember tells him, “Well, the fastest driver in Free Practice has to start if you don’t set a qualifying time.” Team boss at Algarve Pro, Stewart Cox is talking about the braking problem. “When he has taken his foot off the pedal, the cylinder is not, the piston has not come back enough to release the fluid.”
So, Algarve Pro are dealing with a brake master cylinder issue. “It’s not an issue to fix it. It’s easy. But this is a bleeping disaster for the team!” says Cox. Race Engineer David Leach says there was an initial report of a lack of engine power. But in the final analysis the true issue was a braking problem of some kind. The team is not sure what caused it and will not know until they get the car back to the garage to analyze everything. Algarve Pro did not rejoin the qualifying session and the incident brought out a red flag as the #25 car was craned away.
If a driver causes a red flag, their qualifying times are deleted, and they cannot continue in the session. That is the penalty. Race morning, and it is time for the driver autograph session. Thousands of fans checking out the machinery on the grid. Before we get underway, here is the class-by-class rundown of how qualifying worked out. Martin Berry earned the GTE class pole aboard the #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE.
1. #66 Berry/Hanafin/Lancaster JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE 1:57.022
2. #50 Laursen/Laursen/Nielsen Formula Racing Ferrari 488 GTE 1:57.263
3. #16 Hardwick/Picariello/Robichon Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 1:57.375
In the LMP3 class, American Wyatt Brichacek scored the pole aboard the #13 Inter Europol Competition.
1. #13 Brichacek/Askey/Cristovao Inter Europol Competition Ligier JS P320 Nissan 1:52.269
2. #31 Doquin/Wolff/Foubert Racing Spirit of Leman Ligier JS P320 Nissan 1:52.590
3. #8 Adcock/Espirito Santo/Jensen Team Virage Ligier JS P320 Nissan 1:52.616
Here’s the top three in LMP2 Pro-Am.
1. #34 Deletraz/Eastwood/Yoluc Racing Team Turkey Oreca 07 1:49.361
2. #99 Ried/Roda/Bruni Proton Competition Oreca 07 1:49.682
3. #24 Beche/Hanley/Sales Nielsen Racing Oreca 07 1:49.859
In LMP2, the fastest man in Free Practice, Phil Hanson, claimed the overall pole honors for United Autosport aboard their #22 Oreca 07.
1. #22 Hanson/Jarvis/Sato United Autosports USA Oreca 07 1:46.822
2. #30 Binder/Jani/Pino Duqueine Team Oreca 07 1:46.850
3. #43 Aberdein/Andrade/Caldwell Inter Europol Competition Oreca 07 1:46.901
The grid is set. It is time for the National Anthem of Spain before we get started, played by a marching band, a concert band. Alright. The anthem has been played, and the drivers are gearing up for the opening stint. Let’s go racing at Aragon! The engines have fired up and it is time to go racing. It is the first time the European Le Mans Series has raced at MotorLand Aragon. Phil Hanson, on the pole. Nico Pino on the outside of the front row. Rui Andrade in third place flanked by Vadislav Lomko. 42 cars in what the late, great racing broadcaster Ken Squier called an Oklahoma land rush to the first turn! James Allen at Algarve Pro starting caboose on the field.
So far so good as everyone has gotten through turns one and two cleanly. The circuit is 3.321 miles long. JMW holds the lead in the GTE class as Phil Hanson is extending his lead out front. He is motoring ahead of Nico Pino and Rui Andrade. Vadislav Lomko for Cool Racing is hanging on to fourth spot. They dive through turns eight and nine and onto the backstretch for the first time. Just as we saw at Paul Ricard in France, the same holds true here at Aragon where the draft, the slipstream, will be a massive component to the racing today.
Inter Europol Competition leading in the LMP3 division. Ferrari 1-2 in GTE with Kessel Racing leading Formula Racing, and in third is the Proton Competition Porsche. Phil Hanson for United Autosport is charging ahead of the Duqueine Team #30 car of Nico Pino. Rui Andrade is sizing up a pass. The Angolan driver getting after it early doors. This circuit here at Aragon is scenic and the heat is scorching in the daytime. In midsummer here in Spain, even in the darkness, it will still be hot. We have a new LMP3 leader. Adam Ali aboard the #11 Eurointernational Ligier JS P320 Nissan has taken the class lead, the Canadian, sharing with Matt Bell from England.
Someone has lost some bodywork someplace. Losing the bodywork is the worst thing because that will take aerodynamic efficiency off the car and reduce the high speeds we are seeing on the straightaways. Claudio Schiavoni is taking the first stint aboard the bright yellow #60 Iron Lynx Porsche 911 RSR-19. Schiavoni is running 11th in class with Ferrari’s running 1-2 in the GTE standings currently. The #57 CarGuy/Kessel Racing Ferrari tags the #93 Proton Competition Porsche. Yikes! Michael Fassbender at the wheel of the Porsche, the Irish actor turned race car driver.
They climb to the highest point of the circuit as we go onboard with James Allen, slicing through the field. As we spoke about earlier before the race began, Algarve Pro had brake issues in qualifying which led to them bringing out a red flag and copping a penalty for doing so, having all their qualifying times deleted from the record, and therefore, they have been playing catch up in the opening moments. Lots of cars between them and their rivals in LMP2.
In LMP3, Eurointernational continues to lead. In GTE, there is a lead change as the #50 Formula Racing Ferrari takes with, with Johnny Laursen at the wheel. The JMW Ferrari in second followed by both Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR’s with Ryan Hardwick latching right onto the back of Michael Fassbender. Let me correct myself. Hardwick is ahead of Fassbender. We go onboard another Porsche, with Claudio Schiavoni and we can see there is rain in the distance and already water droplets on the windscreen.
We are expecting to race into the hot night here at MotorLand Aragon but had no idea there’d be rain. Rain is something we’d expect at our next race at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium, surely. A lead change in LMP2 Pro-Am, look, as Salih Yoluc gets divebombed around the outside by Giorgio Roda putting Proton Competition ahead of Racing Team Turkey. 20 minutes now on the board and even more trouble for Michael Fassbender! He has spun and is now facing the wrong way. Has the Irishman hit the wall? It looks like the front end of the Porsche is perfectly OK. This needs a closer inspection.
There had to be contact because you don’t spin coming off the final turn and get spat that far across the road. Yellow flags imminent at least local yellows. Ah. Nico Pino in the #30 Duqueine Engineering car made contact. Fassbender had nowhere to go except… crunch! right into the barriers. I dramatize it a wee bit because it was just the smallest touch on the barriers in all honesty. James Allen has made up 34 places in just 28 minutes of racing and is now harrying the eighth-place car, the #34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca 07 in the hands of Salih Yoluc.
We just saw, moments ago, Yoluc being passed for the LMP2 Pro-Am class lead by Giorgio Roda. Allen will tuck into the slipstream on the backstretch and try going for the pass. The only difference in the two LMP2 classes is driver rating. All the cars are identical specification. Bravery will be exercised under braking at the end of the kilometer long backstretch. Allen sees his chance. Halfway down the straight an Allen is gaining on Yoluc. Yoluc knows Allen is there as Allen pulls out to attempt the pass. He saw James Allen has the speed and Allen makes the pass.
Yoluc gives it up and does not fight the Australian. Allen is now chasing down Giorgio Roda, the Italian, who is the LMP2 Pro-Am class leader. This pass on Roda will be wash, rinse, repeat from the one Allen made on Yoluc a lap earlier. Roda sticks to the racing line and gives it up. James Allen is not the bloke he is worried about. Roda is scrapping it out with Yoluc for the Pro-Am LMP2 lead. In sports car racing it is the cars and drivers within your own class you are concerned about and if someone in a different class is faster, you let them go and don’t fight them.
So, James Allen is now running seventh. Johnny Laursen and Martin Berry are still battling for the GTE class lead. In fact, it is a battle of the tpp fourt with three Ferrari’s and one Porsche. Johnny Laursen, Martin Berry, Ryan Hardwick, and Takeshi Kimura. Ryan Hardwick is the only Porsche in the top three, so the boys from Stuttgart are not having the race they wanted thus far. In the meantime, the LMP2 pit stops are underway. James Allen continues making progress and is up to seventh place in the overall. The four-way battle for the GTE lead rages on. Johnny Laursen and Formula Racing are still ahead, and the only positional change is Ryan Hardwick going around Takeshi Kimura.
So, Proton Competition Porsche passes Kessel Racing Ferrari. Racing Team Turkey pit from second in LMP2 Pro-Am as Phil Hanson also makes a scheduled stop. He is doing a double stint as United now leads Duqueine in LMP2. Almost 40 minutes of racing completed and in GTE Ryan Hardwick remains the sole Porsche in the lead group in the GTE class surrounded by a sea of Ferrari’s. Martin Berry decides he does not want to play anymore and sneaks to the inside of Johnny Laursen going for the lead!
He can’t quite get there and Laursen closes the door. As this quartet squabble amongst themselves, we now see a new contender entering the frame, one of the TF Sport Aston Martin’s. GTE cars have about 20 minutes before their first scheduled pit stops and so this battle will rage and could be the best battle we see on the road for now. Or, maybe, the LMP2 battle will top it. You haven’t missed anything as the scrap is between Phil Hanson and Rui Andrade. The gap between the British driver and the Angolan driver is only 6/10ths of a second.
Rui Andrade is staying in touch will Phil Hanson pulling the gears and steering around the fast sweepers before going through the downhill chicane that we touched on in the track walk as being a critical overtaking place. One of the slowest points on the circuit, believe it or not, builds up to one of the fastest. Rui Andrade can pick up a slight tow on Hanson. Sports cars do not have DRS (Drag Reduction System), like Formula 1 cars do, where an extra wing element can open at a certain speed. Hanson focused on staying in front. Andrade wants a bite of the cherry but is not close enough.
There’s nothing in it. Tenths of a second on a two-minute lap. Nearly an hour into the race, the 57-minute mark and poor old James Allen spun while in hot pursuit of the traffic. Just too much curb and it sends him spinning off the road. He is asking a lot from the car as he works his way up through the entire field. One hour into the race now, or nearly one hour, as Arnold Robin is monstering Johnny Laursen for fourth place in GTE. Robin goes through, Laursen tries fighting back but there’s contact between Laursen and one of the Inter Europol LMP2 cars!
Laursen is spinning back across the track! Laursen makes contact with Rui Andrade, the second place LMP2 car, spins, and cannons into the guardrail! Andrade is off the road as well, look. Does he have any damage? Or did he just get nerfed under braking? That was a disaster for Johnny Laursen and I’m afraid it is game over for that Ferrari. Johnny Laursen, Conrad Laursen, and Nicklas Nielsen, out of race. We might very well have a safety car for this incident. In this replay, we go onboard with Rui Andrade to see how saw this incident.
Rui Andrade passes Laursen thinking his clear, but then, suddenly… wallop! He gets hit, and spins back across the track. Truly, I don’t think Johnny Laursen ever saw him. Andrade moving over, Laursen moving out, and well, the two cars spin in opposite directions both clobbering the barriers, and this brings out a safety car. The Ferrari’s cooling system is shot. The radiators were punctured beyond repair with that massive shot into the Armco. We have another car off the road and partially buried in the gravel trap. That is the #5 RLR MSport Ligier JS P320 Nissan in the LMP3 class. Canadian driver James Dayson is at the wheel of it, sharing with Jack Manchester from England and Valdemar Eriksen of Denmark.
He was carrying too much speed into the corner, spins out, and rolls back across into the gravel trap where he is buried. What? No bucket and spade? Nope. He’s stuck. The safety car is out, again. Rui Andrade is extremely upset! He is beating the steering wheel in frustration because the steering on the #43 is not straight. It is completely cattywampus. It is game over for Inter Europol and Rui Andrade. They’re out. We are back to green flag racing now with an hour and 12 minutes of time elapsed in the race.
United Autosport car #22 leads the race over the #47 Cool Racing entry with Panis Racing in third and the Duqueine car, car #30 right on their six. 35 laps completed, 116 miles. United Autosports also runs fifth with the #23 sister car in LMP2 and IDEC Sport are in sixth place. Algarve Pro have clawed and scraped their way to seventh place working their way through LMP3 and GTE traffic. Racing Team Turkey continue leading in LMP2 Pro-Am just ahead of Team Virage. Inter Europol Competition continues to lead the way in LMP3. United Autosport has been passed by IDEC Sport on the restart. The battle is now on for second place with Nico Pino chasing, in fact almost glued to the #47 Cool Racing entry of Vadislav Lomko.
The good news for Nico Pino is that even after his earlier contact with Michael Fassbender, there is no damage to car #30. Pino is not close enough to make a move on Lomko yet. After a series of s bends, you wriggle into the final turn, pop over the brow, and fly down the long frontstretch into a big, fast left hander at the end of it. Dusk is approaching and the cars have their headlights on as we are closing in on an hour and a half of this motor race being completed. So, we could be running about half this race in the darkness here at Aragon tonight.
Vadislav Lomko in the Cool Racing car has a slight brake lockup and runs wide! The door is opened for Nico Pino and go figure, he walks right through. Lomko is under pressure from the Team Virage LMP2 Pro-Am car, not a battle for position, but the driver for Team Virage is trying to unlap himself. That is the #19 Team Virage Oreca 07 shared by Tatiana Calderon from Venezuela, Ian Rodriguez from Guatemala, and Alexander Matschull from Germany. Another round of pit stops is underway with two and a half hours of racing to go. The leading #22 United Autosport car has now run 43 laps, 143 miles. IDEC Sport, meanwhile, in the Delage liveried car, has moved up to second in LMP2.
Laurents Horr of Germany is now driving the #28 IDEC Sport Oreca he is sharing with Frenchmen Paul-Loup Chatin and Paul Lafargue. The #22 United entry continues to lead, going long on their fuel and pit strategy. #22 is now in the lane from the lead with just over two and a half hours to go. Fuel, tires and a driver change, as they have now run 44 laps, so they’ve gone a lap further, just as predicted. Meanwhile, Laurents Horr is working the traffic, and we wonder how high up the order he can get. IDEC Sport, flashing the headlights at the LMP3 traffic. Laurents Horr, the Belgian, a man on a mission. IDEC Sport in fact have taken the lead here in Spain over United Autosport.
IDEC lead United Autosport and Panis Racing in a highly eventful and entertaining first ever European Le Mans Series event in Spain. Panis Racing race ahead of both Cool Racing and Algarve Pro Racing who have made their way to the top five. With 44 laps complete, the leaders in LMP2 are shown on the screen. Laurents Horr leading Marino Sato, the Japanese driver aboard the #22 United Autosport car, by nearly 3.8 seconds. Tijmen van der Helm, the Dutchman, is in third spot, eight tenths of a second away from Marino Sato. Tijmen van der Helm has put Marino Sato under pressure and is going for the pass on the Japanese racer.
There’s just enough overlap for van der Helm to get by and so Sato has to give it up and settle back in line for now. We hear from Phil Hanson in the garage at United Autosport and he says the safety car put a damper on his gap, but he rebuilt it towards the end of his stint. He is happy with where the car is. He has the utmost confidence in co-drivers Marino Sato and Oliver Jarvis. The #93 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 is in the pit lane for service. Michael Fassbender has finished his stint and we are about to hear from him with pit lane reporter Stef Wentworth.
Before we get to the interview, it will be up to Richard Lietz, from Austria, and Estonian racer Martin Rump, Fassbender’s co-drivers, to take the car to the checkered flag. Michael Fassbender says there was a crazy move that caused him to spin, and he was stuck in fifth gear before getting moving again and he did not think he reversed enough, and his recovery drive was a lot of fun. They got lucky with the safety car. Fassbender did have fun on his recovery drive though. In racing, as in life, you take the good with the bad.
Almost halfway through the 4 Hours of Aragon and it is pit stop time. United Autosport moves into the lead with Panis Racing up to second, 3.2 seconds in-arrears. On the lap chart, 59 laps have been completed, 196 miles. Again, Algarve Pro are miraculously up to third place while Marino Sato of Japan leads the way for United Autosports. Headlights are on, the sun sinking towards the horizon, the light is fading. We will soon be in darkness here at MotorLand Aragon. In the LMP2 Pro-Am class, Charlie Eastwood, the Irishman, is at the wheel of the #34 Racing Team Turkey Oreca 07. He is chasing #83 AF Corse Oreca 07 being driven by Alessio Rovera of Italy.
So, Charlie Eastwood is looking to close in and make a pass for the LMP2 Pro-Am lead. Marino Sato is in the pit lane from the lead ar United Autosport. No tires on this stop. Fuel only, as well as a clean of the windscreen and a top up on Marino Sato’s drink bottle. United Autosport leads over IDEC Sport and IDEC Sport have already made their pit stop. IDEC Sport are halfway around the lap headed for the long back straightaway. United are still listed in the lead having now officially completed 66 laps, 219 miles. IDEC Sport pulls out of the draft and steams by the #16 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19 in GTE.
Sato is serviced and sent. Laurents Horr is beginning to catch up as Sato trundles down the lane at the posted pit lane speed limit. Sato will have clear air in front even though the IDEC Sport car will be screaming up behind him. Laurents Horr is flashing the lights at the JMW Ferrari, a car that is well down the order at this stage, which has suffered a litany of problems through the race. As the sun is setting here in Aragon we still have an hour and ¾ of this race remaining. There is a long way to go. United Autosport have expanded their gap over IDEC Sport to 7.6 seconds.
Racing Team Turkey continue to lead LMP2 Pro-Am. The battle is also hot and heavy for the LMP3 class lead with Mexican driver Alejandro Garcia looking to make a pass on class leader Torsten Kratz of Germany. Kratz driving the #12 WTM by Rinaldi Racing entry and Garcia at the wheel of the #17 Cool Racing LMP3 car. Garcia has been catching Kratz hand over first these last three laps and he must use the speed immediately or he will get stymied and slowed down which will make it harder to overtake. Trouble as well, look, for Racing Spirit of Leman.
That is their #31 LMP3 car, Racing Spirit of Leman, stopped on course, with Antoine Doquin at the controls. We’ll have a Captain Cook at the replay and see what it can tell us. He stayed off the racing line and drove across the circuit to park the car. There had to be major warning lights on the dashboard and a crewmember on the radio telling him, “Antoine, stop the car. Stop the car. There is a mechanical problem.” Algarve Pro are now fifth in the overall and in LMP2 with Alex Lynn at the controls to finish the race.
Lynn is in a battle with Cool Racing and car #47 now being driven by Jose Maria Lopez. How cool is this?! These two race each other in factory Hypercars in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Alex Lynn driving a factory Cadillac for Chip Ganassi Racing and Jose Maria Lopez driving the Toyota GR010 Hypercar for Toyota Gazoo Racing, also very much a factory effort. Neel Jani is also in this field, so, lots of drivers in this field in the European Le Mans Series also have a driving role with a factory team in the FIA World Endurance Championship, and in the IMSA WeatherTech Sports Car Championship in the GTP class, having a chance to race in LMP2 as well.
We have less than an hour and 20 minutes of racing to go here in Spain. There’s half a second in it in this fifth-place battle between Lynn and Lopez. After this event happened, two weeks later, many of these drivers did battle in Fuji, Japan, in the FIA WEC 6 Hours of Fuji we brought you coverage of earlier in the year. The race leader is into the lane with just over an hour to go. Marino Sato is out of the car and Oliver Jarvis will take over as darkness falls here at MotorLand Aragon. Panis Racing and IDEC Sport contesting second place. United have put 84 laps on the board now, 279 miles.
Paul-Loup Chatin is now right behind Oliver Jarvis. This will be a knockdown, drag out fight with an hour and ten minutes of racing to go. Chatin isn’t waiting around and goes the long way ‘round the outside! Jarvis is third and there’s just north of a second covering the top three drivers. Job van Uitert for Panis Racing in the lead. Now, with 43 minutes remaining, the battle is at its boiling point! Job van Uitert has Paul-Loup Chatin right to his inside going for the lead of this motor race! Van Uitert defending hard to the inside while Chatin is on the dirty side of the road, but Chatin makes the move for the lead stick!
IDEC Sport and the Delage team, love it! …And now, look, Alex Lynn, the third car in the queue, he also wants a piece of the action! He is third but can see the leader looking to put a move on Job van Uitert in the darkness with only 42 minutes left. Lynn runs out wide and the United Autosport #22 car of Oliver Jarvis is very much in the fight. These four cars are nose to tail but scrapping for the win. Paul Loup Chatin leads the motor race but now Alex Lynn has passed Job van Uitert for second place. Oliver Jarvis now is right on Job van Uitert looking to pass for third spot.
What a motor race this has been! Job van Uitert could very well lose out to Oliver Jarvis for the final step on the podium. Racing Team Turkey in the pit lane for their final stop of the race, but the car has stalled! This is costing them time. There’s power to the lights but the engine won’t crank. Trouble at the back. The mechanics need to use the fire extinguisher! Is there a fire at the back of the car? Was there a fuel spillage? Is there something wrong with the fuel system? No matter what, this is disaster for Racing Team Turkey!
37 minutes of racing left. This is a disaster for Racing Team Turkey. They must put the car on the dollies and wheel it back into the garage with so little time left. Algarve Pro are in the lane for their last stop. Final stops for everyone to get home to the checkered flag here at MotorLand Aragon. Racing Team Turkey doesn’t have much time if they want to get back on track before the race ends here tonight. Alex Lynn resumes his chase of Oliver Jarvis for second place. IDEC Sport in the lane. They are encouraging Paul-Loup Chatin.
Who will have the best strategy? Make sure the cooling vents are open and remove a tear off from the windscreen for maximum visibility. Ripping a tear off from the windscreen is refreshing for a driver because they can clearly see the road ahead of them again. Always a welcome relief. Oliver Jarvis is in catch up mode. They are 56 seconds behind the stationary IDEC Sport car. 102 laps now completed, 339 miles. 35 minutes to go. IDEC Sport take a shorter stop but I don’t think it’ll be enough.
Oliver Jarvis goes through to take the lead in the #22 United Autosport car. Meanwhile, here is how things shape up in GTE with 23 minutes to go. British driver Jon Lancaster leads in the #66 JMW Motorsport Ferrari 488 GTE ahead of Frenchman Julien Andlauer in the #77 Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19. Third is the sister Proton Competition Porsche 911 RSR-19, car #93, with the Estonian driver Martin Rump taking the car to the checkered flag. Jon Lancaster has made a return to motor racing at an international level and he is doing all he can to hold off the two talented Porsche pilots, Andlauer, a factory GT Porsche driver.
Martin Rump wants to make a move on Lancaster as he is also passed by one of the top contending LMP2 cars! Andlauer makes the pass and so does Rump. Lancaster gets mugged by both Proton Porsche’s! The top three overtakes in GTE during the race today at Aragon, we have seen 29 overtakes from the #93 Proton Porsche, 22 overtakes from the #60 Iron Lynx Porsche, and 20 overtakes from the #72 TF Sport Aston Martin. Martin Rump has the headlights of Jon Lancaster’s Ferrari blazing into his eyes. The Englishman is letting the Estonian know he is right there and prepared to fight it out.
Kessel Racing lead, but it really is three against one because there are three very hungry Proton Competition Porsche’s now right behind the Ferrari. #16, #77, and #93, all of them are in the GTE fight. Kessel Racing of course also won in Le Mans Cup in their GT3 spec Ferrari 296 GT3, a car that will debut next year in all forms of Le Mans rules racing as the GTE cars are set to be retired except maybe for historic racing, track days, and well, being shown in motor racing museums, perhaps. Lancaster flashing the lights at his rivals, as Martin Rump is still the meat in the sandwich. Julien Andlauer is pulling away. There are temporary lights illuminating the gravel traps here at Aragon. Temporary floodlights like you’d see at a stadium.
Someone is going slow, and there is a Full Course Yellow being called. Race Director Edoardo Freitas is on the radio. “Full Course Yellow. We’re intervening at T1 on the runoff and on the track. We will be intervening at T1 on the runoff and on the track.” It is the #37 Cool Racing car of Malthe Jakobsen who has lost drive. There could be damage to the car. What a shame for the young Danish driver. I don’t think he and his mom will have anything to discuss after the race tonight. Pit crews studying the data. Extremely disappointing for Cool Racing as the marshals finish cleaning the track up in unfamiliar darkness.
We are set to go back to racing and we have less than seven minutes to settle this one at MotorLand Aragon tonight! Reach up, pull the belts tight, one more time. It’s a sprint to the finish! Removing Full Course Yellow in 15 seconds. Begin the countdown. 10, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. Full Course Yellow removed. Everyone is right back on the throttle immediately as Job van Uitert is challenging the #99 Proton Competition Oreca LMP2 of Jonas Ried, Christian Ried’s son. 115 laps now completed by the #22 United Autosport Oreca, 382 miles.
United leads IDEC Sport by nearly 33 seconds. Job van Uitert is being swarmed by his LMP2 rivals. Jonas Ried and Tristan Vautier both are putting on the pressure. Ried is the leader in the LMP2 Pro-Am class aboard the #99 Proton Competition Oreca. Tristan Vautier is next in line in the #20 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca and behind him is the #19 Team Virage Oreca of Venezuelan driver Tatiana Calderon. Vautier squeezes through even with a GTE Ferrari in the way.
Job van Uitert cannot make progress. The #51 AF Corse is in the way. Vautier, in replay, he squeezes between the Ferrari and Jonas Ried. Oh dear! Job van Uitert has spun! The #65 Panis Racing LMP2 car has rotated! United lead from IDEC Sport and Algarve Pro in second, with two laps to go. One lap to go after this one. Alex Lynn enjoying driving the LMP2 cars. It keeps him up to speed for his duties with Cadillac in World Endurance and in IMSA. Oliver Jarvis and United Autosport lead the motor race by 16 seconds.
117 laps now completed, 388 and a half miles. Jarvis also races in the FIA World Endurance Championship for United Autosport. Paul-Loup Chatin is still second, ten seconds ahead of the Algarve Pro car of Alex Lynn. Job van Uitert now fourth after his spin. Final lap. Cars in front of Jarvis have a brake lockup. He still has to negotiate traffic in the darkness. Oliver Jarvis has been there and done that in sports car racing. A great night race here at MotorLand Aragon. IDEC Sport will have a big result and so will Algarve Pro. AF Corse leading in the Pro-Am section of LMP2.
Oliver Jarvis races around the final lap, in a rhythm, not slowing down. Phil Hanson started the job superbly earning pole and Marino Sato did a great middle stint. Down the kilometer long backstretch for the final time. Through a 180-degree left hand turn sweeping uphill to the last corner. Oliver Jarvis and United Autosport wins the 4 Hours of Aragon! Three races. Three different winners in the 2023 European Le Mans Series!
Overall/LMP2: #22 Hanson/Jarvis/Sato United Autosports USA Oreca 07
LMP2 Pro-Am: #83 Perrodo/Vaxiviere/Rovera AF Corse Oreca 07
LMP3: #17 Chila/Garcia/Siebert Cool Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GTE: #57 Huffaker/Kimura/Rigon Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE Evo
Aragon has been a big success! United Autosports earn their first win and their first European Le Mans Series podium in 2023. Halfway through the year, Algarve Pro are within three points of Duqueine, halfway through the 2023 season. Victory in LMP2 Pro-Am to AF Corse! A great wun for Alessio Rovera, Matthieu Vaxiviere, and Francois Perrodo. AF Corse are now three points ahead of Racing Team Turkey, a very slender margin. Cool Racing #17 win in LMP3. Adrien Chila, Marcos Siebert, and Alex Garcia score their second victory in the last three races.
Cool Racing lead their LMP3 rivals by 26 points. Kessel Racing, CarGuy, and Ferrari win the GTE class. Scott Huffaker, Davide Rigon, and Takeshi Kimura. Proton Competition are just barely ahead in the points standings with the #16 car. Michael Fassbender and company are third. Next time out, we race in the Ardennes Forest of Belgium at the awesome Spa Francorchamps circuit. We’ll see you there. Adios for now, from Spain.
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