The cadenza has been reached in the 2023 Le Mans Cup. It is championship day. It is the finale of the season here at Algarve International Circuit in Portimao, Portugal. The championships are up for grabs and we have a new guest driver in the field, another driver who (like a number before him) has crossed over from the two wheeled world of championship motorcycle racing to car racing, Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli. After the race it will be time to celebrate the champions and look at the 2024 calendar. But first, it is time to go racing.
This is a rollercoaster racetrack and for several years now we have had the end of season jamboree for the Le Mans Cup and the European Le Mans Series, right here. No matter the weather, this course is always challenging. Team Virage at the top of the shop in the LMP3 points are ready to bring it. They failed to score points last time out at Spa Francorchamps in Belgium. However, they have a handy lead in the standings at 21 points over their nearest rival. To clinch the championship today, five points is all they are looking for.
Driver Julien Gerbi makes a good point that the race is the first focus. Evaluate risks, plan a strategy, and play it smart. In Free Practice they have done everything possible, and the team feels good about their chances. At CD Sport, driver Kiril Smal says that the weather could surely play a factor in the race today. Maximize pace and potential and try to win. That is what Kiril Smal and co-driver Fabian Michal are aiming to do today. At Team Thor, Colin Noble says they expected rain to be a factor. But, in the dry conditions as well as the wet, the car felt right. It is hard to plan the setup. Take the weather as it comes. In GT3, Racing Spirit of Leman with their #10 Aston Martin, they have led the championship since the season started at Barcelona.
Now, they are covered b a dozen points in the title fight over their nearest rivals, the #51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3. VHC, Valentin Hasse-Clot, remains calm and optimistic. They have topped both GT3 Free Practice sessions. A dozen points behind are the defending champions. Kei Cozzolino says that the team got lucky last year when their rivals wrecked. This year, it is true that they are fighting for the title and will have to work for it. Cozzolino and co-driver Hiroshi Koizumi were able to test here at Portimao in varying conditions in the dry and the wet.
They feel much more prepared this time around than they did at Spa because in addition to the Le Mans Cup event at Spa, the team also flew out to compete in Fuji, Japan, in the FIA World Endurance Championship. Timothy Creswick, lead driver in the #86 High Class Racing with CaffeineSix Porsche 911 GT3R, he loves the track here at Portimao and was able to race here earlier this year. The plan is to be up at the front and maybe for Creswick and co-driver Anders Fjordbach to force their rivals into a mistake.
As we said, Frenchman Sylvain Guintoli, a champion of Grand Prix motorcycle racing, he is making his four wheeled debut racing a car for the first time much like what we have seen from Valentino Rossi this year when he has run sports cars. Guintoli is looking forward to the challenge as he will be lined up in the #42 Steller Motorsport Audi R8 LMS Evo II alongside regular team driver Sennan Fielding. Guintoli explains that two years ago, he began doing motorcycle endurance racing and really enjoyed it. Guintoli is a two-time winner of the motorcycle version of the 24 Hours of Le Mans in 2021 and 2022.
Guintoli has a long-term goal to be the first competitor ever to win both the motorcycle 24 Hours of Le Mans and the sports car 24 Hours of Le Mans in his career. That has never been done before. Guintoli pays compliments to the Le Mans Cup paddock. Sylvain Guintoli explains that he enjoys how the motorcycle handles, which is a rawer feeling than the car. But he is also getting used to the handling with the Audi GT3 car and says he likes both equally. Guintoli is thankful for air conditioning in a car as long as the settings are not turned up too high which can sap horsepower.
He says a relay on a motorcycle in one of their endurance races which lasts 50 minutes. The stints on a motorcycle are extremely physical. In a car, things will be different. We have seen many motorcycle racers cross over to car racing and become successful. Mike “The Bike” Hailwood, John Surtees, Kevin Schwantz, Mick Doohan, Scott Russell, Valentino Rossi, among others. Sylvain Guintoli is the latest motorcycle racer turned car racer.
The GT3 cars are fast, have downforce, and slide around, and they are difficult to master. Guintoli is here to learn. It is our honor to ride along with Sylvain on a lap of the track here at Portimao. Let’s go. The GT3 car is quick but not as quick as a MotoGP motorcycle. On the main straight at Portimao, the GT3 car is just touching about 270 kilometers an hour which equates to 168 and ¾ miles an hour. A MotoGP motorcycle touches 350 kilometers an hour which equals (are you ready for this), 218 and ¾ miles an hour! So the GT3 car is a full 50 miles an hour slower!
Into turn three, the hairpin, light braking in first gear. The car lightens up. Watch for track limits in turn four as the car is sliding all over the road. On a motorcycle you don’t go that far on the curbs but in a car, you must watch for track limits of course. There is a shortcut here at Portimao for the motorcycles. To turns seven, eight, and nine, use all the curbs. Use so much more curb with the cars. Flat out in fourth gear through turn nine and ten. Position yourself for hard braking into turn 12. Control power application to avoid wheelspin. The final corner you can lift whereas on a motorcycle, brake hard. Across the line, we finish the lap on this rollercoaster circuit.
It is race day now here at Portimao on Sunday morning. But the forecast for this one, looks iffy and the track is wet! Algerian driver Julien Gerbi has put the #16 Team Virage Ligier on LMP3 pole, the car he has shared all year with Gillian Henrion of France. They will start ahead of the #11 CD Sport Ligier of Frank Chappard of France and his co-driver Shahan Sarkissian of Lebanon. On the GT3 pole it is the #64 Team Parker Racing Porsche 911 GT3R of the all-British duo of Alex Martin and Charles Bateman. Racing Spirit of Leman are on the second row in GT3, the #10 Aston Martin with VHC (Valentin Hasse-Clot), and Arnold Robin.
Conditions will be tough to deal with and the forecast for racing today looks miserable. We are starting this race under safety car procedure to allow the drivers to get a handle on the wet track and know where the puddles are. We have completed four laps of motoring behind the safety car, 11 and a half miles. Virage leads ahead of CD Sport, Team Thor, and then their sister car. Nielsen Racing and Inter Europol Competition running fifth and sixth respectively. Into the first turn, the battle is well and truly afoot for sixth spot between Murphy and 360 Racing, cars #48 and #25.
Five-time Porsche Cup Brazil champion and Brazilian stock car racing competitor Enzo Elias is sharing the #48 car with Germany’s Torsten Kratz in this motor race. In the #25 360 Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan is Spanish female driver Belen Garcia sharing with Mark Richards of England. At Inter Europol, the driver is Chris Short from England, aboard the #15 Ligier JS P320 Nissan he shares with American Bryson Morris. Short must be careful. Jon Schauerman also in a battle early doors aboard the #23 United Autosport Ligier sharing with Wayne Boyd.
The drivers are squirming around in the wet trying to find some sort of traction out there as Fabien Michal takes the second CD Sport car past one of his competitors. Stay off the curbs in these rainy conditions. The curbs are like ice. They are treacherous when they are wet. A good battle is brewing in GT3 as well. Nick Jones aboard the #18 Team Parker Racing Porsche 911 GT3R he shares with Scott Malvern, running ahead of the #88 GMB Motorsports Honda NSX GT3 Evo22 in the hands of Dane Lars Engelbreckt Pedersen, in a car he is sharing with countryman and sports car racing legend, Jan Magnussen.
The Jones/Malvern Porsche is one of the new 992 generation models while the sister Team Parker car we talked about earlier, the #64 Charles Bateman and Alex Martin car is a 991.II model. The main difference being that the 992 Porsche of Malvern and Jones has a larger motor. A 4.2 liter flat six engine compared to a 4 liter unit in the 991.II version for Bateman and Martin. Meanwhile, Sylvain Guintoli in the Stellar Motorsports Audi is right in contention between this scrap between Alex Martin and Lars Pedersen. Five laps now on the board, about 14 and a half miles.
Currently, Timothy Creswick is chasing the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO2. So, the green Lamborghini vs. the purple and pink Porsche. I am confused though because it does not seem to list the green Lambo in the entry for this event but I trust that they are here since they are on track and it ought to be the duo of Monegasque Vincent Abril and Japan’s Hiroshi Hamaguchi sharing the car just as it has been all season to this point.
The field is spreading out and the spray on the road ought to be less of a problem at this stage. Racing Spirit of Leman are running ahead of the Lamborghini of Leipert Motorsports. They have two cars in this race. The full-season #19 entry for Gabriel Rindone of Luxembourg and Patrick Kujala of Finland, and the #24 car for American Gregg Gorski and New Zealander Brendon Leitch. Julien Gerbi continues leading the motor race overall as we see a penalty called for the #39 car. This is a drive through penalty assessed for causing a collision in Free Practice 2 earlier in the weekend.
#39 is the Graff Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan. Englishman James Sweetnam is the lead driver and has been all season, with a rotating cast of co-drivers. Today he is sharing the Graff Racing car with Samir Ben of Switzerland. Meanwhile, it is an international top three. Julien Gerbi, the Algerian driver for the Polish team Team Virage, 8/10ths of a second ahead of the Spanish CD Sport entry currently in the hands of Shahan Sarkissian, the Lebanese driver. Team Thor is third, an Icelandic team, owned and driven for by an Icelandic driver. Audunn Gundmundsson sharing the Ligier with Colin Noble of England.
Fourth place belongs to the second Polish Team Virage car, the #59 car of Paraguay’s Oscar Bittar sharing with Italian Alessandro Bracalente, and in fifth, the #7 Nielsen Racing Ligier of Tony Wells and Josh Skelton. That is an all-British team. British drivers and team management. So, this is the proof that, like Grand Prix racing and other forms of worldwide motor racing, sports car racing is international. There is a local yellow flag on the circuit as we have been racing for the better part of 15 minutes. Meanwhile, there is a battle brewing between teammates.
We can see Christoph Cresp has made a pass on teammate Philippe Cimadomo. Cresp sharing the #28 MV2S Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan with Swiss driver Jerome de Sadeleer, and the sister car #29 in the hands of Cimadomo right now, he is in that all-French lineup along with fellow Frenchman Emilien Carde who has driven at least half the races for MV2S in the second car in 2023. These two cars have swapped places, for 17th position. Graff Racing to the pit lane and this is not for regular service. This is instead to serve a penalty assessed by the stewards for an issue the team had in Free Practice.
In GT3 the Leipert Motorsports Lamborghini has gone around the Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin. Through the spray Arnold Robin is flashing the lights to say, “let me through!” He has a head of steam on the lime green and black Lamborghini, Luxembourg’s Gabriele Rindone at the wheel of it. Poor old Rindone runs wide under braking and now must recover his momentum. Oh dear. Trouble for Oscar Bittar as he has spun the second of the Team Virage LMP3 cars. The Paraguayan driver is taking his turn on the whirligig.
Was there contact? Or did he slide off on a slippery curb? He is a lucky boy to escape the gravel trap. The gravel will be wet but believe me, gravel traps have this magnetic pull that reels race cars and their drivers into them, saying, come to me, I will be the answer to your troubles. Never listen to the gravel trap. Racing drivers, you are being lied to. The gravel trap will not cure your illnesses. It will make them worse. Believe me. We still have a long way to go with an hour and a half left on the board. Bittar has rejoined the race but let’s see if we cqn tell in replay what happened.
Bittar is just ahead of Torsten Kratz. Kratz in the #48 Murphy Prototypes car has a head of steam, gets out on the curbs, Over the brow they g0, and there was contact from behind. Oscar Bittar lifted off the throttle, tapped the brake pedal to see if he had anything, and caught Torsten Kratz entirely by surprise. More trouble as now Cool Racing’s Luis Sanjuan is into the spin cycle. Sanjuan aboard the #97 Cool Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan the Swiss driver has shared all season with countryman David Droux.
The car is sitting very low on the righthand side, on the right rear corner, which tells me he has a cut down right rear tire or righthand suspension damage. In replay, we can see he was tapped into that rotation by car #67 of Pieder Decurtins, the Swiss GT and prototype racer for Haegeli by T2 Racing in the berries and custard liveried Duqueine M30-D08 Nissan. Decurtins sharing with Belgian driver Brent Verheyen. For all that shemozzle, Decurtins will have a penalty in his future.
Ten laps now in the bag (29 miles give or take), and the lead battle is intensifying. Team Virage vs. CD Sport. Julien Gerbi has Shahan Sarkissian right on his six. Sarkissian tries making a pass on GerbI into turn one but no dice. The Algerian driver holding off the Lebanese racer. Even in the rain the familiar red and yellow Spanish flag livery of CD Sport is easy to spot. These cars are nose to tail. The black and orange Virage livery is no less distinctive. Audunn Gundmundsson, the Icelandic driver is some way behind these two.
This is surely a horse race. Oof! This is not good as the two MV2S LMP3 cars get tangled up. Poor old Christophe Cresp has a flappy, wobbly rear wing on the back of his car. The leaders continue on their merry way. In replay, down the inside, well, Philippe Cimadomo thought there was a gap and that he had room. Cimadomo turned in on Cresp. You never try to make that kind of contact with your own teammate. Team Parker are leading in GT3. They have completed 14 laps, 40 miles.
A massive GT3 battle here, look, for third place! Arnold Robin in the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Vantage GT3 and the #86 HCR with CaffeineSix Porsche 911 GT3R of Tim Creswick. Creswick makes the pass on Robin under braking. This is a good dice between these two drivers with 35 minutes on the board. Arnold Robin got by, but Creswick makes the pass. Now, Robin has the run through the hairpin. Team Parker continues to lead the GT3 class. There’s been a change for second spot in LMP3. Torsten Kratz in the #48 Murphy Prototypes car passes the #11 CD Sport car of Shahan Sarkissian.
Kratz is on a roll. Kratz is sandwiched right inbetween the lead battle, and now, look, he pushes, shoves, and gouges his way past the CD Sport car. He runs Sarkissian wide onto the slippery paved runoff on the outside! Oh no! Trouble for Julien Gerbi! The race leader is spun into the gravel trap and there is a local yellow flag at that corner station! My oh my! Is this the end of the championship hopes for Julien Gerbi and Gillian Henrion? Ah! He was hit from behind by Torsten Kratz in the #48 Murphy Prototypes car! Deary me!
The pit lane is busy as ever with an hour and change left in the race and the season. Everyone is in for rain tires and for fuel. The weather is getting worse. It is worse than it was when we started this motor race. That is bad news for the second drivers who have taken over all these cars with an hour left of racing in the season for Le Mans Cup in 2023. CD Sport lead Murphy Prototypes and Cool Racing. That is the top three in LMP3. The #16 Team Virage LMP3 car has been rescued from the gravel trap. But now, there’s more trouble. Car #4 Is stopped on the grass at the side of the road.
That is Matt Bell for Nielsen Racing who is in a spot of bother. He had only just come out of the pit lane and has stopped at the entrance to turn four climbing the hill. Murphy Prototypes are in the lane with the rain hammering down. There will be a penalty assessed to car #48 for earlier contact as Brazilian driver Enzo Elias will take over. For the #16 team to remain alive for the title they must avoid any more trouble through the remainder of the race.
United Autosport and driver John Schauerman are in trouble again. That is the #23 car he shares with Wayne Boyd. He spins out over the brow and narrowly almost collects a GT3 Honda NSX! Yikes! The GMB Motorsports Honda just avoids the American driver and being collected in his incident. Schauerman is now behind the #10 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin GT3 car now in the hands of Valentin Hasse-Clot. VHC has unlapped himself from the GT3 leading #83 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3 shared by Emmanuel Collard and Charles-Henri Samani.
That car is yet to stop. Scott Andrews is struggling to pass these GT3 cars and he gets tagged into a spin by the Ferrari! Andrews, the Australian, who we have also seen in a GT4 car in IMSA Michelin Pilot Challenge this year, he and American co-driver Gerry Kraut are having a tough time of it at Portimao in the rain this afternoon. Yellow flags out at turn three and four as the #4 Matt Bell driven LMP3 car has not moved yet either. Samani ought to be penalized for that one. Scott Andrews will be fuming in his helmet! He will not be a happy bunny about being tipped into a spin.
A tight battle for fourth overall and in LMP3 between two of the young lions of European LMP3 competition. This is Belen Garcia in the #25 car for 360 Racing and she is being pursued by the #7 Nielsen Racing car in the hands of Josh Skelton. It is hard for Josh Skelton to see where Belen Garcia is in the spray, although Belen Garcia, she is aware Skelton is there, from the headlights. It is hard for Skelton to judge the distance in the spray, but he pulls out early and sends it down the inside. Lick the stamp and send it! Will that move work?
Indeed it works. Skelton makes fourth place stick. Belen Garcia had the preferred line which is less slippery because offline it is not just wet, but the water is covering up rubber and oil that has collected on the track surface here at Portimao over the weekend. Cool Racing lead United and CD Sport while Nielsen Racing are now fourth with Josh Skelton. 25 laps now complete, 72 miles. A battle is now raging for second place as Franck Chappard, the Frenchman, in the #11 CD Sport car puts American John Schauermann under pressure, at the wheel of the #2 United Autosport entry. Chappard to second and Schauerman now third.
Adrien Chila pits the leading #87 Cool Racing car from the lead as Dino Lunardi has crashed the #17 IDEC Sport car in LMP3 from way down in 36th place. Lunardi is actually stuck tail first in the gravel trap and now we heard from Franck Chappard on team radio to the CD Sport crew. Chappard says “it is super dangerous and all I can see is red lights.” So, he can only see the red rain lights on the cars ahead, or their taillights. That’s it. Oh dear! 36 minutes to go and Chappard was right! He goes off the rorad way off into the gravel trap!
Yikes! He completely missed the braking zone. Chappard in the lead and fortunately he didn’t hit anything! Wow! From sixth spot, Colin Noble goes off the road in the #77 Team Thor LMP3 car. Can he escape the gravel? Yes. Charles Bateman in the #64 Team Parker Porsche also goes for a spin! It is really wet out there. Just over half an hour to go and the safety car is out. The track here at Portimao is soaked and is totally undrivable. Franck Chappard leads over Josh Skelton and Kiril Smal. 32 laps completed, 92 and a half miles.
The drivers and marshals all must be kept safe. The Iron Lynx Lamborghini leads the GT3 class. This is the #63 Hamaguchi/Abril automobile. The marshals and race control are working on wave arounds. Wind and rain lashing the circuit here at Portimao. 20 minutes to go but the race has been red flagged due to the high wind and the torrential rain and will not resume. Racing Spirit of Leman and Team Virage are champions! CD Sport wins the race and so do Iron Lynx! All cars follow the safety car into the pit lane.
But wait just a moment, please. CD Sport have picked up a time penalty and this will deny them victory! The true winners here in Portimao are Tony Wells and Josh Skelton for Nielsen Racing. A ten second addition to race time for CD Sport for infringements under Full Course Yellow. CD Sport finishes second and third behind Nielsen Racing. Tony Wells and Josh Skelton completed 36 laps, 104 miles.
Overall/LMP3: #7 Wells/Skelton Nielsen Racing Ligier JS P320 Nissan
GT3: #63 Hamaguchi/Abril Iron Lynx Lamborghini Huracan GT3 EVO 2
CD Sport finished second and third with Fabien Michal and Kiril Smal, followed home by their teammates Franck Chappard and Shahan Sarkissian. Team Virage are LMP3 champions! Congratulations to Julien Gerbi and Gillian Henrion! In the GT3 class, here is your podium. Third place honors go to Team Parker with Nick Jones and Scott Malvern. Second place to Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin with Valentin Hasse-Clot and Arnold Robin, and victory to Hiroshi Yamaguchi and Vincent Abril! The Lamborghini finishes 11th overall.
Racing Spirit of Leman win the GT3 championship by 20 points over AF Corse. A convincing victory to Valentin Hasse-Clot and Arnold Robin. They did what they had to do. Then comes the prize giving, the awards ceremony. The champions and the double runners-up are honored. Before we say goodbye for 2023, we’ll look at the half dozen races that will make up the 2024 Le Mans Cup calendar. It all begins in Barcelona on April 13th followed by two consecutive races in France. First is Le Castellet and Circuit Paul Ricard in May. Then, the two races for Road to Le Mans on June 13th and 15th, supporting the 92nd running of the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
After the summer break, Spa Francorchamps in Belgium will host the championship in late August on August 24th. Mugello is the new venue for the Italian round, in Tuscany, in late September, and we conclude the season in mid-October right back here at Portimao in Portugal once again. Until then, we’ll see you soon. So long, everybody, from Portimao and the Algarve. Take care.
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