Le
Mans Endurance Series 2005
Round 3. Silverstone 1000 Kilometers. August 12th - 13th
- 14th 2005
Practice & Qualifying Report
LMES
- Silverstone - RML Race Report - August 14
If ever a team could be accused of doing something
the hard way, that accusation could be levelled at RML.
It’s not by choice of course, and enormous credit must be
given to the hard-working mechanics, who made it possible
for Thomas Erdos and Mike Newton to stand on the podium
at Silverstone, but there must be easier ways to reach the
chequered flag. Once again we were witnesses to stunning
performances from both RML drivers in the #25 MG Lola, and
as so often before, they had to do it by taking two steps
forward and one back. We’ll pick up on that thread with
(a smiling) Phil Barker, team manager at RML, later on,
but for now, let’s consider a race that was truly memorable
– perhaps not always for all the right reasons, but one
that will be talked about for years to come.
Everyone
started in the same boat. Some wished they’d got one. It
had rained for about two or three hours, before the grid
started to form up for the four o’clock LMES start. Forty-six
starters is a fair-sized field, but everyone was conscious
of what they’d face when the lights turned green. It would
be a wall of water. Those racing tyres are highly efficient,
but the only place for water to go when they’re lifting
it off the track at the rate of 85 litres every hundred
yards is straight up into the air. It’s not the most efficient
way of clearing a track of standing water, and it makes
life hell for those following behind. Some cope well, others
flounder along hoping for the best, and there’s no substitute
for experience. Luckily, RML has one of the world’s best
wet-weather drivers in Thomas Erdos – anyone who was at
Le Mans in ‘95 will remember that only Lehto in the winning
Mclaren was quicker in the wet than Erdos - in a GT2 Marcos
LM600. So there were some incongruously happy-looking faces
amongst the RML personnel clustered round the EX264 as they
waited on the grid for the race to start. Last time Tommy
had sheltered under an umbrella for the start of a race,
it had been to ward off the sun ahead of the Le Mans 24
Hours. The conditions were way different this time, but
perhaps the end result could be the same?
Race Start
It
certainly looked as though it might be once the race started.
A second green-flag lap was introduced at Silverstone, so
that everyone had ample opportunity to appreciate what the
start was going to be like. I don’t think it worked. Not
because some thought the race was going to start at the
end of the first lap – although some clearly did – but because
it wasn’t until the lights turned green, and Minassian thundered
away into the lead, trailing everyone else behind him, that
the true magnitude of what that volume of spray was going
to be like actually became apparent. It was an awe-inspiring
sight to see those cars disappear into such a thick cloud
of mist - and realise that they were being controlled by
humans with eyesight no better than yours or mine. Heaven
alone knows how so few came to grief, but in the main it
was an incident-free start, and Erdos was in his element.
From
seventh the Brazilian was through to fourth by the end of
the opening lap, and it could have been more for the diminutive
red-white-and-blue MG. Coming through Brooklands and Luffield
at the close, Erdos was dancing round the tail of Jean-Christophe
Boullion’s #17 Pescarolo, looking for an opening into third.
He’d get it before the end of the next lap, but not by passing
Boullion – not yet anyway. Chilton in the Zytek had gone
off, and dropped back behind the MG, but that hadn’t stopped
Erdos pecking away at the Pescarolo once again. The LMP1
C60 clearly had the pace down the straights, but when it
came to the tighter confines of the stadium complex, between
Bridge and Woodcote, the MG had an undeniable edge. Time
and again, the RML driver looked for an opening. When it
came, it was revealed in dramatic fashion, as Boullion lost
control of the Pescarolo and careered backwards into the
concrete. Erdos managed to avoid the spinning C60 and sweep
into second place unscathed, but Boullion would have to
limp slowly back to the garage. He and Emmanuel Collard
would return to the fray much later in the race, and set
some very quick times, but it would be an age before the
rebuilt prototype emerged from the garage. It ran out of
fuel later.
Although
second, Erdos had no realistic chance of improvement. Nicolas
Minassian had already built up a lead of over 23 seconds,
and the race was still only five laps old. The DBA was simply
extraordinary in the prevailing conditions, and its driver
also had the benefit of a clear view, at least until the
lapping started. The MG, by contrast, was only a second
and a half ahead of Kurosawa in the Jota, with Allan McNish
in the Oreca Audi making excellent ground from fourth. Initially
the gap between Erdos and the third-placed Japanese driver
grew steadily, demonstrating just how effectively the traditional
race order had been about-faced by the conditions. Perhaps
seeing Tommy in second was not wholly unexpected, given
that we are used to witnessing some stunning performances
when he’s at the wheel, but to see Xavier Pompidou leading
GT2 in ninth, having started 35th, was almost unbelievable.
That
aforementioned lapping was now starting to become a regular
obstacle for all the leading drivers, and there’s probably
nobody better at find a path of least resistance through
traffic than Allan McNish. He proved that by setting a series
of personal bests in the R8 and exploiting a few awkward
backmarkers to dive through ahead of both Kurosawa and Erdos,
on lap nine, to claim second. Amid the confusion, Kurosawa
also got back in front of the MG, and for a while the order
reverted to Creation, Oreca, Jota and then RML.
The
gap between Erdos and the Jota Zytek fluctuated around the
two-second mark for the next eight laps or so, but the first
four cars were a country mile clear of the rest. Significantly,
with the exception of the leading three, and Porsches in
ninth and tenth, it was LMP2 all the way during these early
stages. Michael Vergers was fifteen seconds or so behind
Erdos, second in LMP2, with Vincent Vosse chasing him in
fourth (sixth overall). To prove the point, Erdos did a
2:05.126 – the quickest LMP2 by far, to move back on Kurosawa,
simultaneously establishing a lead of almost 30 seconds
on Vergers. It had been a fantastic start for the MG.
The
single most important influence on the race at this stage
was the combination of traffic and spray. McNish was exploiting
this as only he seems to know how, and halved the gap to
Minassian over the next five laps, closing to within 12
seconds by lap 21. Erdos, having been seventeen behind Kurosawa
at one point, pulled that back to six, and then two. Just
as McNish set the first sub-two-minute lap, Erdos closed
to within two-tenths of the Japanese. Then, on lap 24, while
McNish and Minassian were nose-to-tail around the track,
Erdos briefly passed Kurosawa to reclaim third, only to
see the Zytek coming back at him on the next tour. It was
thrilling stuff, especially between Minassian and McNish.
The Frenchman was getting desperate, particularly in his
attempts to get through the traffic. He was flashing his
lights furiously, trying to clear a path, fully aware of
McNish on his tail and ready to pounce. The stumbling block
proved to be Justin Keen in the Lister Storm, who held up
the DBA agonisingly for a lap or more, but then was just
as recalcitrant when McNish tried to get through a little
while later. It gave Minassian a breather, and this combined
with a worsening in the weather to allow the Creation driver
to re-establish a modest lead. Return to top
Hour 2
Having
done so well with traffic up until now, Erdos hit a rough
patch, and fell back on the revitalised Kurosawa to the
tune of almost thirty seconds. The rain was getting so bad
by this stage that the safety car looked inevitable, and
sure enough, with the race just an hour old, it appeared
for the first time. Kurosawa promptly headed into the pits,
elevating Erdos to third. The Jota Zytek had dropped to
tenth by the time it re-emerged, but would be returning
to the pitlane again three laps later with Kurosawa very
unwell, incapable of continuing.
Racing
resumed again on lap 34, despite little sign that the rain
had lessened. The MG was called in for its first scheduled
pitstop on lap 36, taking on fuel, but with Erdos and the
Michelins staying aboard for a second stint. Within a couple
of laps the safety car was deployed once again, after the
GT2 leader buried itself in the gravel at Abbey, and thereby
established a pattern that would persist, like the rain,
for the next couple of hours. In a quite inexplicable demonstration
of indecision, the race went through a rolling process of
lengthy stints behind the safety car, two or three laps
of racing, another incident, and then another period under
full-course yellow. At no time was any attempt made to pick
up the leader, with the result that pitting and passing
became a complete lottery – made worse by the fact that
cars appeared to be released from the pitlane irrespective
of where the traffic was, and sometimes straight into the
middle of the train. They don’t pick up the leader at Le
Mans, and they weren’t here. Perhaps an example of Anglo-French
co-operation that didn’t work too well?
Thomas
Erdos pressed on regardless, still running an excellent
third. When racing resumed for the second time on lap 44,
the order remained as Minassian leading from Ortelli second
(having taken over from McNish) and Erdos third. Rockenfeller,
yet to stop, held fourth for GT2, with Gosselin, Vergers
and Keen making up the top seven. The gap between Erdos
and the Oreca Audi stood at 16 seconds, but it was never
allowed much opportunity to change. Two – yes, just two
laps later - the safety car was out once more, this time
following a coming-together between the two Team LNT TVRs.
The conditions remained dreadful, and the constant ingress
of water was starting to have an effect on many cars, including
the RML MG. With 45 laps gone Tommy radioed in to say that
he was encountering some minor problems, and was unable
to get any progressive response out of the throttle, but
it wasn’t enough to bring him in, especially while they
were circulating behind the safety car. Three laps later
the Audi peeled away and racing resumed. Within seconds,
the Binnie Racing Lola was pirouetting down the main straight
and catching the concrete a glancing blow across the rear.
It came to rest directly opposite the pits, seemingly immobile.
The nearby marshals were oblivious, one continuing to wave
his green flag despite being within a few yards of the stationary
car. Eventually the safety car was released again, only
to complete a single lap, before confirmation came through
that the Lola had already resumed its journey and pitted
for repairs. Return to top
Hour 3
Fifty
laps completed and the race entered its third hour, but
Tommy’s progress was becoming increasingly hampered by a
succession of electrical problems, all stemming from the
incessant flow of water entering the MG’s cockpit.
Eventually,
after more than two hours in the car, he brought the #25
down the pitlane, where it was trolleyed backwards straight
into the garage. It transpired that the paddle-shift gearchange
had failed and he’d been driving on the manual gearbox for
the previous forty minutes or so.
The
team set to work in a frenetic display of disciplined mayhem.
Bodies were thrown across the car from all angles. Copious
quantities of WD40 were being sprayed across every electrical
contact that could be reached. A new steering wheel was
fitted. A replacement ECU was plugged in. Other electrical
connections were opened, blown dry, and sprayed. This was
water dispersal on an industrial scale. Where would the
automotive world be without WD40! While all this was going
on, Mike Newton had climbed aboard and been strapped into
the sodden cockpit – Erdos, soaked through to the skin with
muddy, greasy water, had long since gone for a shower and
fresh suit. It was distinctly unpleasant being a prototype
driver at Silverstone on Saturday afternoon! At 6:22 the
#25 MG Lola barked into life once more, and then roared
off down the pitlane.
From
third overall, the MG had dropped down the order to 15th
and third in LMP2. It was a blow, but nothing that couldn’t
be recovered. Mike set about doing exactly that in emphatic
fashion. Just as he had at Monza, he proved yet again that
he’s no longer “just a gentleman driver”. There were few
out there to match him in the wet on Saturday, and while
some of the genuine professionals may get the better of
him from time to time, there are few second-string drivers
his equal. “It was challenging!” he admitted later. “When
the safety car pulled in I was in the middle of a lot of
traffic. After a few laps I found some free air, and could
get some temperature into the tyres. I could then start
moving forwards.” His first hour-long stint saw the Chief
Executive of Dedicated Micros climb back up through the
field steadily and consistently, completing his first stint
at just before the end of the fourth hour to stand second
in class once more, eighth overall. It was an exemplary
pitstop – fuel only, no need to change the tyres, and straight
back out again. He was getting very wet, but the car was
behaving. “In rain like that, you can see the water building
up on the bodywork of the car. It sits there in a vast puddle,
just waiting for a corner. You come to the next right-hander,
and it’s like having a bucket of cold water poured into
your lap. It’s not pleasant!” Return to top
Hours 4 - 5
The
pitstop had dropped Newton to 11th overall, and back to
third in GT2, but this was routine stuff in a race where
pitstops come at regular intervals, and everyone has to
make them. It would not have been long before Mike had regained
the ground lost, either by passing on track, or when others
also stopped for fuel, tyres or driver change. Unfortunately,
he was not to be allowed that opportunity. Coming through
to lap a GT2 car through the stadium complex, between Brooklands
and Luffield he was tapped into a spin by another car. “I
was coming up to pass one of the 550s through Luffield,”
explained Newton afterwards. “There was another prototype
coming through with me. Maybe he missed his braking point,
but he pushed me up the tail.” The MG was tipped into a
full 360 spin, and then a bit more. Mike ended up facing
the wrong way, straight into the oncoming traffic, and directly
on the racing line. “I then discovered I had no clutch,”
he continued. “I couldn’t shift down, but I was able to
notch it down into first, one gear at a time, using the
starter motor. I scared a few people round Luffield by heading
the wrong way! I grass-tracked and carried on, because I
knew there was no time to fix the clutch. These races aren’t
long enough. The car was running again, and I had three-quarters
of a tankful of fuel, so there was nothing to be gained
by visiting the pits. I couldn’t risk the car not starting
again as well. I’d been very lucky to get it going anyway,
but I warned the pits that we’d have a problem at the next
stop,” said Newton. “It’s not a problem, Mike,” was Phil
Barker’s response. “Just recompose yourself and get back
into the groove.”
Not
only had the spin costs Mike a place, after Lienhard in
the #27 Horag Lista Lola had gone through, but he now had
a mechanical problem to drive round as well. He coped remarkably
well, and within four laps had overtaken Barazi in the Kruse
Courage to reclaim third in GT2, ninth overall. It was proving
hard work, but at least the podium beckoned once more.
The
race had enjoyed a lengthy stint without a safety car, but
that record was about to be broken as Calum Lockie, sharing
the GNM Saleen this weekend with Ricky Cole and Ryan Hooker,
lost a wheel early in the lap. It was a difficult journey
back to the pits, with the S7 crabbing sideways and showering
the track with sparks. On top of that, the Lister was in
the gravel at Brooklands, so race control had little option
but to send out the Audi once again. One and a half hours
of the race remained, and while prospects for a class win
now looked remote for the #25, the chances of a strong points
finish were looking better – provided Mike could continue
to battle strongly, despite no clutch, and the next pitstop
went without a hitch. Return to top
Last Hour
At
quarter to nine Mike finally moved ahead of Lienhard in
the Horag Lista Lola. He’d been gaining on the red and white
car for some while, but it was an error by the Swiss driver
that finally allowed Newton through, making the task of
overtaking the Lola much easier. In reply Lienhard promptly
set that car’s fastest lap of the race, but too late. Mike
was now sixth overall and back to second in LMP2. It had
been a remarkable drive, and the only cars to have passed
him on the track were the Creation DBA and the Oreca Audi.
Not a bad testimony!
With
the rain starting to fall once again, attention turned to
the front of the race, where Jamie Campbell-Walter continued
to lead for Creation, having taken over the DBA from Minassian,
thirty seconds ahead of McNish in second. Martin Short was
third in the sole surviving Rollcentre Dallara Judd, while
Karim Ojjeh was fourth and leading LMP2 in the #36 Belmondo
Courage. The return to heavy rain brought back the problems
of earlier, and that included the paddle-shift gear selection
issues afflicting the MG. “I was approaching Maggots and
went for the paddle shift, and it wouldn’t change down.
Every time I pushed the gear down, it popped back up again,
and when I went for a downshift, it selected the next gear
up, until I was jammed solid in sixth. I did a full lap
in sixth! When I brought it back in to the pitlane, I was
worried all the time about how I was going to stop. In the
end I had to switch the engine off and coast, but I fully
expected to see Jakey spread-eagled across the bonnet!”
The
team released the actuator while Mike and Tommy swapped
places. It would now be possible to select gears manually,
but the car still didn’t have an operational clutch. “When
the paddle shift is working, you don’t need a clutch at
all,” explained Mike. “Even on the manual shift, you can
still drive without using the clutch, but it’s not very
kind on the engine. The difficulty comes when you have to
start without a clutch. That’s not so easy.” Thomas, who
was ready to set off, had to get the engine to start in
gear, and it wasn’t being very co-operative. His first attempt
saw him stutter ten yards down the pitlane and then stop.
The
mechanics hauled him back and plugged in a slave battery.
It did the trick, and the engine burst into life . . . in
neutral. When Tommy tried to select a gear, it stopped again,
so he went for the start-in-gear trick again. Select first,
press the starter button and lurch forwards, hoping it will
fire up. This time it did, on the fourth attempt. With a
hesitant burst he was away down the pitlane, switching on
the headlights as he went.
It
had been a lengthy stop, perhaps eight or nine minutes,
and the MG had lost position as a result. Erdos emerged
back onto the racetrack in thirteenth place overall, fourth
in LMP2, with just an hour to go. What could he achieve
in that time? At first, not a great deal, since the safety
car was still in service, but when racing resumed he started
to drive like a thing possessed. While a thrilling final
hour was being prepared between Allan McNish and Nicolas
Minassian for the lead, Erdos was closing on Christian Vann
in the #13 LMP1 Courage for 12th place. A succession of
fastest laps came from the Brazilian, starting with a 2:04.812.
That narrowed the margin appreciably, and it continued to
diminish lap-by-lap until the MG swept through on lap 136.
That brought Erdos onto the same lap as the Horag Lista
Lola. Could he get third back, perhaps?
Erdos
responded with another improvement on his best lap; a 2:04.003
bringing him to within 33 seconds of Lienhard. With twenty
minutes to go it started to look as if he might just do
it. Phil Bennett, second in LMP2 at the wheel of the Kruse
Motorsport Courage, Lienhard in the Lola, and Erdos in the
MG were all on the same lap, and Erdos was travelling by
far the quickest. Lap 143, and the gap had dwindled to just
10 seconds. Next time around and Erdos produced a new best
of 2:03.605 (the second quickest in LMP2) to narrow that
margin to a mere five seconds. Next time through it was
less than 2 seconds, then a second, and finally, on lap
146, it wasn’t there at all. He’d passed Lienhard and third
in LMP2 was his once more. “I had no clutch, no gear cut,
and the downshifts weren’t happening when I wanted them,
but it’s what I had to live with.” Return to top
Finish
The
gap to Bennett looked too much, but there was a good chance
that the MG could catch Kaufmann for tenth overall. Yet
another fastest lap, this time a 2:01.684 confirmed the
possibility, especially as the German’s pace at this stage
was a good five to eight seconds slower. Sure enough, on
lap 150, the MG moved through into the top ten once more.
What was the next target for Erdos? That would have to be
Xavier Pompidou in the leading GT2 Porsche, ninth place
overall and fifteen seconds ahead of the sprinting Brazilian.
“Alastair [Mcqueen] kept me aware of the gaps,” said Erdos,
“so I knew what I had to aim for each time. We had the potential
to win today, I realise that, but a podium was vital for
the points.” By rights, there was time enough left for at
least two more laps, and Erdos responded in spectacular
fashion by setting a new race best for LMP2 of 2:00.882.
He crossed the line just six seconds behind the Porsche
and was certain to catch him on the last lap, but it never
came. Much to the surprise of everyone on the pitwall, the
race was already over. The chequered flag had been shown
at 9:58, two minutes before the allotted time, depriving
RML and the flying Erdos of another certain scalp.
It
didn’t really matter of course – class positions are what
count - but it was somewhat symbolic of the race. It had
neither run its course, having covered only 776.177 of the
nominated 1000 kilometers, nor had it fulfilled its time.
With huge chunks of the race paced behind the safety car,
the full distance was never going to be achieved without
continuing into Sunday, so six hours was the declared cut-off.
After the delayed start that should have meant finishing
at 10:07, but even that was cut back when the race end was
confirmed, with less than an hour to go, as ten o’clock.
Instead we had a race of 5 hours 51 minutes – neither one
thing nor the other. The point of this ramble? Second in
LMP2 at the flag was Phil Bennett in the #30 Kruse Courage,
just twenty seconds up the road from Erdos and being caught
at the rate of roughly six seconds a lap. It was only a
matter of time.
“In
the end, third was a good result,” admitted Thomas Erdos,
relieved to have overcome another troubled race, “but it
was the clutch that cost us second. We’ve always driven
to win, every time, but there are only two rounds to go
now. Even if we win the next two, we still need the others
to finish second or third alternately at best if we’re going
to have any chance of the championship.” Which brings us
back to where we started, and Phil Barker’s view on the
race. “We do everything the hard way!” he smiled, looking
more relaxed than I’ve seen him in ages. “The irony is,
we took a five year-old Saleen to Spa, and it hardly missed
a beat. Our luck in this championship has got to change.
We couldn’t ask the drivers to do any more than they’re
already doing, which is fantastic – from both of them –
but we do have to remember that we’re dealing with a car
that’s only five months old. We’ve got most things covered,
but there’s still a great deal still to do. We need to be
able to run to scheduled stops and not keep hitting all
these problems.”
On
Saturday, nearly all the MG’s problems could be levelled
at the rain. “It was water, water, water, every time,” agreed
Barker. “It took a lot of the systems down, including the
telemetry, the dash and, of course, the paddle shift. The
clutch cost us second place, but the water cost us the race.”
The team’s long-term preparation of the MG has centred on
reliability over twenty-four hours, so various contingencies
have been built in to improve the team’s chances of going
the distance. Two of those came into play at Silverstone.
The option for the drivers to switch to a manual gearchange
proved a race-saver, once the water had sidelined the paddle
shift system, but equally vital was the fact that the EX264
is fitted with two starter motors. “We’d given the first
starter motor a bit of grief,” admitted Phil Barker, “but
at least we could switch to the second.” After the clutch
had gone, this allowed the drivers to restart the car in
gear with some degree of confidence.
Long
after the race was over, and with a decent meal inside them,
the RML pit crew were back at work, stripping down the MG.
“We’ve encountered a few problems tonight that we don’t
want to have again,” explained Barker. “It’s important that
we isolate those as soon as possible, so there’s no point
in leaving it until tomorrow, when the water – or whatever
– may have dried out. We have to do the work now, while
it’s still fresh.”
As
a result many of the team’s personnel were still on hand
on Sunday to watch Adam Wiseberg, MD at AD Group, co-drive
the Vauxhall Monaro in the British GT Championship, with
Ryan Hooker. After struggling in qualifying, the duo came
through far more strongly in the race to finish tenth in
GT2.
Marcus
Potts
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