Le
Mans Series 2006
Round 4. Donington Park 1000 Kilometers. August 26th-27th
2006
Practice
and Qualifying
A
Fifth Consecutive Pole for RML's Thomas Erdos
Preparations
by RML for the Le Mans Series 1000 Kilometers of Donington
Park progressed well through two sessions of free practice
before culminating in an awesome performance from Thomas
Erdos to secure the team’s fifth consecutive pole
of the Le Mans season on Saturday afternoon.
Free
Practice 1
There
had been no previous opportunity for the team to test at
Donington before the first Free Practice session on Saturday
morning, when conditions were dull, overcast and damp. Thomas
Erdos and Mike Newton had taken the opportunity of a track
day at Donington a few weeks previously to re-familiarise
themselves with the undulating circuit, but the Brazilian
obviously didn’t need much reminding. His first serious
attempt was a 1:38.195, set on only his third lap, and proved
sufficient to take the MG right to the top of the screens.
It stayed there for some time before the LMP1 runners got
into their stride, and was a marker for what was to become
a familiar pattern for the weekend.
Most
teams were fitting full wets, and several of those who elected
to brave lesser rubber ended their attempts amid the embarrassment
of gravel. Both Radicals, however, were running the MG a
close pace for quickest in LMP2, and also challenging the
more powerful P1 cars, several of which were finding the
conditions less suited to their greater horsepower. With
time, and use, a dry line started to appear, and with just
over half an hour gone Emanuel Collard threw in a 1:34 to
set the record straight, topping the times outright in the
LMP1 Pescarolo. He wasn’t on slicks yet, but within
ten minutes nearly everyone else was. With that, the times
started to tumble.
The
first to show in LMP2 was Stuart Moseley, who pipped Erdos
for top slot with an impressive 1:32.925, reputedly on intermediates.
Tommy tried a change of rubber, but elected to return to
full wets before going to slicks as the conditions finally
became sufficiently dry. It paid dividends, and he took
much delight in taking the MG right back to overall quickest
with a vastly improved 1:26.820. Half an hour remained,
and he wasn’t finished yet. Ten minutes later he’d
bettered that with a 1:25.316.
He
would probably have gone quicker still in the final minutes
of the session had a minor problem not arisen with the car’s
exhaust. He pitted, just to be on the safe side. Moments
later Rob Barff, returning to the Rollcentre Radical line-up
for the first time this season, popped in a scorcher right
at the close. The Radical’s 1:24.241 was good enough
to lay claim to top honours in LMP2, for the time being
at least. “That session went well,” said Erdos.
“The car was running strongly throughout, and we seem
to have achieved a good set-up for the circuit already.
We had one minor issue with the exhaust right at the end,
but we only lost a couple of laps’ track time, so
it was nothing significant. The guys were able to fix it
very quickly, as they always do with any problem!”
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Free
Practice 2
The
day’s second session started dry, and got better.
Once again Thomas Erdos was setting the pace in LMP2, with
Rob Barff getting to grips impressively with the Rollcentre
Radical. These two raised the stakes in LMP2, certainly
at the start of the ninety-minutes, although Sam Hancock
also showed pace in the Binnie Motorsports Lola. Tommy’s
best, before pitting briefly for a few tweaks, was a 1:25.473,
a few tenths better than Barff’s twenty-five-seven.
Hancock managed a twenty-five-two before Erdos re-emerged,
and the RML driver promptly set a new class best of 1:24.004.
That would stand proud for about half an hour, until Joao
Barbosa stepped aboard the #22 Radical to improve on Barff’s
best with a 1:23.703. Moseley, having promised much in the
Bruichladdich Radical, had been having a problematic time
early-on, suffering minor damage after contact with another
car, but resumed after repairs to throw down some impressive
times in the orange SR9.
While
all this was happening, Mike Newton (below) had swapped
places with Erdos aboard the RML MG. He enjoyed half a dozen
laps at the wheel, getting to grips with a circuit he’s
not raced for a couple of years, before handing back to
Erdos. “My times were positioning me a fraction short
of the zone where I’d wanted to be,” admitted
Mike, “but I had relatively few laps, and on that
basis, I was pleased to set a time within a second or so
of where I might have liked. I’m confident I’ll
be able to go quicker in the race, but it’s not the
fastest lap that really matters, but being consistent.”
The
final ten minutes initially saw Moseley back to the fore
in LMP2, posting 1:23.252 to leapfrog Barbosa’s earlier
twenty-five-seven, but Erdos was far from finished. His
very last lap was almost twenty-three-dead (1:23.024 to
be exact) and the best we’d see this side of qualifying.
The
day had gone well, and the RML crew looked forward to qualifying
with justifiable optimism. In both sessions Erdos had looked
comfortable, capable and convincing. “We were always
quickest, or thereabout, and running strongly,” he
said. His times were only bettered at the end of the first
session by a combination of drying track and that exhaust
issue, but he’d looked to have everything well under
control throughout the second. The pundits were predicting
more of the same when the serious stuff started later in
the afternoon.
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Qualifying
Thomas
Erdos was among the first to show when the twenty-minute
qualifying session began for Round 4 of the 2006 Le Mans
Series, and he wasn’t hanging about. His very first
flying lap was a tad over one twenty-two, and he followed
that a couple of minutes later with an even better 1:21.998.
It was impressive stuff, and had the red, white and blue
MG topping the screens for quite some while before the LMP1
runners truly got going. It was also enough to convince
Phil Barker, Team manager at RML, that pole was more-or-less
in the bag. He allowed Erdos one more lap (a ‘paltry’
twenty-two-two) and then brought him into the pitlane.
By this time almost half of the session
had been and gone, and Tommy’s first attempt still
looked competent enough for LMP2 pole. There was an intense
battle going on for outright pole between Marc Gounon, Emanuel
Collard and Stefan Johansson, but with more than half a
second over the next best in class, Erdos looked safe. The
MG was trolleyed backwards into the garage and the Brazilian
clambered out of the cockpit.
No
sooner had his boots touched the fresh concrete of Donington’s
new pit garages than Stuart Moseley (right) popped up with
a 1:21.881 to pip the MG’s provisional pole by just
over a tenth. Then, while Phil Barker and Thomas Erdos were
still exchanging quizzical glances, he came through to clock
an even better time of 1:21.776. “I looked at Phil
to see if I could work out what he was thinking,”
said Erdos. “We usually try to save the best of the
tyres for the race, but I hadn’t done many laps up
to that point. I felt sure there was more in the car, and
we knew it would be the first time this season that we’d
not had pole. I think Phil was keen to keep that record
intact.” Barker was indeed. “When Tommy went
out and set that time of 21.9, we thought, yes, that’s
good, not a bad effort! I’d brought him back in to
preserve the tyres for the race, but when the Radical went
two-tenths quicker, I knew I had to send him out again.”
This had probably been a case more of honour than necessity.
Over the course of a 1000-kilometer race, the difference
between starting on the front row pole, and the front row
second, is neither here nor there in the grand scheme of
things, but the team had a point to prove, and Erdos wanted
to give something back to his hard-working pit crew. He
leaped back into the cockpit, was strapped in firmly, and
within seconds was powering out along the pitlane towards
Redgate. One lap. That’s all it would take, and that’s
just about all he had time for. His first flyer was an awesome
1:21.557, almost half a second faster than his previous
best. He completed a gentle slowing-down lap, and then returned
to the pitlane, job done. “One lap was enough to stick
it back on pole, that’s all,” smiled a very
satisfied Phil Barker. “That was a stunning effort.”
Moseley
had continued to pound around the track but couldn’t
come close to his previous best, and certainly nowhere near
the Erdos magic. The flag fell with Erdos safely on pole
once again; his fifth LMP2 pole in a row, with Moseley second
and Barbosa fourth in the Rollcentre Radical, demoted by
a late-charging Sam Hancock in the #24 Binnie Lola Lola
05/42 Zytek.
“I’m delighted to get pole again,”
grinned Erdos, evidently amused but perhaps also relieved
by the turn of events. “We have to dig a little deeper
every time to maintain the unbeaten record, but this is
a great result for the whole team.” Adam Wiseberg,
ever quick with a dead-pan quip, appeared less impressed
. . . at first. “I think he could have gone quicker,”
declared the Motorsport Director from AD Holdings, a look
of intense seriousness on his face. “I think we’ll
have to let Mike qualifying the car next time if Erdos can’t
find a bit more pace.” He couldn’t keep a straight
face for long, however, and his iron-lipped grimace rapidly
elevated into a broad grin. “No, that was a scorching
lap,” he said, “quite fantastic, and a tremendous
effort. All credit to Tommy. He got out of the car, probably
thinking he’d done all that was necessary, and then
had to get back in and start all over again. Doing that
is one thing, but finding another half second is very impressive.
That’s the mark of a truly great driver.”
What does go through a driver’s mind
when that happens? “When someone else goes quicker
than you, it fires you up again,” said Erdos. “You
have to consider so many issues under circumstances like
that. Do I go out and trash the tyres, or save them for
the race. We always say we won’t jeapordise our race
strategy by going too hard for pole, but we decided this
time that there was sufficient left in the tyres that it
wouldn’t be such a risk. It was also important for
the team. The guys work so hard, and it’s good to
reward them. It also proves we have the fastest car, and
they’ve built it. Even so, that last lap was a bit
of a wild ride!
The
topic of tyres is an important one. The cars must start
the race on the same set used in qualifying, although each
team is permitted to change one of the four in the event
of damage or excessive wear. This is to discourage anyone
from using silly rubber just so they can achieve pole or
set an unrepresentative qualifying time. There is little
strategic advantage in doing this anyway, since tyres of
this type won’t last long under race conditions and
those fitting over-soft “qualifying” rubber
would have to pit soon after the start of the race to change
them. However, most teams do take advantage of the “one
in four” allowance and replace a single tyre, usually
the front left which has to work so much harder than all
the rest, especially at a circuit like Donington.
Ray
Mallock, team principal and founder of RML, was delighted
by Tommy’s qualifying performance. “It feels
very good to get pole again and retain our unbeaten record
for the year, but it was very tight this time,” he
said. “The Radical has been very quick throughout
practice, and we expected a strong challenge from them in
qualifying, but Tommy was able to dig a bit deeper and meet
that challenge.” The Radical has been closest to the
MG in terms of outright pace all year, but the arrival of
the Bruichladdich car, in effect a works supported effort,
means there are now two SR9s gunning for pole. “Stuart
Moseley is a local man and knows this circuit well,”
observed Erdos. “Even so, he did a great job today.
It’s made everything very tight at the top of P2,
but I enjoy the competition!” With the SR9's smaller
cousins, the SR3s, 4s and 8s supplying one of the support
races this weekend, the factory obviously made a particular
effort at Donington. “We knew they’d throw the
kitchen sink at this one,” said Mike Newton, and Adam
Wiseberg agreed. “The (works) Radical team has put
a lot of resources at this round, including drivers, and
we always knew we were going to have to be absolutely perfect
to come away with a good result. Everyone’s fired
up and ready to go. We’ll just see what’s happened
by the time we get to half-six tomorrow afternoon!”
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All
photographs this page courtesy of David Lord © dailysportscar.com
View high-resolution Gallery
for additional images from Saturday.