Silverstone 2008

Le Mans Series 2008
Round 5. Silverstone 1000 Kilometres. September 12th - 14th 2008
Weekend Preview

The Season Draws to a Close

The final round of the Le Mans Series 2008 brings with it a strange sensation that is both “end of term” and the start of something new, at least for RML.

Photo: Marcus Potts / CMC Graphics While the battle for the title in LMP2 was settled at the Nürburgring, with Jos Verstappen (right) clinching the trophy with another emphatic win in the Van Merksteijn Porsche RS Spyder, RML is effectively starting it’s 2009 campaign by bringing forward the launch of the new MG Lola EX265C.

The appearance of the svelte coupé at Snetterton on Wednesday last week (September 3rd) came as a bolt out of the blue for just about everyone in the industry. Rarely has the launch of a new car been achieved with such secrecy, and there was no doubting the surprise that the untroubled test generated. For several months there had been speculation about what the future held for the very successful partnership of Mike Newton and Thomas Erdos. Twice winners of the LMP2 class at Le Mans, and holders (until that race at the Nürburgring!) of the Le Mans Series P2 title, it seemed implausible to rivals and enthusiasts alike that the EX265 could possibly continue into another season.

Photo: Marcus Potts / CMC Graphics The way in which the LMP2 class has moved on in the last 12 months had effectively rendered the open-topped chassis uncompetitive, despite the best efforts of Phil Barker and his crew. Having secured pole in every race it contested in 2006, and then taking a relatively comfortable class title just twelve months ago, the arrival of new chassis such as Porsche’s RS Spyder, the latest incarnation of the Zytek A7S, and (significantly in this context) the Speedy Sebah Racing Lola coupé (left), had meant that the best RML could hope for was fifth or sixth on the grid. To a team used to winning, that was a frustrating pill to swallow.

Those watching from the stands recognised the signs, and even before the Le Mans 24 Hours in June, speculation was rife. There were many who attempted to guess the direction the team would take, and RML was linked with almost every chassis and engine manufacturer in sportscar racing. In the end the team, backed by AD Group, for whom Mike Newton is CEO, elected to follow a route that does, perhaps with the benefit of hindsight, seem the most logical.

Photo: Marcus Potts / CMC Graphics It is nearly two years since Huntingdon-based Lola Cars announced that their next generation of sportscars would be based around a coupé body-style, in accordance with the direction the ACO appeared to be headed at that time in relation to future regulation development for Le Mans 24 Hours and the Le Mans Series. In January this year it was confirmed that Speedy Sebah Racing would field one of the B08/80s in this year’s Le Mans Series, and decision-makers at RML and AD Group watched the car’s progress this season with keen interest. Perhaps, after six years of close involvement with Lola, the fact that they eventually elected to follow the same route should not have been the universal surprise it evidently was.

For further information on the team’s decision to upgrade to the EX265C, please see the news item here. For a report on how the first shakedown test went, as well as more photographs of the car, please see this second item here.

That first test went remarkably well. Understandably – as with any newly built car – there were a few minor issues to be resolved, and the car’s handling wasn’t pin-sharp immediately, but the net results were enormously encouraging. Nobody at the team is taking anything for granted, however, and a very realistic approach has been adopted for the car’s first race at Silverstone. As Thomas Erdos has been keen to emphasise, the final round of this year’s Le Mans Series is more like the first test for the next. The team will be using all the on-track hours they can find – in practice, qualifying, and the race - to amass as much information about the car as they can, and then carry that forward into an intensive winter development programme. If the car does turn out to be competitive first time out, that will simply be a bonus.

Photo: Marcus Potts / CMC Graphics

The skirmish for titles

If, as already mentioned, the battle for top honours in LMP2 is already settled, the same cannot be said for all classes in the Le Mans Series. Keenest battle of all is in LMP1, where the needle-match between Peugeot and Audi goes right down to the final flag. Peugeot remains undefeated in the Le Mans Series this season, and has crowed perhaps a little too loudly at times at Audi’s expense. The air-punch and gritted explosion of “Ja!” when Audi won the 24 Hours in June, for a record ninth year in succession ( accepting some leeway over the identity of the Bentley Speed 8 of 2003 ! ) must have been especially sweet in Ingolstadt, but the German manufacturer will be equally keen to see the R10 go out on a high. Audi has confirmed that the R10 has reached the end of the road, and the Silverstone 1000 Kilometres will be the car’s last European race.

Photo: Marcus Potts / CMC Graphics

A win for the #2 Audi R10 (above) could still see Mike Rockenfeller and Alexandre Premat snatch the Drivers’ title from Marc Gene and Nic Minassian – there’s just two points between them. Similarly, the Team title is also up for grabs. The Manufacturers’ title is more settled, with Peugeot heading Audi by six points, but a switch of fortunes at Silverstone could still allow the silver machines victory.

GT2 - Can it be Virgo again?

No points at Monza for Virgo means that last year’s GT2 champions still have to work hard to retain their title. An extraordinary run from a pit-lane start to win in Germany last time out proves they have the pace, but a mere three points stands between them and the hard-chasing Felbermeyr squad. Last year’s winner, Rob Bell, will miss the clashing Brno round of the FIA GT Championship in order to give the British Virgo Ferrari squad its best chance of success.

Can Strakka throw a spanner into the GT1 works?

In GT1, it will take a win for Team Modena, and a non-finish from the Luc Alphand Adventures duo of Patrice Goueslard and Guillaume Moreau (#72 Corvette) to deny the French outfit the title, but they’re up against stiffer opposition this week. The Strakka Racing Aston Martin DBR9, based at Silverstone, makes its reappearance after a fourth-placed debut at Spa. Bolstered by the arrival in the squad of works driver Darren Turner (twice the GT1 winner for AM at Le Mans) the team regulars of Peter Hardman and Nick Leventis will be keen to end their season on a high, and perhaps muddy the waters for the two title contenders.

Silverstone is, of course, universally popular with the drivers. A true “racers” circuit, the premier British circuit is in the doldrums a little at present, having received an ultimatum from the top brass in Formula 1 and seen the contract for the British Grand Prix awarded to Donington Park from 2010. The satellite view of the circuit (above) makes interesting viewing, with acknowledgement to Google Earth. Please be aware that the enlargement, should you choose to click the image, is big.

There are those – many perhaps – who question the wisdom of this move, and others who see it as a ploy to force the circuit’s owners, the BRDC, to move ahead more quickly with plans to redevelop the track (visualised above and left).

The planning applications for the new pit complex and other enhancements are well advanced, whereas Donington’s similar plans are still at the drawing board stage. If everything does go to plan, and the GP moves to Donington, then events such as the 1000 Kilometres could become headline meetings at Silverstone, which will likely remain the only British track capable of hosting an event of this scale. It isn’t the number of spectators, which remain frustratingly low for the endurance events, but the on-track action, where more than 50 cars in four different classes compete for the same stretch of tarmac.

Silverstone’s fast corners and sweeping curves make for very high average lap times, but how did some of those changes in direction get their names? “Maggots” conjures up some rather unpleasant mental pictures, but in fact the first sweeping chicane (right, at the top, with Becketts following, and then Hangar Straight) gains its title from Maggots Moor, which lies near the village of Whittlebury, just to the north-east.

Becketts and Chapel are both named after the long-disappeared ruins of a small church erected in the 13th century to the memory of the murdered archbishop, Thomas Beckett. It stood in the area now covered by the car park behind the BRDC building. When this was re-surfaced in 2007, Wessex Archaeology undertook a survey of what remained, sponsored by Porsche. Their dig confirmed that very little of the chapel survives, even below ground, most of it having been cleared to make way for the building of the airfield in 1943, but the full results are here.

Stowe Corner is named after the nearby public school (left) whose illustrious alumni include members of the rock group Supertramp, and Oliver Bertram, 1935 record holder around the Brooklands racetrack in Surrey – itself the inspiration for the eponymous corner at Silverstone.

The name of Abbey Curve also owes its origins to the cloisters, with Luffield Abbey being inspiration in this case, although perhaps it was a Priory? Silverstone’s name-callers hedged their bets, although truth is they were right in both events. The small village to the west of the circuit is known as Luffield Abbey, but the 11th Century Benedictine Priory that gave it the name was one of those that disappeared during the Reformation. No visible trace remains.

Club Corner is named after the RAC Club in London’s Pall Mall, while Woodcote is the location for the RAC’s exclusive club in Surrey.

Silverstone was a bomber base during the Second World War, home to the RAF 17th Operational Training Unit, and the lines of the old runways can still be seen. It ceased to be an airfield in 1960, although had (unofficially!) hosted its first motor race in 1947, and the inaugural Grand Prix (won by Nino Farina driving an Alfa-Romeo) in 1950. This remarkable footage on YouTube is certainly worth a look! Today’s drivers (and trackside photographers) prepare to be astonished.

The control tower survives, although you’d be hard pressed to recognise it as such (on the right after crossing Bridge), and Tower Straight alludes to this. Most of the other buildings have long gone, including the hangars which stood alongside Hangar Straight. The Farm is still there of course, and remains a central facility at the circuit, and lends its name both to a corner on the International Circuit, and the short straight leading into Bridge Corner.

Topography and history lesson over . . . onwards to the Silverstone 1000 Kilometres 2008. The full schedule for the weekend is as follows:

Thursday 11th September