ELMS 4 Hours of Silverstone ... the #28 Idec Sport entered Oreca to take the team’s first ELMS victory


 

ELMS Silverstone, 31/08 – 01/09 2019

The weekend of 31 August/01 September saw the Silverstone circuit host a double header for fans of endurance racing, with the ELMS 4 Hours of Silverstone on the Saturday, and Round 1 of the 2019-2020 FIA WEC series featuring another 4 hour race on the Sunday. The two main races of the weekend were supported by rounds of the Porsche Carrera Cup GT series. The weekend also saw the return of Goodyear to endurance racing, with the announcement that they would provide tyres for three of the top teams in the LMP2 class of the FIA WEC series, Jota Sport, Jackie Chan DC Racing and Cool Racing. To publicise this they had a paddock display featuring a Brabham BT20 F1 car, which used Goodyear tyres in period, and a Brabham BT26 in Goodyear’s blue and yellow livery, with David Brabham in attendance signing autographs.

ELMS

The Silverstone race was the 4th round of the 6 races in the 2019 series, with an entry of 39 cars spread across the three classes. The overall pole position was taken by the #21LMP2 Dragonspeed entered Oreca 07-Nissan driven by Ben Hanley, whilst in LMP3 the #19 M Racing entered Norma M 30-Nissan took the honours, and in the LMGTE class it was the #60 Kessel Racing Ferrari 488 GTE EVO that was quickest, but only a fraction over a second covered the whole class.

From the start, as the armada of cars barrelled into the first turn there was a distinct lack of space on the ribbon of tarmac as they jostled for position, and a number had to take to the run-off areas to avoid serious contact. After they had sorted themselves out the #21Oreca 07-Nissan emerged in the lead driven by James Allen, whilst some of the other front runners dropped down the order in the melee. The race had started under leaden skies, and after just over five minutes of racing the rain swept in, causing plenty of spins, with most teams opting to pit for wet tyres, whilst others decided to try and brave it out on the slicks they had started on, which jumbled up the running order, and then a full course yellow when the #66 JMW Ferrari beached in a gravel trap, further dampening race proceedings. By the time the track had dried sufficiently for a return to slick tyres, it was the #43 RLR MSPORT Oreca driven by Mathieu Vaxiviere that held a healthy lead, with the # 11 Eurinternational Ligier leading the LMP3 class and the #60 Kessel Ferrari leading the LMGTE class from the sister #83 example. The #51 Luzich Racing Ferrari, winner of the LMGTE class in the previous round at Monza, had its usual class leading performance hampered by 35kgs of success ballast.

By the time that the race reached half distance it was the #37 Cool Racing entered Oreca that led the race from the recovering #26 G-Drive entered Aurus, which had dropped down the order in the early melee. The #43 MSPORT Oreca had dropped well down the order after a lengthy pit stop with technical problems. Just after half distance the #3 United Autosports LMP3 Ligier was pitched heavily into the concrete wall, when it was clipped by an overtaking #24 Oreca LMP2 car, which brought out the safety car for a lengthy period whilst the wreckage was cleared. When the course went green again there was almost immediately another safety car period when the #30 Duqeine Engineering and #77 Cool Racing LMP2 Orecas were eliminated in another crash, which left the former in the middle of the track. By the time that the race had reached three quarter distance there was another new race leader, this time it was the #39 Graff entered Oreca, but there were still a round of pit stops to come for most of the field.

The final hour of the race saw some great battles through the field, notably between the #83 and #60 Kessel Ferraris and the #51 Luzich example going into the final 20 minutes, when the # 83 car had a quick splash and dash fuel stop, dropping it back into the clutches of the other pair, for the final two podium spots, as the #88 Proton entered Porsche had taken command of the class a little bit earlier. The # 83 managed to get a little clear air over the other pair, who were swapping positions going into the closing laps, but a couple of taps on the rear of the #51 car by the #60 example, allowed it to get past to take the final class podium spot. Equally it was all action at the head of the field in the closing stages, with the #21 DragonSpeed Oreca leading from the #26 G-Drive Aurus and the #39 Graff Oreca. However, both the #21 and # 26 cars had to make splash and dash fuel stops, whilst the #39 Oreca had to take a penalty for dangerous driving under the safety car, which allowed the #28 Idec Sport entered Oreca to take the team’s first ELMS victory.

Race Podiums


Overall & LMP2

1st – #28, Idec Sport, Oreca 07-Gibson, P. Lafargue / P. Chatin / M. Rojas
2nd – #26, G-Drive Racing, Aurus 01-Gibson, R.Rusinov / J. Vergne / J. Van Uitert
3rd – #39, Graff, Oreca 07-Gibson, T. Gommendy / A. Cougnaud / J. Herschi


LMP3

1st – #11, Eurointernational, Ligier JS P3-Nissan, M. Jensen / J. Petersen
2nd – #13, Inter Europol Competition, Ligier JS P3-Nissan, M. Hippe / N. Moore
3rd – #2, United Autosports, Ligier JS P2-Nissan, W. Boyd / G. Grist / T. Erdos


LMGTE

1st – #88, Proton Competition, Porsche 911 RSR, T. Preining / G. Giraudi / R. Sanchez
2nd – #83, Kessel Racing, Ferrari 488 GTE EVO, M. Gostner / R. Frey / M. Gatting
3rd – #60, Kessel Racing, Ferrari 488 GTE EVO, S. Pianezzola / N. Cadei / G. Piccini

 

Ferrari Entry

Race #

Model

Chassis #

Team

Colour

Drivers

Position

 

O/A

Cl.

Class LM GTE

 

 

83

Ferrari 488 GTE “EVO”

3832

Kessel Racing

Blue-Black-Pink

M. Gostner /
R. Frey /
M. Gatting

22nd

2nd

60

Ferrari 488 GTE “EVO”

3830

Kessel Racing

Blue-Black- Orange

N. Cadei /
S. Pianezzola /
A. Piccini

25th

3rd

51

Ferrari 488 GTE “EVO”

3824

Luzich Racing

Red-White-Blue- Black

A. Pier Guidi /
N. Nielsen /
F. Lavergne

28th

4th

55

Ferrari 488 GTE “EVO”

3812

Spirit of Race

Green Met’-White

D. Cameron /
M. Griffin /
A. Scott

29th

5th

66

Ferrari 488 GTE “EVO”

4404*

JMW Motorsport

Yellow-Black Silver-Red

J. Segal /
W. Lu /
M. Cressoni

30th

6th

*488 GT3 Converted to GTE “EVO” Specification