This could be the start of a beautiful friendship…….. We could be heroes…….. The opening round of the 2004 Le Mans Endurance Series produced some heroic drives from world class drivers and there is no better stage for such performances than Monza. There were changes for the lead, there was quality car control in the wet, and there were blistering qualifying laps in preparation for the 1000km race. The results in LMP1 read Audi, Audi, Audi, but those who believe it was a German tribute race had better find themselves a television screen and sit and watch the entire five hours and five minutes of pure motor racing to get the story. Tumblin’ Dice The race was everything endurance racing enthusiasts have hoped for and at Monza, the LMES extravaganza got off to the finest of starts. There is still a place for GT racing in the market, says Stephane Ratel who points out that 30 cars in the FIA series would never all fit in the LMES paddock, but the sight of Audis, Zyteks, Ferraris, Porsches, Domes, Courages and TVRs out on the track together was superb. There is overtaking, traffic, tactics and everything a proper motor race should have, including a classic dice for the lead. The 1000km format was a classic distance for good reason and it was just long enough for a touch of rain in the last 20 minutes to add that final ingredient – luck. Each of the LMES races is promoted as an ‘event’, and Monza’s will certainly stay in the memory, filed in the ‘classic’ section. Race reports can be found elsewhere, but there were some drives at the weekend that deserve better. Zytek Wallace and the Spiders from Mars In the interests of leaving the obvious until later, let’s start with the Zytek and, in particular, Andy Wallace. There are those who have said that he is missing those last few tenths of balls out speed these days, but anyone who saw his opening stint at Monza would soon shut up. He had crashed his Dyson Lola at Mosport last week, hitting a frost heave on the straight, flipping the Lola onto its single roll hoop which absorbed the 12g impact and allowed him to walk away unscathed. He tested the other chassis the next day, drove the Zytek in Italy on Saturday, and started the race. It was some surprise to see him start the race, and even more of a surprise to see him have a cheeky look around the outside of Allan McNish into Parabolica during the opening hour. It was a faultless display of driving, only interrupted when the bracket holding the brake master cylinder broke, tipping the cylinder and allowing brake fluid out, air into the system, and no front brakes for the last bit of his first stint, and his second stint too. David Brabham hopped in, did a lap and recommended that the part be replaced, as it was only the second hour of the race! Stefan Johansson stepped aboard for the final stint and comfortably ran among the Audis. Wallace, Brabham and Johansson, the ageless Swede who had put the car on provisional pole during first qualifying and who is reputed to be looking to buy one of these rocketships were, between them, sublime behind the wheel. In with a bullet Nasamax were another bunch that came up trumps at the weekend and, in particular, South African Werner Lupberger. The bio-ethanol car has been adapted to the new regulations and aerodynamically it looks like a dog’s dinner. Team manager John McNeil fully advocated the basis of the new rules, however. In the past, he explained over dinner on Friday night, you were terrified of dropping the rear even a fraction in case you got air underneath the nose with awful consequences…….ask Mercedes, Porsche or BMW. With the new car and the aerodynamics, you can drop the front, the back, either side, it matters not one jot. Over that same dinner, incidentally, McNeil demonstrated his complete lack of compassion as I ill-advisedly started a conversation with the Japanese Kondo team about bio-ethanol. “Good luck” he muttered as I embarked on a story about stuffing modified plants into the fuel tank. I’m going to have to explain it again later, properly translated. Having substantially less downforce than the older cars, Lupberger was still mighty during qualifying, comfortably quickest in a straight line and was ably backed up by Robbie Stirling who was having his first ever go around the Autodromo. The car sounds superb and the South African was obviously driving the wheelnuts off the car and having a fabulous time doing it. McNeil appreciates his protégé, though his impersonation of him does rather sound like Steptoe Senior. The car reached the finish at Monza, the first time it has completed a race, and well deserved it was too. Dutch disappointment and honourable rollcall Mike Hezemans deserves a note of sympathy as he failed yet again to finish a race. The Dutchman’s Ferrari 575 broke a prop shaft and retired to the dismay of his father. “Yet again, Mike doesn’t finish a race,” said Toine. “It has been a long time now.” Mike is a man who drives from the heart with all the passion any man who gets behind the wheel of a Ferrari should possess. Any time we went to Enna Pergusa, Mike in the Viper was simply outstanding through the first chicane and he has lost nothing behind the wheel of his Ferrari. There are many others who deserve a mention in the heroic stakes, from Nicolas Minassian in the Creation Zytek to Luca Riccitelli in the Seikel Motorsport Porsche, which challenged the likes of Stephane Ortelli and Romain Dumas, Sascha Maassen in the Cirtek Porsche. Hell, we could even get to the likes of Bobby Verdon-Roe, who managed to lap just about everyone in the his Ligier in the classic event on Sunday morning despite breaking his foot in a trampoline accident two weeks before, or Martin Short’s Rollcentre team that continues the bluffer’s guide to prototype racing and has now finished competitively at the Sebring 12-hours and at Monza 1000kms. Glimmer Twins But we must move onto the Veloqx Audis at some point and this is it. Allan McNish and Johnny Herbert were outstanding in their Audis, and you couldn’t find many who would disagree. The Scot put in a Herculean quadruple stint for starters, lost the lead in a chaotic pit stop thanks to Wallace’s faded brakes and missed pit which shoved everyone ahead out of place when they stopped including the Audi. The Veloqx team couldn’t refuel until the Konrad Saleen behind had been pushed back, so they changed tyres, then refuelled, then sent McNish back out. He hunted down Herbert, passed him with a wonderful move at the exit of the Ascari chicane, and pulled out a lead for his co-driver Pierre Kaffer. Would Kaffer finish the race? “He is fast enough to do it, why not?” asked McNish. The standard was simply too high for the German taking part in only his second race with Audi. He has undoubted talent, gets on well with McNish who groomed Dindo Capello in 2000, and who recognises Kaffer’s potential, but at Monza, it took world class. Herbert chased down Kaffer, and as they jinked either side of a Ferrari, Kaffer must have been astonished to see Herbert drawing level, fully on the grass, and holding the inside line into Parabolica. “I was on the grass for a bit longer than I expected,” said Herbert afterwards. It was the move of the race, one that summed up what we have in store for the season. There are no team orders at Audi Team Veloqx, there are two ex Grand-Prix drivers who never had the opportunity that they deserved, and we have Silverstone and Spa coming up. Audi did finish first, second and third, the Team Goh Audi struggling for the pace of the Veloqx cars and never being part of the battle for the win. That was left to the Zytek, which everyone agrees will be a real handful at the Nurburgring in July, with the Creation, Zytek Engineering and Team Jota machines expected to jolly along the German machines on their home turf. French Lessons The Pescarolo team brought its car home fourth; delighted with its new Judd engine that has replaced the unwieldy Peugeot powerplant. RML had a reliable run to seventh, possibly the first time such a car has run without any mechanical issues over that race distance, Larbre won the GTS category with Pedro Lamy, Christophe Bouchut and Steve Zacchia to the delight of team owner Jack Leconte…the list of deserved mentions goes on and on. We’ll try to do them all justice later in the year. For now, for those who videotaped the Grand Prix, try to lay your hands on a copy of the LMES 2004 season opener. You won’t be disappointed. We know we will enjoy the race, whoever shows up. |
Andrew Cotton |
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