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LMS round 2 - Spa 1000 kms. 8-10 May 2009

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  • LMS round 2 - Spa 1000 kms. 8-10 May 2009

    Second race of the series! Preview of the GT2 class by Planetlemans.com:

    LMS Spa 1000KM - The Grand Touring classes at Spa

    GT2: Interesting field of sixteen GT2 cars at Spa.
    Sixteen cars have been entered for this weekend’s race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. With cars from Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin, Spyker, Lamborghini there is a lot to compare in this class.

    Reiter Engineering will debut their new Lamborghini Gallard LP560, with Christophe Bouchut and Albert von Thurn und Taxis behind the wheel. Despite being shown at Paul Ricard during pre-season testing and some private tests the second round of the LMS will actually be first race of the car. Let’s see what it can do against the other entries.

    Another new entry is the Advanced Engineering Ferrari F430 GT2 for Griffin-Bamford. This Ferrari is expected to be used as the Team Seattle entry for next months Le Mans 24 Hours. A similar rebranding of a car is happening at ProSpeed Competition. The Belgian team, which won the opening round of the FIA GT Championship at Silverstone only last weekend, will enter the Paul Daniels owned Porsche 997 GT3 RSR. Paul Daniels will be joined by Markus Palttala. Unfortunately the car is a 2007-built 997 with 2008 updates and it seems unlikely that it will be able to fight for the top places.

    So who can fight for the top spot in GT2?

    Two Porsches are certainly in it for winning. Barcelona’s winner, the #77 Team Felbermayr-Proton, will be back at Spa with Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz again. On the entrylist Horst Felbermayr Sr is also shown as the third driver, but we know from the ‘senior’ driver that he is smart enough to stay out of the car when he thinks the car can win. And why risk losing a championship?
    The second Porsche that could win is the IMSA Performance Matmut entry. The team’s duo (Raymond Narac and Patrick Pilet) are a force to be reckoned with and if the car keeps on the track and out of trouble this team should be considered as a threat to the #77 Porsche.

    Team Felbermayr-Proton’s #88 is the fourth Porsche in the field, but its line-up and results so far make it possible to say that this car needs more than just some luck to get a top result.

    Finally Ferrari…next to the Advanced Engineering F430 GT2 there are no less than eight F430 GT2s on the grid: JMW, Hankook, two FBRs, Team Modena, Virgo, Easyrace and JMB Stradale Racing.

    Several of the Ferrari’s have top line-ups, with JMW Motorsport having one of the best (Bell-Bruni). The #92 Ferrari was the best of the rest at Barcelona and hopes to beat all Porsche teams at Spa this weekend. But with Simonsen and Kaffer in the Hankook-Farnbacher Racing car, Jaime Melo joining Antonio Garcia and Leo Mansell at Team Modena they will also face some opposition from their own ranks.

    Easycall, JMB (with Julien Rodrigues this time and at Le Mans), the two FBR cars as well as the Virgo Motorsport cars are unlikely to fight for a podium finish in the GT2 class, unless the top teams and/or drivers hit trouble.

    Spyker Squadron will be there with its Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R again. At Barcelona things started really well with fast lap times, but come race day Jarek Janis was replaced by Benjamin Leuenberger due to an injury and three laps into the race it was already over. The problems have been solved and with Janis unfit to race at Spa the Dutch team has drafted in Peter Dumbreck. The combination of Tom Coronel and Peter Dumbreck is one of the strongest in the class; let’s just hope the car’s reliability will be as good. A decent result is something this team needs before heading to Le Mans.

    We end our GT2 preview with Drayson Racing. The British team used the Le Mans Series test at the Bugatti circuit to get more miles in preparation for the Le Mans 24 Hours. Marino Franchitti tested for the team, but won’t be racing at Spa. The team has got more Aston Martin Racing support and the team is placed next to its big brothers in LMP1. Cocker and Drayson will be hoping to beat even more cars than at Spa and go to Le Mans with a positive feeling.

  • #2
    SNORAS SPYKER SQUADRON SPA 1000 KM PREVIEW

    Zeewolde, May 7 – After the cancelation of the official Le Mans test day this weekends 1000 km of Spa- Francorchamps is the last test before SNORAS Spyker Squadron heads to France for the famous Le Mans 24 Hours mid-June. The Dutch team is in the midst of its Le Mans preparations and therefor the team will take the opportunity to already simulate a number of Le Mans specific setup settings and procedures in the Belgium race.
    Peter van Erp, Managing Director Spyker Squadron: “It is going to be an important race for us. After our disappointing result in the first Le Mans Series round at Barcelona last month we have put pressure on ourselves to return home with results. It is extremely important to go to Le Mans well prepared and well motivated. We invited Peter Dumbreck to race for us this weekend as Jarek Janis receives medications to recover from an inflammation of the jaw and was advised by his doctors not to drive”.
    The team brings new updates to Spa; a new rear wing with higher down-force against a good drag efficiency and an optimised new air-box enabling the engine to deliver more torque.
    The 1000 km of Spa-Francorchamps is the second round of the 2009 championship and will start on Sunday May 10th 12:50 p.m. CET. The race will be 143 laps or six hours long. Eurosport will be broadcasting the start and finish of the race on Sunday. For Spyker Squadron updates do not forget to drop by our Vimeo and Twitter pages which we will be updating during the race.

    Comment


    • #3
      And you can follow the race in the following ways:

      Radio (real nice)
      Live timing
      Free live stream (hope it works)

      Also Eurosport will broadcast the start and finish. And they have a live stream on their website. But you have to pay for it.
      More information can be found HERE.

      Schedule for the weekend:

      Friday - 8th May
      16:30 18:00 Le Mans Series Free Practice 1

      Saturday - 9th May
      09:45 10:45 Le Mans Series Free Practice 2
      13:25 13:45 Le Mans Series Qualifying - "LM" GT1 & "LM" GT2
      13:55 14:15 Le Mans Series Qualifying - "LM" P1 & "LM" P2

      Sunday - 10th May
      08:30 08:50 Le Mans Series Warm-Up
      12:50 18:50 Le Mans Series Race

      Comment


      • #4
        The whole day dry and it starts to rain in our first free practice session.
        Spyker is 7th in the 1st free practice session. Peter Dumbreck set the team's quickest time in wet conditions.
        Third quickest time in the wet for Spyker today and fastest GT2 trap speed.
        Source: Spyker Squadron Twitter

        So Spyker did pretty well! Complete list with times can be found HERE.

        PS Spyker did beat all the Porsche's and the Aston Martin and the Lamborghini. Only 6 Ferrari's were quicker.

        Comment


        • #5
          Good to hear!

          Comment


          • #6
            I'll be there saturday and sunday!

            Comment


            • #7
              Qualifying results

              Spyker has to start from the 9th place in class tomorrow, not really what we expected. Maybe the crash from this morning had something to do with it?

              1 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - Team Felbermayr Proton - 2:21.870
              2 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR - Imsa Matmut - 2:22.012
              3 Ferrari F430 GT - Team Modena - 2:22.698
              9 Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R - 2:25.088

              Let's hope they have more luck in the race, and that the car will be fully repaired.
              Below you can read what happend in this mornings practice session:

              Unfortunately for the Snoras Spyker Squadron their built-up towards the qualifying and race was interrupted when Coronel hit the wall on driver’s left between Blanchimont and the Bus Stop chicane. Coming out of Blanchimont the Spyker was seen side by side with the Reiter Engineering Lamborghini Gallardo driven by Christophe Bouchut. The French driver then moved right into the path of Coronel, causing the Spyker driver to spin and hit the wall on the outside of the track. While Coronel returned to the pit with some bodywork damage as well as damage to the front and rear suspension, the Lamborghini kept on going…before crashing out at Les Combes, damaging the front of the Gallardo.
              Source: Planetlemans.com

              Comment


              • #8
                SNORAS Spyker Squadron SPA 1000 km qualifying

                SNORAS Spyker Squadron will start from a ninth position on the GT2 grid in tomorrow's Le Mans Series Spa-Francorchamps 1000 km race. A combination of the new limited free practice scheme, a collision with another GT2 car, yesterday's rain and a dozen red flag situation prevented the team to properly setup their C8 Laviolette GT2 racer for the 20 minute GT qualifying session this afternoon.

                After yesterdays 1.5 hour first free practice, where the team set the third quickest time and the highest GT2 top speed towards the end of the session when the track was still damp, the team continued this morning to improve the setup for today's mild and dry conditions. Directly after the start of the practice session a code red caused all teams to return to the pit lane. Minutes later green was given and Tom Coronel left the pit lane. In his first timed lap the GT2 Lamborghini driven by Bouchut pushed Tom wide at Blanchimont. As a result Tom spun and hit the wall. The front-left and rear-left suspension was damaged as well as the front bodywork and the new front splitter. There was not sufficient time for the team to replace the damaged parts and rejoin the practice session in time to complete its quest for better times.

                So far the Dutch team had not been able to drive more than three laps in a row and the team management decided to also use the 20-minute GT2 qualifying session to continue to work on the setup. Unfortunately also in the short qualifying session, almost immediately after the start, a code red was given because of a GT car that came to a stop on the track. Only after having lost 9 minutes of precious time the session was restarted. After a new in-lap Peter Dumbreck could only do one timed lap and set the ninth quickest time.

                Peter van Erp, Managing Director Spyker Squadron: "Setup-wise we know little for tomorrow's race. We will try to do more tests in the 20-minute warm-up session before we start in the six-hour race. The weekend starts per tomorrow for Spyker Squadron".

                The 1000 km of Spa-Francorchamps is the second round of the 2009 championship and will start on Sunday May 10th 12:50 p.m. CET. The race will be 143 laps or six hours long. Eurosport will be broadcasting the start and finish of the race on Sunday. For Spyker Squadron updates do not forget to drop by our VIMEO and TWITTER pages which we will be updating during the race.

                Source: Spyker Squadron

                Let's hope they had all their bad luck before the race started. Hopefully tomorrow everything will go smoothly for them.

                Comment


                • #9
                  The on board lap looks

                  2009 Spyker Squadron LMS Spa Onboard on Vimeo

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by SpykerOwner View Post
                    That looks good
                    Olav

                    Instagram
                    https://www.instagram.com/3stfotografie/?hl=nl

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      Tom is running on 7th spot now

                      Comment


                      • #12
                        Still 7th

                        Comment


                        • #13
                          Safety car is out. Spyker is 6th

                          Comment


                          • #14
                            How far are they into the race?
                            Rijk

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                            • #15
                              Originally posted by SpykerOwner View Post
                              Nice video
                              Rijk

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