We are in the 2011 Tire Rack One Lap of America but not as hoped in the carbon V8 MCoupe. It's a dissapointement for all involved but, as you read here, we experienced an unexpected and as of yet unexplained engine failure at our VIR test. There was just no time to have the engine rebuilt for the One Lap, but Dinan, Apex and Trinity Motorsports are hard at work to get it sorted for the Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge later this summer.
We don't like to give up or let you down, so I volunteered my BMW S54 M Coupe which I drove yesterday from NYC to Lima, Ohio. Today, at Trinity Motorsports, Shawn and the guys will get all new fluids in an transfer as many bits as possible over from the black carbon car and later today, Eric and I will drive the resulting Frankencoupe up to South Bend ready for tomorrow's start!
Stay tuned, check our twitter feed (@axisofoversteer) and Facebook page for updatesend of post--> READ MORE
A special Edition of a special edition, the GT3RS 4.0 is an awesome car but there are those that are a bit dissapointed Porsche did not go full RSR for the road, bolted fenders and all. The more cynical are murmuring Porsche is just trying to milk the remaining 997 chassis ahead of the 991 introduction.
What they are missing though is that this car will have the RSR's engine and choice mototsport suspension bits and, of course, "weight optimized carpets"!
In any case, your neighbor just bought a GT3 RS? Make sure you get on the list for one of the 600 white and red 4.0s for the best 997 RS that will ever be!
Press release after the jump
Limited edition racing car: 911 GT3 RS 4.0
Stuttgart. With the 911 GT3 RS 4.0, one of Dr. Ing. h.c. F. Porsche AG, Stuttgart’s most popular, coveted and successful racing pedigree production cars is entering the home straight. Limited to 600 vehicles, the 911 GT3 RS 4.0 brings together in a road car all the attributes that have made the Porsche 911 GT3 a serial winner on the race track. The new model purveys thoroughbred motorsport technology to its innermost core. The flat engine's crankshaft has been lifted unchanged from the 911 GT3 RSR racing car’s six cylinder engine and the forged pistons’ connecting rods are fashioned from titanium. The four-litre displacement sports engine, the biggest 911 model line engine ever, is also the most powerful naturally aspirated engine with 125 hp/litre (92 kW). It achieves its maximum power of 368 kW (500 hp) at 8,250 revs per minute. The engine delivers its maximum torque of 460 Newton metres at 5,750 rpm.
The 911 GT3 RS 4.0 offers truly impressive performance. The most eloquent figure: It makes it round the Nürburgring-Nordschleife in 7:27 minutes. The 911 GT3 4.0, available exclusively with a six-speed sports transmission, sprints to 100 km/h (62 mph) from a standing start in 3.9 seconds, its gearing designed for the racing circuit taking it to the 200 km/h (124 mph) mark in under 12 seconds.
The 911 GT3 RS 4.0’s outstanding driving dynamics are the fruit of meticulously coordinated details. In addition to using the suspension components typically encountered in motor racing, weight reduction is also of supreme importance. Equipped as standard with light weight components such as bucket seats, bonnet and front wings made of carbon fibre, plastic rear windows and weight-optimised carpets, the two-seater’s ready-for-road weight is a mere 1,360 kilograms with a full tank of fuel. At 2.72 kg/hp, the 911 GT3 RS 4.0’s power-to-weight ratio thereby dips below the magical threshold of 3 kilograms per hp.
The limited edition 911 is painted white as standard and emphasises its proximity to motor racing by its dynamic appearance. Trademark characteristics are the wide track, the low vehicle position, the large rear wing with adapted side plates, the typical central twin tailpipe and the aerodynamically optimised body. The lateral front air deflection vanes, so-called flics, making their first appearance on a production Porsche, testify to the aerodynamic precision engineering. They create increased downforce on the front axle and together with the steeply inclined rear wing bring the vehicle into aerodynamic equilibrium. As a result, at top speed, aerodynamic forces exert an additional 190 kg pushing the 911 GT3 RS 4.0 onto the road.
The market launch of the new Porsche 911 GT3 RS 4.0 begins in Germany in July 2011. The basic list price is 178,596 euro including 19 per cent value added tax and country-specific equipment.
Awesome job by Cleber of CleberDesigns with my new Arai GP6 SH lid. I loved my old one but I like this one even more!
The red is actually a Red-Orange fluorescent which is very hard to render on video. The logo on top is PERFECT and the quality of the clear coat is absolutely fantastic.
Cleber was super nice to deal with, fast and I have to say quite reasonable. 100% Axis approved! end of post--> READ MORE
Not good news from the second day of testing at VIR I'm afraid. The problems we had the first day seemed to multiply culminating into our having to shut down the engine due to what we suspected to be a major internal failure, this despite never having the chance to be run hard on track.
All is not lost, if we find an engine replacement by Tuesday there is conceivably time to drop it in but, as you can imagine, the situation is less than optimal.
This is the video of the final try, when the engine really let go...
On the plus side, our clutch issues were solved and were the brake bias/no ABS issues and the car really did handle quite nicely. There is noticeable downforce from the wing and splitter and the giant Michelin PS2 provided good grip. One day, when it's fully sorted, this car will be a beast.
We get more news during the day monday, keep you posted.
More pictures from the David Murry Track Days even at VIR after the jump
8 years old and and companies like Alpinestars are already looking at them. And look at them ride! It's the same in karting... in the future, perhaps pre conception genetic screening and sponsorship? :)
Very frustrating day but hey, that's what test days are for yeah? Al sorts of little problems popped up today and the result was very little running and much time spent on a lift. Shawn from Trinity Motorsports and Alex from Apex Speed managed to get through most of the issues with the rest to be addressed between here and the the start of the One Lap (including getting ABS to work, that's a big one.).
Tomorrow is another day, and hopefully we'll get some proper seat time because us running laps in the Sentra rental car was embarrassing the many Porsche drivers present... I think most of the 997 GT3 RS II in the US were here today at the David Murry Track Days event!
The Axis of Oversteer 343 car of Peter Thiboult and the 77 of Sean Curran started side by side in Sunday's NASASpec e30 race at New Jersey Motorsport Park's Lightning.
Pete and Sean have great opening lap scraps until Sean reads lapped traffic a bit better and slips ahead. Then Sean gets hit (11:40) trying to squeeze by a blind man driving a yellow Miata and 343 gets in front. There are a couple of full course yellows...one inexplicably with no pace car and the fight goes on between the two BMWs.
Real bumpers show their value as the two make their way through slower and sometime apparently clueless traffic until Pete's luck runs out (around 16 min.) as he gets taken out by a car that had spun next to him. Sean takes the win, Pete will be back at the secret warehouse fixing some body panels.
Spec E30 race with NASA NE at Lightning. Started P2, finished 1st. There were two full course cautions, one only lasted a lap and the pace car never came out, that's why the first restart is a bit weird.
I would have loved to see the look on Horner and Marko's faces when Webber passed Button on the second to last turn on the final lap but perhaps even more so when, during the press conference, he said he was happy someone beat his teammate! What an extraordinary thing to hear. Not bad for a #2 driver again, after being put by the team on hard tires in Q1 Saturday, after again not having a working KERS (tell me again what good is KERS?). Webber deliverer a rather clear message to Red Bull:
Red Bull seemed to be a bit too convinced of its speed coming into the race. we mentioned they had done successful long stints in practice and that it looked like they would go for a 2 stopper. I suppose they figured they would have such an advantage between the car and Vettel running off after the start that they would be ok...bzzz wrong. Mclaren with Hamilton destroyed Vettel and the Red Bull brain trust today, what a performance by them. But for me, and many of you I'm sure, it was Webber's best race ever. Yes he had the right strategy, yes he's driving an RB7, but there was that fire that only comes to someone who eats red mist for breakfast. Frankly, Vettel may be world champion but I don't remember him putting in a performance like that ever. Go @aussiegrit!
I guess everyone loved the artificial tire degradation related passing, it sure made the job of putting together the usual Executive Summary long! enjoy.
While you wait for the Chinese GP, have a look at something distinctly more analog.
Alex King is one of Axis's oldest friends and from time to time he will share a little gem with us tracktards. Have a look at JR Hildebrand working a set of Avon wets hard on the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve last June before the Grand Prix.
JR is onboard the 1976 Penske PC4 which won the Austrian GP that year with John Watson and it was restored and is currently looked after by Doug Mockett.
1:33.706, another amazing performance by Sebastian Vettel and the RB7.
The previous qualifying lap record was by Barichello in 2004 with a 1:34.012 in a Ferrari which had much more power, weighed much less and had less restrictive aero (but grooved tires).
Vettel's time was a massive 7/10th faster than second place Jenson Button but other teams should be even more worried by the pace Vettel kept on a race stint simulation in practice where he went 18 laps on a set of tires at a steady 1:43 pace. That points to a two stopper. To top it off, he's not short on tires so he could change strategy if he needs to.
Of course it was high and low with Red Bull but frankly, it seems obvious that what happened to Webber is what happens to a #2 driver, just not the best out of the team.
Tomorrow, barring a mechanical or a first lap incident, I would expect a carbon copy of Sepang.
BTW, if you are still blasé about what these guys do, check out the still above. Vettel is at the end of the main straight heading into the curlycue decreasing radius turn 1. He is well passed the 50M board and he is turning in at 313 km/h, 194.4mph in 7th gear. Less than 5 seconds later he is at the slowest part of the turn at 90km/h-55mph in 2nd. Check it out on the video after the jump, amazing.
24 year old Michela Cerruti took the win at Monza in the season opener of the Superstars Series for heavyweight V8. From third on the grid she held the big boys at bay even after a spin. Have a look.
Hilarously, the intent was to marry the stately front of a Rolls with the sporty rear of a 911.... the bodywork was done by an Indian "carrozzeria" who, just to be on the tasteful side, added lambo doors. The car is now apparently for sale, anyone have Adrien Sutil's e-mail? (Autotrader via Repubblica).
Results look awfully familiars, don't they? Aside from the oppressing smog cloud shrouding the Shanghai circuit and the complete lack of human beings on the stands, I found two tidbits of interest in this clip of Jenson Button's car:
Mclaren are running grills on the brake ducts, something I don't remember noticing before. Presumably, this is to keep that rolled up Pirelli rubber everyone seems to be (at least publicly) in denial about, out of the rotors.
Also from the relative ride height of the tea tray vs the sidepods, one might assume Mclaren it trying out Red Bull's raked set up.
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Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m37.688s 34 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m37.854s + 0.166 22 3. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m37.935s + 0.247 31 4. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m37.943s + 0.255 34 5. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.105s + 0.417 29 6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m38.507s + 0.819 36 7. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m38.735s + 1.047 35 8. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m38.805s + 1.117 26 9. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m38.859s + 1.171 31 10. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m39.327s + 1.639 33 11. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.538s + 1.850 33 12. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m39.667s + 1.979 37 13. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m39.771s + 2.083 18 14. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m39.779s + 2.091 17 15. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m39.828s + 2.140 25 16. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m39.925s + 2.237 32 17. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.953s + 2.265 30 18. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m40.476s + 2.788 30 19. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m41.482s + 3.794 32 20. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m42.902s + 5.214 25 21. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m43.850s + 6.162 3 22. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m44.008s + 6.320 35 23. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m44.747s + 7.059 12
Turn it up and enjoy the flat crank musical stylings of Maranello's own FXX Evoluzione as driven by our friend, that champion among tracktards, Manuma.
Manu says he had not been behind the wheel of the #28 FXX for about two years before this Ferrari day at Mugello but he settled in quite well though he apologizes for the less than optimal camera location.
Scratch off a bunch of HP...Harris got in touch and said it was actually a GT3 RS not a 2 RS...
Looks like Chris Harris gets to have fun on a global scale. He was tweeting recently about being in the States and going to Sebring... here he is lapping a Porsche 997 GT2 GT3 RS. Sadly the audio is WAY out of sync but he does a lap at around 2:24 if I'm not mistaken...
Not bad but AXisCG lapped in 2:22 with an I stock Cayman S with half the horsepower... :)
Probably whatever they get for free but in some cases they actually buy their own...usually with mixed results. This is one from Adrien Sutil's garage, a "much improved" looking Panamera!
I'll get to the usual race summary later but I was curious as to your thoughts on the Malaysian GP.
For me, it was was one of the more exciting GP's in a while but at the same time the most artificially so. It reminded me more of MotoGP races of a few seasons back when it seemed that tire management was the main factor, except that these tires only last a dozen laps if that, before they turned into the biggest sea of marbles I have ever seen. I wonder what the total weight of the rubber swept from the track after the race is.
Many of the passes were because of the DRS wing and to me, somewhat fake. Ironically it seemed cars don't need DRS to pass each other: for example Alonso would have easily passed Hamilton if Hamilton had not moved over to block and Alonso had not forgotten he has a front wing on the car that needs to be kept intact.
Finally, congratulations to Speed TV for going back to their old tricks and managing to cut to commercial during most of the key moments of the race (like the Alonso-Hamilton doel which lasted two laps before the incident...
Hamilton must be seriously cheesed off today: he put in a brilliant, heroic lap, popping up that DRS wing in places nobody else dared to but all for nothing. He bested by Vettel who, in truly Senna like fashion , proved his quote "in quali, you pull down your trousers and show what you have got."
The two Mclarens will start on the "dirty" side which will make the whole KERS thing interesting. Nobody is quite sure what or how Red Bull is running theirs, or if at all. Alonso said it he is puzzled since the RB don't seem to accelerate as much as other cars when they engage the boost.
Apparently Ferrari has many things more to figure out as once again they were well off the qualifying pace though Alonso did well to drag the car to fifth and a points scoring possibility.
Tomorrow look for who will be forced to stop first, all the top runners were on their last set of softs which they used in their final run... Then again, it might rain and Bernie will be happy!
Check out this new camera view, it's something similar to the gyroscopic camera MotoGP experimented with but the other way around, this illustrates G-forces and gives a much better idea of the violence involved. We'll take a forward mounted one please!
Pos Driver Team Time Gap 1. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m34.870s 2. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m34.974s + 0.104 3. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m35.179s + 0.309 4. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m35.200s + 0.330 5. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m35.802s + 0.932 6. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m36.124s + 1.254 7. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m36.251s + 1.381 8. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m36.324s + 1.454 9. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m36.809s + 1.939 10. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m36.820s + 1.950 Q3 cut-off time: 1m36.811s Gap ** 11. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m37.035s + 1.466 12. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m37.160s + 1.591 13. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m37.347s + 1.778 14. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m37.370s + 1.801 15. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m37.496s + 1.927 16. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m37.528s + 1.959 17. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m37.593s + 2.024 Q3 cut-off time: 1m38.163s Gap * 18. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m38.276s + 1.532 19. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m38.645s + 1.901 20. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m38.791s + 2.047 21. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m40.648s + 3.904 22. Jerome D'Ambrosio Virgin-Cosworth 1m41.001s + 4.257 23. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m41.549s + 4.805 24. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m42.574s + 5.830
You could think of the Motore Centrale R240 as a FIAT 500 Abarth backwards but a more correct comparison would be with those mad mid engine creations by Renault, the Turbo5 and the Clio V6. Don't look for a FIAT warranty though, the Motore Centrale (Mid Engine) is a project of Lucarelli Monza and Aznom S.r.l of Codatronca fame.
The idea was to have a perfectly balanced car with the ideal mass distribution found on much fancier vehicles. As with the French cars, the Abarth engine in a 500 is moved behind the driver, replacing the rear seats. The rear suspension has been replaced with the fancy subframe with double A arm, fully adjustable suspension you can see in the picture above.
Brakes are 335 front and 305 rear with monoblock 4 piston calipers, Bilstein shocks and Kumho track day tires. Abarth engine is tuned 240HP and 240ft-lb.
That's the "touring" version, available with fancy leather interiors by Aznom etc. A R280 "Pista", track version will also be available, 280 hp900kg/ 1980lbs with full FIA cage, data recording and a racing Limited slip differential. A light track car that is not a Lotus might be of interest.
Signs from Friday practice point to a two way battle between Mclarens and Red Bull in Malaysia this week end.
After the second practice session, Webber and Button were .0005 of a second apart followed by Hamilton and Vettel in the next 2/10th. But the rest of the field was nowhere, Schumacher and Massa were 1.2 sec off Webber's pace everyone else further behind with Alonso a massive 1.7 away.
Bad news for Ferrari and all the aero updates they had announced. A quick look at the onboard below seems to suggest the Ferrari needs quite a bit of correction mid corner and especially on tight corner exit. This would confirm reports of Ferrari being extremely worried about tire wear. Compare that to the smoothness of Vettel's RB or even Schumacher's Mercedes.
Pos Driver Team Time Laps 1. Mark Webber Red Bull-Renault 1m36.876s 24 2. Jenson Button McLaren-Mercedes 1m36.881s + 0.005 30 3. Lewis Hamilton McLaren-Mercedes 1m37.010s + 0.134 23 4. Sebastian Vettel Red Bull-Renault 1m37.090s + 0.214 30 5. Michael Schumacher Mercedes 1m38.088s + 1.212 26 6. Felipe Massa Ferrari 1m38.089s + 1.213 31 7. Nico Rosberg Mercedes 1m38.565s + 1.689 25 8. Nick Heidfeld Renault 1m38.570s + 1.694 16 9. Fernando Alonso Ferrari 1m38.583s + 1.707 27 10. Jaime Alguersuari Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m38.846s + 1.970 31 11. Pastor Maldonado Williams-Cosworth 1m38.968s + 2.092 25 12. Rubens Barrichello Williams-Cosworth 1m39.187s + 2.311 30 13. Vitaly Petrov Renault 1m39.267s + 2.391 17 14. Kamui Kobayashi Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.398s + 2.522 29 15. Sergio Perez Sauber-Ferrari 1m39.603s + 2.727 34 16. Paul di Resta Force India-Mercedes 1m39.625s + 2.749 31 17. Adrian Sutil Force India-Mercedes 1m39.809s + 2.933 28 18. Sebastien Buemi Toro Rosso-Ferrari 1m40.115s + 3.239 31 19. Timo Glock Virgin-Cosworth 1m40.866s + 3.990 24 20. Jarno Trulli Lotus-Renault 1m41.890s + 5.014 19 21. Narain Karthikeyan HRT-Cosworth 1m43.197s + 6.321 15 22. Tonio Liuzzi HRT-Cosworth 1m43.991s + 7.115 14 23. Heikki Kovalainen Lotus-Renault 1m44.886s + 8.010 4
You can't have the car but you might be able score one of these Girard Perregaux special editions. P4/5 says to email enquieries to P45Competizione@gmail.com
Mini winning an FIA rally for the first time since...well, since MINIs were mini sized? The Italian crew of Andrea Navarra and Simona Fedeli drove their Mini John Cooper Works Super 2000 to a win on the gravel of the 18th Rally Adriatico.
The MINI John Cooper Works Super 2000, which made its World Rally Championship debut in Portugal last month, has claimed its first victory.
Driven by the Italian Andrea Navarra, the Prodrive-developed machine triumphed on Rally dell’Adriatico, the opening round of the Italian Gravel Rally Championship near Ancona on Italy’s Adriatic coast last weekend.
Running with a 30-milimetre restrictor (as opposed to a 33mm version) to conform to the FIA’s Regional Rally Car regulations to balance the performance with normally aspirated Super 2000 cars, Navarra led from start to finish. Co-driven by Simona Fedeli, he completed the 100-kilometre competitive route with a margin of 12.6 seconds over Andreas Mikkelsen’s conventional Skoda Fabia S2000.
“It’s a great honour for me to give MINI this first victory with Pirelli tyres and another milestone in our history together,” said Navarra. “It was a fantastic rally that was competitive from start to finish: we had to push hard but in the end we got the result that we wanted. I really enjoyed driving the car: the turbo engine means that you can drive with the throttle all the time compared to a conventional Super 2000 car, where you are driving with the gears.”
Although he’s not eligible for points, Navarra will return to the Italian Gravel series - known as the Trofeo Rally Terra - with the Grifone team on Rally Costa Smeralda on 6/7 May. The event runs behind the main world championship rally in Sardinia where MINI will mark the debut of the World Rally Car version of its John Cooper Works.
In addition to Navara’s machine, a handful of other Super 2000 MINIs are likely to be in action on the national-level Rally Costa Smeralda next month.
BMW won the first VLN race at the Nürburgring, starting and ending first and second. Check out the start from this amateur video to see how the two ///M cars work in tandem to keep the Mercedes SLS behind them and get on their way.
Of course one caveat is that the BMW were running in the E1XP class along with the N.technologies P4/5c... the more populated top class, SP9, was won by the Black Falcon Mercedes SLS GT3 who actually had a faster lap time than the BMWs. 8:24.240 vs 8:25.231.
Video from the front would be exciting but ..there isn't any. This one, produced by RaceMedia.tv, is fun: a nice fight between the Car Collection Motorsport 911 GT3 Cup S of Peter Schmidt and a Mercedes SLS GT3. Onboard with nat sound start about one minute in
The SLS must be very either very restricted or have bad aero because the 911's kill it on the long straight.
Look carefully ahead and you can catch a glimpse of the Gliekenhaus P4/5 up ahead. That car, I would venture to say, did not live up to expectations, retiring after 8 laps and setting an 8"44 sec lap time, some 20 seconds off the class pace.
Rolling starts are done, ostensibly, because they are safer than standing ones but witness this cluster-start at today's Le Mans Series 6 hour race at Le Castellet, inaugural event of the season.
Green, green, green.... one slight problem, the pace car never pulled off the track so the guys in front need to get on the brakes hard with predictable consequences at the back of the field.
I'm guessing ALMS officials are having a bit of a chuckle at this one.
UPDATE: Porsche is protesting the start procedure, see Porsche's statement after the jump
Press Release 03/04/2011
Le Mans Series, round 1 in Le Castellet, France
Early retirement for Porsche teams as victims of start crash
Stuttgart. At the season-opener of the Le Mans Series, four of the five Porsche 911 GT3 RSR were caught up in a start crash that was not their fault. For all three professional Porsche teams contesting the GTE-Pro class, this marked an early end in Le Castellet after their vehicles suffered too much damage. After the formation lap, the safety car stayed out on the track with lights off while the start lights for the race were turned to green. This led to an unfortunate chain reaction: The back-markers in the field were still accelerating while those at the front were braking hard. The starter field was pushed together over the entire width of the track, leading to a collision. Luckily, the Porsche drivers remained largely uninjured.
After six hours of racing, the sole, unaffected Porsche 911 GT3 RSR brought home victory in the newly-created GTE-Am sports car class. In this class, only one professional driver is permitted per vehicle. The second 911 in the GTE-Am class received the flag in sixth, after the vehicle underwent extensive repairs due to the start crash.
“Well, that was the shortest race of my life,” said Porsche works driver Richard Lietz (Austria) laconically. “After the formation lap, the lights were already green, but because of the packed field it wasn’t possible to register that the safety car hadn’t yet left the track. Suddenly I was torpedoed from the left and pushed into the wall. I had no chance to avoid the accident.” Lietz’s teammate Marc Lieb (Germany) summed up: “This is a nightmare for us. All three GTE-Pro 911 have been shunted out of the race through no fault of our own. Richard and I had a great race set-up. Maybe we could have managed a podium result. For the next race in Spa, this means we have to go hard out.” Last year, the Felbermayr-Proton duo, Lieb and Lietz, claimed victory at Le Castellet which laid the foundation for their title win in the sports car class.
The start driver for ProSpeed Competition, Porsche works driver Marco Holzer (Germany), was relieved he could get out of his demolished 911 GT3 RSR without serious injury. “After the start lights turned green everyone accelerated,” said Holzer. “Then suddenly they slammed on the brakes at the front. I was hit hard from the rear and slid sideways over the circuit, nudging another vehicle in the process.” Holzer contests his second season for the Belgian squad in the LMS. His teammate in the 2011-version 911 is race professional Marc Goossens (Belgium).
Factory pilots Wolf Henzler (Germany) and Patrick Pilet (France) were also caught up in the crash. The mechanics from IMSA Performance Matmut even attempted to repair the badly damaged 911 GT3 RSR, but the damage was too severe to repair at the track in time.
With this, the pleasure of winning the GTE-Am class with Felbermayr-Proton’s 2010-spec 911 was somewhat dampened. The performance of the team was particularly astounding considering that the blue Porsche 911 GT3 RSR was manned by three ambitious gentlemen drivers. Team owner Christian Ried (Germany) shares the cockpit with two Austrians Horst Felbermayr Junior and Horst Felbermayr Senior. The French duo Nicolas Armindo and Raymond Narac achieved sixth in the GTE-Am class after their 911 GT3 RSR underwent 75 minutes of repairs. The disappointment was particularly bitter because Armindo, as LMS new-comer, had built up the hopes of his IMSA Performance Matmut squad for a class win after posting the best time in qualifying.
Statistics: 1st race LMS in Le Castellet, F Result class GTE Am* 1. Ried/Felbermayr Jr./Felbermayr Sen. (D/A/A), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 167 laps 2. Perazzini/Cioco/Lerneret (I/I/B), Ferrari F430, 167 3. Broniszewski/Peter (PL/A), Ferrari F430, 167 4. Christodoulou/Hummel/Quaife (GB/NL/GB), Ferrari F430, 166 6. Armindo/Narac (F/F), Porsche 911 GT3 RSR, 137
* The result is preliminary, as a protest against the start procedure and hence the race classification has been made.--> READ MORE
Remember all those rumors last year about Flavio's secret visits to Maranello? How about the Paddock visits later in the season?
Well, it seem there was a grand design to it as today, Ferrari spokesman Gaetano Pesce D'Aprile confirmed that the now apparently rehabilitated ex Benetton and Renault team manager will be joining the Scuderia next season.
We are in the 2011 Tire Rack One Lap of America but not as hoped in the carbon V8 MCoupe. It's a dissapointement for all involved but, as you read here, we experienced an unexpected and as of yet unexplained engine failure at our VIR test. There was just no time to have the engine rebuilt for the One Lap, but Dinan, Apex and Trinity Motorsports are hard at work to get it sorted for the Grassroots Motorsports Ultimate Track Car Challenge later this summer.
I would have loved to see the look on Horner and Marko's faces when Webber passed Button on the second to last turn on the final lap but perhaps even more so when, during the press conference, he said he was happy someone beat his teammate! What an extraordinary thing to hear. 
