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Goodyear to return to the WEC, Le Mans

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By: Stephen Kilbey June 11, 2019 9:22 AM


Goodyear is set to return to international sportscar racing and will soon debut a new range of tires for the FIA World Endurance Championship, which includes the Le Mans 24 Hours.

Goodyear will therefore go toe-to-toe with Michelin from the 2019/20 season onwards, which includes next year’s 88th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours. Its initial target is LMP2, however the company is known to have been in conversation with teams in other classes.

RACER understands that Dunlop (owned and operated by Goodyear in Europe and elsewhere) will step back from supplying tires for the WEC and instead focus solely on its European Le Mans Series effort, where it supplies rubber in both LMP2 and GTE.

More Le Mans/WEC!

The Day At Le Mans, June 12

No. 7 Toyota tops opening Le Mans qualifying - then crashes

Corvette Racing’s Le Mans tales, with Doug Fehan

In preparation for this move, Goodyear has been developing a new range of sportscar tires at its facilities in Hanau, Germany, and at Colmar-Berg in Luxembourg.

“The nature of the races (varying from 4 hours to 24 hours) means tire choice and strategy are critical, and that provides a motivating challenge for the technology teams in our European innovation centers ahead of exploring other racing opportunities for the brand,” said Goodyear’s motorsport director Ben Crawley.

Goodyear has a long history of competing in sportscars, supplying tires in IMSA for several decades. The brand has 14 Le Mans wins, the most recent being in 1997, when it supplied Joest Racing’s No. 7 TWR Porsche.

“Motorsport continues to be one of the most popular global sports,” Crawley continued. “It is an ideal platform for us to engage with consumers around the heritage, passion, innovation and technology that make up Goodyear’s story in racing.”

“We will focus on sportscar racing at first, before applying learnings to other categories of racing, which could be within the endurance arena or in other racing series.”


Goodyear, Le Mans 24 Hour, Le Mans/WEC

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Track action beckons at Le Mans after day two of scrutineering

Image by LAT


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By: Stephen Kilbey June 10, 2019 9:40 AM


Day 2 at Le Mans Scrutineering saw the remaining 40 cars on the entry list pass through the city center for technical checks ahead of the first on-track action on Wednesday.

Unfortunately, the weather took a turn for the worse overnight and during the early part of the day, with multiple rain showers resulting in a smaller gathering of fans than on Sunday.

The biggest surprise of the day came in the morning, when LMP1 outfit DragonSpeed became the latest team to reveal a new livery during Le Mans race week.

The American team, which will bow out of the FIA WEC after this weekend to focus on IndyCar, has brought Gulf colors back to the top class at the 24 Hours on the 50th anniversary of the iconic oil and fuel brand’s second win at the race.

DragonSpeed’s BR1 Gibson will pay homage to the three overall LM24 wins for the brand on its tail fin, while the rear wing is dedicated to celebrating past Gulf sportscar victories at 10 legendary race circuits.

While very few GTE cars passed through the inspection tent yesterday, there were plenty on parade today. One of those was the Risi Competizione Ferrari 488 GTE, which is the only privateer entry into the 17-car Pro class this year.

At the Test Day, the team lost a significant amount of running time to shaking down its car, which is a brand-new chassis, and getting its drivers aboard after the mad rush to the track from the IMSA race at Detroit and, in the case of Jules Gounon, the Blancpain meeting at Paul Ricard.

Risi is looking to take the fight to the factory teams in GTE Pro. Image by LAT


As a result, it’s going to be incredibly important for the team to get plenty of laps in during practice and qualifying, as its drivers – despite their glowing CVs – have limited GTE experience. Only Pipo Derani has raced a GTE before and has two Le Mans starts to his name in the Pro class – one with Ford, the other with AF Corse. Oliver Jarvis and Gounon, meanwhile, are new to GTE racing, but have plenty of GT3 experience to call upon between them.

Despite that, and the outfit only having a single car in a field of two and four-car teams, race engineer Rick Mayer told RACER that he is confident the team’s new driver-crew can keep them competitive.

“It’s going to be tough for us, because we lost a lot of track time at the Test Day,” said Mayer. “Jules didn’t know the track, but he was up to speed so fast, he’s going to be rock solid. Oliver is going to be awesome, and Pipo drove in Pro with a Ferrari, so driver-wise we should be OK in this company.

“The only thing we lose is the knowledge from drivers that have driven the car for years. The race looks like it will be mild and dry, but the lead-up could be very wet, which isn’t ideal for us. We’d like to get up to speed in the dry – we need to know how to double-stint these tires, and we haven’t done a long enough run yet.

“Worst case there’s the warm-up, but it’s not ideal, especially as this is probably the most stacked GTE Pro class ever.”

There’s plenty of intrigue in the GTE Am category, with a mix of guest cars joining the full-season FIA WEC clan. One of the regular teams joining the action is JMW Motorsport, which won Am just two years ago. This year the team brings a trio of World Challenge regulars to the race. Jeff Segal returns to 24 Hours with the British outfit for a second year, bringing along his driving partner Wei Lu for the first time and K-PAX driver Rodrigo Baptista.

JMW is chasing a repeat of its GTE Am win from two years ago, and will be leaning on a lot of World Challenge talent to achieve it. Image by LAT


“It’s a big deal for Wei and I; this whole year is a big mountain to climb,” Segal told RACER. “Coming from GT3 racing in the U.S. to European Le Mans Series, and now Le Mans. We have a great car for this race though with JMW, and Wei has already proven that he’s ready.”

Lu said that the transition from racing the 488 GT3 in World Challenge to the GTE model in Europe has been a smooth one.

“It’s great that you can use the same car and upgrade it from GT3 to GTE, when you race with Ferrari,” he said. “There’s obviously a lot of similarities, which really helps. I just need to get used to racing a car without ABS. But we’re confident, and I’m happy to be racing with Rodrigo, who I have raced against many times. I think he’s as quick as any factory driver.”

One of the final cars through today was the Wynns-liveried Keating Motorsports Ford GT, which, understandably has attracted a lot of attention. Bill Riley, who is part of the team running the Keating operation, told RACER the team is confident that the combination of Jeroen Bleekemolen, Ben Keating and Felipe Fraga can be a force in this year’s race.

“Working with the Ganassi team is a real pleasure,” he said. “They’ve helped us a lot, getting up to speed with this, now it’s down to us to deliver it. The car came to us pretty much turnkey, so we’ve just got to do maintenance and set up work.

“At the test we made sure Felipe got his minimum laps in, and that Ben and Jeroen got used to the car. It was a true test day, lots of box-ticking. We wanted to be a little faster but it didn’t happen; we didn’t go for a mock qualifying run.

“There’s plenty to look forward to. We have a strong line-up and this team is the same we run in the U.S., which means there’s a lot of familiarity for us, and that’s really important.”

Of the LMP2 contenders that were on the schedule today, RLR MSport driver Arjun Maini was particularly wide-eyed. The Haas F1 development driver, who has moved into sportscars from racing in F2 with Trident this year, is enjoying his first experience at Le Mans. He will race with Norman Nato (standing in for Rebellion-tied Bruno Senna) and John Farano this week.

“This is massive,” he told RACER. “Already at the test you start to get a feel for how big of a race it is. You have to come and see this for yourself to really see just how many passionate fans there are.

Haas F1 development driver Arjun Maini is soaking in his first Le Mans campaign. Image by Ehrhardt/LAT


“It’s been an eye-opener this year. Anyone from single-seaters will tell you that you come into this close-minded. But once you get a taste of it, you realize that there’s much more to racing than just sprint racing. It’s awesome.

“I love driving prototypes in the ELMS, and for sure I’m going to enjoy it here at the Le Mans 24 Hours. I feel quite ready for this. It was hard to get used to the circuit, it took time. Usually it only takes a session, but it took me until lunchtime to feel confident enough to push. The grip level was low. But the objective of the test was just to complete laps.”


Dragonspeed, Le Mans 24 Hour, Le Mans/WEC

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Scrutineering Day 1, prototypes descend on Le Mans city center Image by Ehrhardt/LAT


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By: Stephen Kilbey June 9, 2019 2:09 PM


The center of Le Mans was taken over by the first day of scrutineering ahead of next weekend’s 87th running of the Le Mans 24 Hours, with 22 cars presented to the ACO’s technical team and the usual hoard of fans today.

Scrutineering Day 1 draws a crowd. Image by Ehrhardt/LAT


In the prototype ranks, Toyota Gazoo Racing’s pair of TS050 hybrids and the team’s six drivers were the headliners, Fernando Alonso and his 2018 Le Mans-winning teammates Kazuki Nakajima and Sebastien Buemi attracting most of the attention from the media in attendance.

But the No. 7 crew of Mike Conway, Jose Maria Lopez and Kaumi Kobayashi were also on hand, and lest we forget, they are still in with a solid chance of winning Le Mans for the first time as well as the WEC drivers championship.

“It’s been an up and down season but we’ve done a good job to maximize performance this season,” Conway told RACER. “There’s a lot to play for — the win at Le Mans and the championship. The aim here is another 1-2; that would be ideal and we’ll push for it.

“Looks like the competition will be closer here. We need to push all the time; you can’t not push here because it’s so on edge that if you take it easy you’ll make mistakes. You just don’t need to risk everything through traffic. We’ll push each until the end.

“The privateers have made good strides,” Conway continued. “There’ve been rule changes, too. They’re looking quick, with high top speeds. Qualifying — they have a good shot of being on the front row.”

More Le Mans/WEC!

The Day At Le Mans, June 12

No. 7 Toyota tops opening Le Mans qualifying - then crashes

Corvette Racing’s Le Mans tales, with Doug Fehan

Rebellion Racing, arguably Toyota’s closest competition in the LMP1 ranks, was also present today. The Swiss team showed off its brand new liveries to the public for the first time: Both R-13s now sport a “paint-splattered look” as part of a tie-up with artist Tomyboy and his brand Rocketbyz.

The team’s garage, too, is also set to be dressed in a matching color scheme.

Colorful new livery on the Rebellion R-13s. Image by Ehrhardt/LAT


As for the race, Rebellion was encouraged by its new low-downforce aero kits, which it tried for the first time in last weekend’s Test Day. Neel Jani, though, doesn’t expect the new aero to bring the team much closer to the TS050 hybrids, which have dominated during the 2018/19 Super Season.

“Testing wasn’t bad in the end,” he said. “The new kit is a good improvement from last year. But is it enough? It’s not enough to beat Toyota, [and] SMP seems strong, so we’ll see. It’s not clear that we’re the first team behind Toyota now.

“It’s not too different though: Toyota is up front; they can beat themselves, hopefully. That’s our only chance. Between us and SMP, it will be a hard fight, but SMP will decide this race. We hope reliability will decide this race, and not just pace.”

Despite Conway’s outlook, Jani, who will stop racing in the FIA WEC after Le Mans to compete in Formula E with Porsche, believes that pole position for Rebellion is out of the question.

“Pole position will be impossible. This year has been strange. We’ve had bad luck with our car, so many times. It’s been a bad season but we’ll be hoping our luck turns around here.”




Many LMP2 teams also went through today, including Panic Barthez Competition, Cetilar Racing, Racing Team Nederland and Larbre Competition.

Championship hopefuls Jackie Chan DC Racing also went through, its pair of ORECAs sporting new liveries for this year’s Le Mans thanks to the addition of new backers. One of those is Wayne Taylor Racing’s prime sponsor, Konica Minolta, which now features on the side of the No. 37 07 Gibson as part of Acura Team Penske driver Ricky Taylor’s deal to race with the team alongside Jordan King and David Heinemeier Hansson.

“It’s obviously the same chassis for me that I race with the ARX-05, but it’s quite a contrast. It’s a learning curve coming from Detroit to Le Mans — two very different street tracks. It was my first time in the car at the test, but the guys do a good job here.

“I’m really excited for race week. This is the best chance I’ve had at a win in LMP2. It’s been my goal to drive with a team like this here.”


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GTE Pro Porsche, Corvette represent as scrutineering begins

Image by Trienitz/LAT


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By: Stephen Kilbey June 9, 2019 1:40 PM


Most of the 22 cars that presented themselves through scrutineering and filtered through the center of Le Mans today were from LMP1 and LMP2. Two key GTE teams did, however, entertain the fans present: Corvette Racing and Porsche GT Team.

With the WEC manufacturer’s title already sealed and the drivers championship now a straight fight between the two full-season 911 RSRs, there’s an air of confidence surrounding the Porsche crews piloting the automaker’s quartet of GTE Pro challengers.

More Le Mans/WEC!

The Day At Le Mans, June 12

No. 7 Toyota tops opening Le Mans qualifying - then crashes

Corvette Racing’s Le Mans tales, with Doug Fehan

Gianmaria Bruni (photo above at last weekend’s Le Mans Test Day) is part of the Stuttgart brand cabal, the Italian still in with a chance at the title, though he admits it’s a very slim one after dropping vital points at Spa.

“The season was fantastic for Porsche. We achieved our main target — the manufacturer’s title — with one race to go.

“From my point of view it’s been really good,” Bruni continued. “We’ve been unlucky, though: At the last race we lost a podium, and at Silverstone, too. With those two results, we’d be in a better place for the championships. Now we will see what we can do for Le Mans.

“[There is a] 36-point gap; we lost more than 30 points in Silverstone and Spa combined. So it’s very hard to do anything from here. We’ll do what we can.”

Nevertheless, Bruni is still eager to hit the track and make it two wins in a row for Porsche at La Sarthe.

“It’s going to be very close. We couldn’t ask for better final race, battling for the big trophy at Le Mans.”

Laurens Vanthoor, who won GTE Pro at Le Mans last year, is providing real steel for the No. 92’s world championship run for this year. The Belgian, who usually races with Porsche’s IMSA GTLM crew, has been moved over to WEC duty again for this event, and has been well briefed by his two teammates, Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen.

“Yeah, we’ve had that chat,” He chuckled. “The manufacturer’s title is won; this is, therefore, a race for the win. But in these circumstances, after winning this race last year, that world championship is absolutely the top priority.”

Corvette C7.Rs will be making their fifth (and final?) Le Mans appearance. Image by Trienitz/LAT


The Corvette Racing crew also feel in with a real chance next weekend, in what will be the team’s 20th consecutive appearance at Le Mans and fifth for the C7.R.

Oliver Gavin, who has been racing with the team for 17 of the factory team’s 19 appearances, feels the C7.R still has life in it yet — this despite the fact that the aging GTE challenger is expected to be replaced by a racing version of the incoming C8 road car in time for next year’s race.

“We been part of history here at Le Mans, with some amazing cars and some amazing races,” Gavin told RACER. “Wouldn’t it be great to round off 20 years with another win?”


Corvette, GTE-Pro, Le Mans 24 Hour, Porsche, Le Mans/WEC

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LM24: Toyota reigns supreme

Image by Rainier Ehrhardt/LAT


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By: Stephen Kilbey | 10 hours ago


The 2019 running of the Le Mans 24 Hours certainly wasn’t without action. After a rather lackluster race last year, at the start of the ‘Super Season’, the ‘Super Finale’ delivered, in every class, with drama, right until the finish.

In the end, it was Toyota Gazoo Racing that won overall, after another dominant performance against the privateer LMP1 pack.

That wasn’t a surprise, but the final hour of the race served up a huge bout of confusion, as a faulty sensor for the No. 7 caused the lead to change between the two TS050 HYBRIDs, leaving 252,000 fans in the stands and members of the team, scratching their heads through the final stint.

The No. 8 eventually took the victory, after a final hour filled with confused radio messages between Kazuki Nakajima in the winning car and Jose Maria Lopez in the No. 7 and their engineers.




It was heartbreaking for the Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Lopez No. 7 team, who led most of the second half of the race but came up short, all three forced to wait at least another year to score their first win. It was a cruel end after the car had the pace to win this race all the way to the flag.

With time winding down, the final sequence was explained clearly, a team spokesperson telling RACER that the No. 7 the tire sensor indicated that there was a right-front puncture just before the end of the penultimate hour. This forced the team to pit the car. When it pitted, the team changed only the right-front tire. The sensor was then discovered to have been wrong. So they pitted the No. 7 once again, to change the right rear.

“This is not what the No. 7 has deserved. We thought there was a front right puncture; now there was one on the rear. We should have changed all the tires. We have a race now. This was not in our script. Sorry,” team manager Rob Leupen said.

After that, the team managed the finish — there wouldn’t be a swap. It made for a really subdued finish, with little celebrating in the Toyota pit.

The victory means that Fernando Alonso, Nakajima and Buemi have won two Le Mans 24 Hours overall in a row and the FIA WEC World Drivers’ Championship. Toyota too has a pair of Le Mans victories now.

Toyota winners Sebastien Buemi, Kazuki Nakajima, Fernando Alonso. Image by Rainier Ehrhardt/LAT


“The main goal this weekend was to win the championship, obviously the race was not playing to us — car No. 7 was quicker than us for 24 hours,” Alonso told Eurosport/MotorTrend TV. “They really deserved the victory, but today the luck decided that we had the better trophy. Luck sometimes plays an important part in motorsport; today we feel extremely lucky and maybe we don’t deserve it, but we take it. The world championship feels great.”

Behind Toyota, there was plenty of excitement. Finally, after almost an entire season, four of the privateer LMP1s went toe-to-toe for the final podium spot. The pendulum swung between the SMP Racing BR1s and Rebellion Racing R-13s multiple times in the end. On Sunday afternoon, though, it would be SMP that would take the ‘best of the rest’ moniker with the No. 11 BR1 of Vitaly Petrov, Mikhail Aleshin and Stoffel Vandoorne. The trio drove masterfully en route to scoring the best result for the chassis to date and AER’s first ever Le Mans overall podium.

More Le Mans/WEC!

Mixed feelings for Toyota’s winners and losers

LM24: AF Corse Ferrari, Keating Ford claim GTE wins

Ganassi Ford crew mull ‘bittersweet’ end to Le Mans GT program

In the end it wasn’t close between the two teams, as the No. 3 Rebellion was knocked out of contention in the second half of the race after a wild sequence of events. The list of mishaps included a three-minute penalty for supplying officials with the wrong tire serial numbers, a spin into the gravel on the Porsche Curves by Gustavo Menezes and a series of brake issues. All this after the car had to be repaired hastily in the opening hours of the race after Thomas Laurent went nose-first into the barriers down the Mulsanne Straight.




It was a rollercoaster for the Swiss team, and it would go mostly unrewarded, though both its cars finished. The No. 1 of Neel Jani, Bruno Senna and Andre Lotterer finished fourth, three laps behind the No. 11, after the car hit trouble early when the team incorrectly misidentified a puncture, and didn’t recover. The No. 3, meanwhile, crossed the line 15 laps behind the winning Toyota.

Elsewhere, ByKolles and DragonSpeed didn’t feature at all. It was a miserable outing for both teams, the ByKolles CLM suffering an engine failure, and the DragonSpeed BR1 suffering a multitude of issues before retiring. Elton Julian’s LMP2 car looked to make up for the disappointment of its LMP1 effort, but that retired after an incident while in the running for a podium, marking a disappointing end for the team’s WEC program.

The sister SMP Racing BR1 also didn’t feature in the battle for third in the end after Egor Orudzhev crashed heavily at the Porsche Curves during the night, leaving the Russian team with only one car to fight for a podium spot.




Unlike LMP1, LMP2 featured real jubilation at the end. Signatech Alpine won the class again, athough this time, after being handed the win later in the year in 2018, its drivers were able to celebrate on the podium. Andre Negrao, Nicolas Lapierre and Pierre Thiriet finished up an astonishing 2018/19 campaign with a pair of Le Mans wins and a world title.

It wasn’t a dominant run as such for the French outfit, but toward the end the pressure from behind fizzled out. With so many other dramas occurring up and down the order it was still imperative that the team stayed perfect, as its title rivals in the No. 38 Jackie Chan DC Racing ORECA finished second and was right there ready to pounce for almost the entire race.

“We are world champions, we’ve won Le Mans — it’s amazing. A second time in a row. I can’t expect better than that!” said Negrao.

Alpine’s win also marked the end of a winning streak for Dunlop in LMP2, the French tire brand preventing nine straight wins for their rival brand. It was in every sense, a tire war here. Michelin’s tires had the outright pace, but were not as durable as Dunlop’s. This made for an intriguing fight, Jackie Chan DC Racing’s lead car steering Dunlop to a second-place finish on this occasion.

The No. 38 ORECA of Ho Pin Tung, Stephane Richelmi and Gabriel Aubry that crossed the line second in the race, did so in the title race too. A puncture late in the race played a big part in denying them a chance at the win and in the end, they were a full lap behind.

Completing the podium was the TDS Racing ORECA of Loic Duval, Francois Perrodo and Matthieu Vaxivier, the French trio claiming silverware after a topsy-turvy race. They started from pole, dropped back down the order, and gradually clawed their way into a top three spot, benefiting from the misfortune of other teams.

Off the podium was the No. 22 United Autosports Ligier, the best of the other LMP2 chassis. The No. 22 was delayed at various points, with a penalty and a door replacement, but Paul Di Resta, Phil Hanson and Filipe Abuqeruque stuck at it and scored another strong finish.

There were plenty of contenders in the class, and two key runners hit trouble. the No. 37 JCDC ORECA suffered a terminal gearbox issue from a top five spot, and the G-Drive Racing ORECA took a commanding lead before a gearbox issue forced Roman Rusinov in for an extended stop during the 19th hour. In the end the team finished sixth, a hugely disappointing result after the double-act of Jean Eric Verge and rookie Job Van Uitert proved to be the class of the field for much of the race.

STANDINGS




Fernando Alonso, Le Mans 24 Hour, Signatech Alpine, Toyota, Le Mans/WEC

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LM24: AF Corse Ferrari, Keating Ford claim GTE wins

Images by LAT


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By: Stephen Kilbey 10 hours ago


GTE Pro, surprisingly, was the only class that was settled early in the 87th 24 Hours of Le Mans. It was AF Corse’s year, the Italian team scoring the first win for the Ferrari 488 GTE at this famous race on the 70th anniversary of Ferrari’s first win at Le Mans.

The No. 51 of James Calado, Alessandro Pier Guidi and Daniel Serra was the winning car, the trio emerging as a contender in the race’s opening hours and fighting for the win all the way through the night and into Sunday afternoon. In the end, the battle, which involved multiple marques for the win, wasn’t decided on track, and instead by a safety car period splitting up the field in the final hours.




Until the 21st hour, seven cars were on the lead lap, and there were three clear contenders for the race lead — the No. 51, the No. 63 Corvette Racing C7.R and No. 91 Porsche 911 RSR. But an off for the Racing Team Nederland Dallara caused a safety car which split up the field.

Initially it appeared the Corvette and Ferrari would be together, but Corvette needed to pit and ended up getting stuck at the end of the pit lane, losing it valuable time. Jan Magnussen then had an off into the barriers at the Porsche Curves, which ended the GM brand’s challenge.

After that it was an easy ride for the No. 51 crew, who finished over a minute ahead of the No. 91 and No. 93 Porsches that completed the podium.

More Le Mans/WEC!

Mixed feelings for Toyota’s winners and losers

LM24: Toyota reigns supreme

Ganassi Ford crew mull ‘bittersweet’ end to Le Mans GT program

“It’s emotional. We’ve done an amazing job as a team,” said Calado, who along with Pier Guidi has won his first Le Mans.

It was an odd race. Throughout Pro had looked like it would provide the closest finish, yet it actually fizzled out. What it did have though, was multiple marques involved, and no real answers to the burning questions until Sunday morning.




For Corvette Racing, it was a tough outing. It should have been a gritty performance followed by celebrations for the team’s 20th anniversary of racing at Le Mans. Instead, the end result was less than satisfactory. The No. 64, which was always further down the order to the sister car in the opening stages, crashed out heavily at the Porsche Curves when Marcel Fassler clipped the No. 88 Dempsey Proton Porsche, sending him veering off the circuit and into the barriers. It was an incident which Fassler would later be blamed for. The No. 63’s chances then imploded later in the race, but the car did limp home ninth in class.

Despite finishing 10th, the full-season No. 92 Porsche duo of Kevin Estre and Michael Christensen claimed the FIA WEC GTE World Drivers’ Championship. It was a rather disappointing result, though, after the car led the class for an extended period.

Of the other marques, BMW’s WEC program went out with a wimper rather than a bellow, both M8 GTEs suffering issues, finishing way back. Aston Martin too, didn’t feature for the win, despite starting from pole with its No. 95 Vantage.

Both cars took a beating, the No. 95 ending up worse off after Marco Sorensen went sideways into the barriers on the Porsche Curves during the night. But long before the two cars had offs (Alex Lynn was aboard the No. 97 when it flew off the circuit at the Porsche Curves) they were out of the running.

Was the pre-race BoP change to blame here? Were the conditions sub-optimal for the car? Did the other factories have more in reserve than expected? At this point it’s not clear. All we know is the Vantage AMR struggled with tire wear — and therefore pace — all weekend.

Finally, there was Ford. In what was the final Le Mans 24 Hours for the Ganassi USA and UK teams as a factory, and the last WEC race for the program, the four GTs finished in formation from fourth to seventh. In order to challenge, the drivers had to run the cars ragged, which wasn’t a sustainable option over the 24 hours. Instead, they were forced to settle for a strong but arguably forgettable result.



Ben Keating, Jeroen Bleekemolen, Felipe Fraga fought off the effect of a penalty to win GTE-Am.


In GTE Am, though, Keating Motorsports scored a huge win for the Ford GT as Jeroen Bleekemolen, Ben Keating and Le Mans debutant Felipe Fraga survived late drama to beat the Project 1 Porsche to the flag.

The Wynn’s-backed GT made up for any disappointment from the factory camp with a win on the car’s debut in customer hands. Seemingly out of nowhere, in a similar fashion to AF Corse’s No. 51 Ferrari in Pro, the No. 85 rose up the order and went on to control the race.

In the second half, it looked almost too comfortable for the American guest-entered team. The trio had built a big lead and looked set to cruise to the finish. But a pit stop to change the car’s front end, requested by the organizers in the penultimate hour, spawned drama. Keating left tire marks when leaving his pit box, prompting race control to hand out a stop-go penalty.

All of a sudden, with less than an hour to go, the team’s lead had vanished, and the Project 1 Porsche was just a handful of seconds behind after the final stops. It was a straight fight in the end between Bleekemolen and Jorg Bergmeister, the Dutchman soaking up the pressure and winning the race by 44 seconds.

“We had some damage on the front of the car,” Keating explained. “We don’t exactly know why they made us come in and change it. It’s been an extremely stressful couple of hours.”

However, with its second-place finish Project 1 took the FIA WEC GTE Am title — an impressive consolation prize for Bergmeister, Patrick Lindsay and Egidio Perfetti. And what a season it’s been for the team, which is new to the WEC. After the No. 77 Dempsey Proton crew were docked all their points last year, it was game on for Project 1, and their title to lose. Despite drama at Spa and Sebring, all three drivers and the team around them held on, taking the title in style here with a faultless run in France.

The JMW Motorsports Ferrari driven by Blancpain GT World Challenge regulars Wei Lu, Jeff Segal and Rodrigo Baptista completed the class podium after a quiet but impressive performance, especially from Baptista and Lu, who are new to GTE racing and Le Mans. It was another memorable outing for Jim McWhirter’s plucky team.

Outside of the top three, it was a lottery throughout the closing hours of the race, with multiple contenders gaining traction and fading. The WeatherTech Ferrari took fourth after a solid drive from its crew, ahead of the No. 77 Dempsey Proton Porsche, which had the speed to win but suffered too many set backs to reach the podium.

Both Aston Martins in the field and the Clearwater Racing Ferrari looked capable of podiums too, but their efforts fell short. The No. 98 Vantage had mechanical issues and retired with accident damage, the TF Sport Aston Martin climbed as high as third but had to undergo a power steering pump change, and the Clearwater Ferrari looked set for fourth before an issue with the car’s uprights forced it to pit late in the race. The Singaporean team, a real fan favorite, ends its WEC story with an eighth-place finish, despite a performance that deserved better; a microcosm of its season.

Then there was the Spirit of Race Ferrari, which was realistically the only car that could take the fight to the Project 1 Porsche in the title race. It was a disastrous outing for Giancarlo Fisichella, Thomas Flohr and Francesco Castellacci. Multiple offs and a huge penalty for a drive time infringement meant they head home with a 13th-place finish and a missed opportunity hanging over them.

What a ride it’s been. The 2018/19 FIA WEC ‘Super Season’ has evoked mixed emotions. There have been memorable races, some simply forgettable ones, but the finale at Le Mans will likely be remembered as an old school endurance race that kept everyone guessing.

After real door-banging action in the opening hours, it was a mixture of strategy, luck, mechanical issues and incidents that decided the class winners in this one, rather than on-track fighting. And that’s OK — endurance racing, sometimes, is about survival more than anything else.

STANDINGS




AF Corse, Ben Keating, Ferrari, Ford GT, Le Mans 24 Hour, Le Mans/WEC

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Ganassi Ford crew mull ‘bittersweet’ end to Le Mans GT program

Image by LAT


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By: RACER Staff 11 hours ago


The farewell performance for Ford Chip Ganassi Racing as a factory program at Le Mans came up short of the team’s own lofty expectations, although it did serve to demonstrated the clockwork reliability of the Ford GT as the the four-car squad finished together in the GTE Pro standings in fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh places, while, Ford’s first GT customer program, Keating Motorsports, scored a debut victory in GTE Am.

“It’s definitely bittersweet because we would have loved to gone out with a win in the GTE Pro class here at Le Mans,” said Mark Rushbrook, global director, Ford Performance Motorsports. “But all four cars finished strongly and our first customer team in Keating Motorsports won its first race in GTE Am so there are a lot of positives to take away. We accomplished a lot with this program in a very short time frame and that’s a credit to the Ford GT being a great race car, but also having great drivers and partners like Chip Ganassi Racing, Multimatic and Roush Yates.”

More Le Mans/WEC!

Mixed feelings for Toyota’s winners and losers

LM24: Toyota reigns supreme

LM24: AF Corse Ferrari, Keating Ford claim GTE wins

First among the Ganassi-run cars in fourth was the No. 68 GT of Sebastien Bourdais, Dirk Muller and Joey Hand, who had previously earned Ford’s Le Mans victory in 2016.

“The start wasn’t great for us,” said Le Mans native Bourdais. “We struggled with the car on low tire pressures and got some bad breaks with the safety car periods. The timing just didn’t go our way. I don’t think that really would have changed the outcome for us too much, but we managed to close the gap a lot and regain over a second, which we were happy about. We were just pushing really hard and I think it was just the way the timing played out for us. We were all hoping for a full-course caution scenario to play out, but they didn’t call it that way.”

“Unfortunately when they went to the Safety Car period instead, that was one of the things that really hurt our chances to fight back. I don’t know if it would have been enough for us to come back and fight for the win, but maybe the podium for sure. I’ve really enjoyed my time in the Ford GT and with this program. The whole team at Ganassi and Ford were great to work with and we had a great group here to race with.”

Ryan Briscoe, who finished sixth in the No. 69 entry he shared with Scott Dixon and Richard Westbrook, also felt the team had done all it could with the cars it was dealt.

“I think we did a really good job with the race car setup here this weekend,” said Briscoe. “The setup on our Ford GT was great. We were able to double-stint tires, as well as run a really good pace out there. I was happy with the way I drove. I think we had a few little issues during the race, but that’s bound to happen over 24 hours — it’s how you deal with that and keep going. The team and the crew did an amazing job and I’m proud of the effort for sure. We ended up going a lap down there toward the later part of the race. Overall it was a good showing but I think we were just lacking on the BoP (balance of performance). It’s hard to overcome that to really have an opportunity to go for the win.”




Ford Chip Ganassi Racing, Ford GT, Le Mans/WEC

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Mixed feelings for Toyota’s winners and losers

Images by Rainier Ehrhardt/LAT


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By: RACER Staff 8 hours ago


After its long run of frustration at Le Mans, Toyota Gazoo Racing certainly isn’t going to have any regrets over the somewhat anticlimactic nature of its 1-2 finish in the 87th running of the 24 Hours. But winners Fernando Alonso and Sebastien Buemi admitted their focus was more on the FIA WEC championship title rather than beating the sister Toyota TS050 HYBRID with their No. 8 entry in the race. The No. 7, which had demonstrated superior pace for most of the race, was forced to cede the lead in the final hour due to a tire puncture that was incorrectly diagnosed due to a faulty sensor.




“Somehow, it was a difficult race,” said Buemi who shared the winning car with Alonso and Kazuki Nakajima. “We entered it knowing that we could also lose the championship, so somehow, I drove the entire race thinking, ‘Let’s try to increase the pace to fight with car No. 7.’ After five laps, we realized it would be nearly impossible. Somehow in the race, we became better but they were the quickest during the entire race. I was really happy to finish second (ultimately) but what happened to them is really hard. When it (mechanical issues) happened to me and Kazuki in ’16, it was really hard too. I am really sorry for them. It’s motorsport.

“It was a tough race with 61 cars in the end. It’s tough with the presence of a few amateurs. You don’t want to damage your car and you want to be at the front. With car No. 7, you really had to push hard. I am happy we did not do any mistakes and that the race chose us today.”

More Le Mans/WEC!

LM24: Toyota reigns supreme

LM24: AF Corse Ferrari, Keating Ford claim GTE wins

Ganassi Ford crew mull ‘bittersweet’ end to Le Mans GT program

Alonso, too, focused more on the satisfaction of adding another world championship to his portfolio rather than a second Le Mans win, admitting, “No. 7 was quicker than us for 24 hours. They really deserved the victory, but today the luck decided that we had the better trophy.”

Second place overall Toyota team of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez.


While their second-place result was another Le Mans disappointment for the team of Mike Conway, Kamui Kobayashi and Jose Maria Lopez, they did their best to share in the collective triumph.

“I first want to congratulate car No. 8. They did a fantastic season. They pushed us to our limits and we became better thanks to them,” said Lopez. “It’s a tough and cruel race. History shows this.

“I can’t really say what happened at the end of the race. What I know is that we had kept a new set of tires for the end to make it safer. I was taking care and being cautious when taking curves. After half a lap, I had a message saying I had a puncture so I came in. We changed one tire yet I still had a puncture! Pressure was very low so I could not go any faster than 100 kph, which is slow on a 13k track! I pushed as hard as I could but it was too late to come back.

“I am really proud of my teammates. Nothing could help us get better right now except maybe if car No. 8 (drivers) gave us their Rolex! Only maybe….”




Le Mans 24 Hour, Toyota, Le Mans/WEC

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20 years of Corvettes at LeMans
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20 years on, Corvette continues to write Le Mans history

20 years on, Corvette continues to write Le Mans history

Bellanca/LAT


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By: Stephen Kilbey June 13, 2019 11:42 AM


You can’t get a true impression of just how much the Le Mans 24 Hours means to Corvette Racing until you sit down and talk to some of the key people involved.

Factory programs come and go, very rarely staying for very long, in any area of motorsport. But Chevrolet and Corvette Racing keep coming back every June, year after year, to race GT cars and compete for wins at the Circuit de la Sarthe.

This year is Corvette’s 20th at ‘The World’s Greatest Motor Race’, and the program is showing no signs of stopping. While there have been a handful of low notes, there has been many more highs in some memorable races over the years, through the C5.R, C6.R and C7.R eras.

Since 2000, Corvette has competed at Le Mans every year, won its class eight times, and in the process, completed 95,221.25 miles of racing at the circuit. This year, in what is expected to be the C7.R’s final trip to France as a factory car, it’s looking for win number nine.

For program leader Doug Fehan it’s been an incredible ride; seeing his team grow, winning races, creating traditions and winning over the locals.

“I think I speak for everyone on the team that from the minute you pull into this race track, it’s like flipping a switch,” he told RACER.

“You realize you’re at the holy grail of racing, and we’re writing a piece of history for Corvette Racing that people will remember long after we’re gone. That sense of importance drives us.

“It’s an honor to compete here; you have to be invited. It’s the best sporting event in the world, and the performance level required to get a podium here motivates us. And we can’t truly see the forest for the trees when it comes to a legacy.

“We researched this before we started coming. The reputation of Corvettes was pimps and prostitutes, that’s who owned Corvettes. We knew we had to overcome that.

“We made the decision early on to work hard, and play to this country, which has gorgeous history, architecture and pride. The key element was the people of this town, that’s what drives the race, the people of Le Mans own this. They live for this. It’s a pretty blue-collar place, but it’s the place where history is written. And we have to work so, so, hard to earn results.”

No driver knows about the way this program operates quite like Oliver Gavin, who is the only man in its factory stable to have taken Le Mans class win in each of its three cars.

The British racer’s first Le Mans with the team came in 2002. Since then, he has been taken in as part of the GM family, and been picked to come back time and time again.

“That first year was crazy,” he reflected. “I’d seen how the big yellow juggernaut had operated, steamrollering people while I was driving a Saleen. Ultimately Corvette had performance and victories before I came along. Doug called me, and wanted me to drive for him, and I couldn’t say no.

Oliver Gavin became a permanent fixture at Corvette after helping the team to a win on his debut in 2002. Image by Rose/LAT


“We didn’t know then that this would last so long. I remember coming in 2002 with wide eyes. We had issues with the car, but the team worked hard to straighten it out. I remember Jonny O’Connell and I did the whole night, as Ron (Fellows) was unwell and couldn’t drive at night. So we did it together, and managed the performance and ourselves.

“Then in the morning, Ron was well enough to get back in, and he finished it up. Walking out onto the podium after that one was amazing after such a wild ride. The noise of that car, the vibration will stay with me, because it really rumbled and it was really aggressive on drivers. After a double-stint you knew had fought the car.”

He’s driven through three distinct eras: the GTS era with the C5.R, the GT1 era with the C6.R and the GTE era with the C7.R. They all had their own qualities and memorable moments. For him though, 2005 and 2006 were the years he remembers most fondly, due to the heated rivalry with Aston Martin Racing and its DBR9.

“It’s hard to choose a car, or a year as the one that is the most special because each one has had character, whether it’s the GTS days with supreme power, seven-liter motor, to the C6.R with carbon brakes and big aero and battles with Aston. We’ve been part of setting the bar for competition in GT racing. Now you have the C7.R, which seen such development. It’s been such a journey.

“But Aston vs Corvette was a titanic battle. We were literally staring each other out. We were watching each other’s stops. All sorts. I think there was so much respect, we’d always shake hands before and after the race, whoever won. There was a great spirit about it. The GTE Pro class has grown from that.

“The C6.R GT1 stands out as a car to me too; it had the power, the torque, the carbon brakes, and great downforce. You could be really aggressive with the car, load it up into corners… it suited my style. Very special times.”

Tommy Milner, meanwhile, looks back on the 2011 race as the landmark moment in his career. The 33-year-old American who, like Gavin, won Le Mans on his debut with the team, and says he’s still surprised he won it to this day.

“There was a lot of drama that year,” he said. “Jan (Magnussen) had an accident in the sister car, so we were alone in the race, but our car then got quicker throughout. With our teammates out and other cars having issues, we made up positions.

“Then the weather came. It was raining on one lap, then dry on another towards the end. I passed a Ferrari on my final stint for the lead in the crazy conditions, and we went onto win. It was special, it was my first win, and my dad was here for that one. Then I went and got a second win in 2015, and that kind of validated the first one!”

Then there’s Magnussen, who says his first win back in 2004 with the C5.R, back when sportscar racing was more about survival than speed, is what he remembers the most from his time with the team.

The eventful 2004 race stood out for Jan Magnussen. Image by Brooks/LAT


“I’ve been fortunate enough to win four times here with Corvette,” he told RACER. “2004 stands out as the most special. The way we won, after so many issues and problems, really was amazing. The whole GTS category had issues. The cars were quite durable and strong, but we were taken out from the lead at around midnight that year, and had to rebuild the car. We lost six laps and fought our way back.

“In the morning the Prodrive Ferraris had issues, so we climbed back onto the lead lap and fought for it. We went through all our spare parts and a bunch of parts from our show car. Out the back of the garage was a race car graveyard. There were bits everywhere!”

Corvette has sustained success through its time, and even during years when it hasn’t won, it has come close.

“We come here year after year, knowing everybody and their strengths and weaknesses because there’s so much continuity,” said Magnussen. “That’s why we’re almost always in the fight. It’s also why the years that we didn’t win stand out almost more than the years we did.

“There have been crashes, failures. We’ve had heartbreaks but we head home with our heads held high.”

For Corvette, 20 years at Le Mans is not the end of this story. Fehan told RACER that Corvette is happy where it is. He won’t be surprised if the team is still racing at Le Mans after 40 years.

“When we started this journey on our first trip here, it was important for me to instilll pride in our guys,” he explained. “There was a strong history of Corvette. It was sporadic, but it was history. As we look back to the 50s and what was accomplished, we’re writing the history now.

“We’re proud of ourselves, the brand. We have a ‘never give up’ attitude. Remember 2017? We had victory within reach, but we lost right at the end with a puncture to Aston. The image etched in my mind is of the Corvette coming across the pit straight, all torn up, wheels broken, sideways, smoking, chugging across the finish line, with fans cheering. That’s what Corvette is about.


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That car was beat all to heck. That year was also covered by Tampa Racing, and to see that car torn up all to heck
and finishing the race anyway was quite inspiring!
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“Could I see another 20 years? Sure. There are dynamics outside of our control. These cars are powered by internal combustion engines, and maybe in 10 years there won’t be more of those. Who knows what racing will look like? But the form we’re in now will carry on for the most part. As long as the brand continues to exist, I don’t see any changes. We will keep coming back.”