WEC heads off to Germany for the first time next week

After a 2 month summer break, the World Endurance Championship is getting ready for the fourth round of the season. It's off to Germany and the Nürburgring this time, the first visit of the WEC to this legendary track, and the first time since 2009 an endurance world championship is visiting the Eiffel. Although the race will take place on the GP Strecke, the spirit of the legendary Green Hell will be all around the track next week.

   

Last month, the race was presented at the Nürburgring, together with a two day test session with 20 teams present. In this first part we'll focus on the top contenders with Audi and Porsche getting ready for an epic battle for the 2015 championship.

Everyone present at the press conference agreed that racing at the Nürburgring means endurance racing is coming home again. The 1000 km races at the Nordschleife in the past always saw epic racing and huge crowds, let's hope the fans come out to the track again for the home race of Porsche, Audi and also Toyota who have their workshops nearby in Cologne.

Hans Joachim Stuck, twice winner of the 24 hours of Le Mans, sportscars world champion and a Nürburgring legend (driving his first lap at the Green hell at the age of 9) has been appointed Grand Marshal of this race. “During history, endurance racing belongs on the Nürburgring” said Stuck during the presentation of the race last month. “After my career in Formula 1, I've booked my greatest successes in endurance racing. Racing at the Nordschleife 1000 km in front of 150.000 to 200.000 fans will always be in my memory and with the return of the WEC, the spirit of endurance racing is coming home again”.

The whole Porsche team is still on a high after their historic victory at Le Mans in june. “The excitement in the Porsche headquarters after winning Le Mans was amazing. Everyone wants to be part of the winning team and the legendary race in France” says Andreas Seidl, head of Porsche's LMP1 program. “The Nürburgring is a track where history has been written and we want to do it again this year. Winning Le Mans after 17 years, gave the whole team an incredible boost and we will do all we can to win also at our home race in Germany. We're also pushing hard to win the WEC championship and scored good points for that with our second car at Le Mans, so having a good result over here will be key for the rest of the championship.

Dr. Wolfgang Ullrich, head of Audi Motorsport hasn't forgotten the 2009 race and is keen on revenge for the defeat at Le Mans. “It's been 6 years since we've raced here in the Le Mans Series, and we weren't able to win it back then. We didn't win Le Mans this year, so we want to get back what is ours; the top spot of the podium”. “Audi will be pushing hard to claim the WEC title at the end of the season and is eager to win here at their home race on a legendary track. Asking Dr Ullrich why people should come to the WEC, his answer was very clear : “The WEC championship offers exciting and fair racing in all different classes, with new technology that will go through to road cars. There's no artificial overtaking down here but real racing with drivers fighting for speed and position. Since this is a home race for Audi and Porsche, I expect a good crowd for the race.”

Olaf Manthey, who is running the Porsche GTE-Pro factory cars probably has the most experience with racing on the Nurburgring. “The Nürburgring is our home track, it's basically in the backyard of our workshop, so we should be well prepared for a good result out here. On Monday we were able to do some testing in wet conditions, which is always helpful when you've got a race coming up in the Eiffel.” The pressure will be on at Manthey Racing for a top result in their backyard, but it's clear Porsche will be ready to fight for the win in LMP1 and GTE-Pro with their factory teams.

In 2009, Aston Martin had a clean sweep on the podium and took a dominating victory with their Lola V12 after an eventful race. With the unpredictable Eiffel weather, it's hard to tell what kind of race we'll have next weekend but it will be an exciting one, that's for sure. This is a new race on the calendar, but with a massive potential and fan base. Let's hope the fans will find their way on to the 'Ring, and make it a great weekend for endurance racing. They should be in for a treat with a full race program and entertainment around the track.

All information about the 6 Hours of the Nürburgring can be found here. 

Postcard from Spielberg

Still impressed about the great race we had at Austria last week, let's take a look at the impressive Red Bull Ring.  Maybe a bit of a hidden gem, but certainly worth a visit to see some good racing, and some of the best infrastructures to be found.

The Red Bull Ring, formerly known as the Österreichring and the A1-Ring is situated in the Styrian mountains in the Murtal region.

Built in 1969 as the Österreichring, the original track had a length of 5,911 km.  In 1996 the track was redisigned by Herman Tillke and shortened to 4,236 km.  After these adaptations, it hosted F1 again from 1997 'till 2003.  When Red Bull bought the track in 2008, reconstruction of the paddock area and grandstands started.  Starting with a DTM race in 2011, the now renamed Red Bull Ring hosted a Formula 1 grand prix again in 2014.  ELMS has raced here since 2013 and payed its third visit to the track.

The track literally runs up and down a hill which gives the spectators amazing views from almost anywhere on the track. 

Even for us, your humble servants, the new media centre gives us a superb view over the pitlane and track. 

View into T1

Grandstand view over start/finish straight and pitlane

Bull sculpture in the entrance hall of the main building

In the end, it's all about "the Bull"

If the track and racing isn't enough, there's more than one reason to say in Austria for a few days ... 

When in Austria, drive up a mountain pass (Grossglockner) ... 

and enjoy some amazing views 

Kristof Vermeulen.

ELMS 4 hours of the Red Bull Ring - Race report

An amazing track and infrastructure, hot summer weather, 29 cars on the grid ... everything was set for a great race on Sunday, and what a race we got !  Third race of the season, third winning car and team and an exciting race with no less than 5 safety car periods. Jota Sport and their "Mighty 38" clinched a well deserved victory at the even so mighty Red Bull Ring in front of more than 12,000 spectators.

Qualifying was upset with the crash of Gary Hirsch in the Greaves Motorsport Gibson/Nissan.  At first it seemed the Gibson had substantial damage, but the mechanics managed to get the car up built up and competitive again by the start of the race.  Harry Tincknell claimed pole position in the Jota Gibson/Nissan, ahead of the #50 Murphy Prototypes Oreca/Nissan and the surprisingly fast #37 SMP Racing BR01/Nissan.  AF Corse took the honours in GTE with Matt Griffin putting the #55 Ferrari on pole ahead of the #51 AF Corse and #60 Formula Racing Ferrari.  Charlie Robertson was - as expected - fastest in LMP3, in GTC AF Corse again took the first 2 spots on the grid with #62 and #63 ahead of Thiriet's BMW Z4.

Filipe Albuquerque took a strong start from pole position and was able to build up a good lead, but when the safety car came out after a few laps, he had to do it all over again.  Albuquerque got a strong lead again, but another safety car made all his efforts worthless for the second time.  In the meantime, the Eurasia squad in the Oreca 03/Nissan managed to keep up with the pace of the frontrunners and even got briefly into the lead due to a different strategy during the safety car periods. Behind the leader, the #46 Oreca 05/Nissan from Thiriet by TDS became the biggest challenger for Simon Dolan and his crew. Unfortunately for them, a problem with their last pitstop and Gommendy charging through the red light at the pit exit during the last safety car period cost them a penalty.  Despite all that, the Oreca 05 came out of the pitlane less than 2 seconds behind, but Harry Tincknell kept his cool and gave the Jota Sport team their first ELMS victory of the season.

After 4 hours the #37 SMP Racing BR01/Nissan driven by Mikhail Aleshin and Anton & Kiriil Ladygin took the third step of the podium, 1 lap behind the leaders.  In only its third race, SMP managed to get a podium in the all new BR01, which felt like a truly well deserved victory for the team.  They battled it out with the unfortunate Greaves Motorsport who suffered several penalties which put them out of contention for a podium finish.   Bad luck for the SMP Racing team too, when the second BR01 in the hands of David Markozov went hard into the barriers right before turn 1 with 1h15' to go.  The Greaves Gibson made it home in 4th, only 3.1 seconds behind the BR01.  Tracy Krohn's bright green Ligier/Judd raced itself to fifth after an uneventful race. Murphy's men came in sixth after holding on to third position for quite some time, but losing out after a collision with a GTE car.  On their first race in ELMS, the Portuguese Algarve Pro Racing team managed to get their Ligier/Nissan to the finish line in 15th place overall, despite some unexpected problems during the race.

Not only LMP2 put up a mouthwatering spectacle, GTE gave us tension from the beginning to the end. The Ferrari's were all over the place in Spielberg with Formula Racing, 2 AF Corse's and JMW battling it out on the very limit.  The latter eventually fell off the leading group after a penalty. Matt Griffin rushed his way through the field in the #55 AF Corse after having to start at the back of the grid, getting into an extremely close battle with the #60 Formula Racing Ferrari 458 and the #51 AF Corse.  During the whole race, it was a nailbiting spectacle with all 3 cars just seconds apart.  At the final stage of the race, it seemed like Griffin had the top spot of the podium within his reach, but when the Thiriet Oreca 05 spinned in front of him in the last lap, Mikkel Mac made an epic move to take over the lead and score a great victory for the Formula Racing team.  With electrical problems all Saturday, the Marc VDS BMW Z4 came in fourth (again), despite their troubles only 13 seconds behind the #51 Ferrari.

In LMP3 Sir Chris Hoy and Charlie Robertson took their second victory after their unsuccesful race in Imola.  Robertson drove a very strong opening stint, putting him into the top 10 and well into the mix of the GTE cars.  After a faultless double stint by Chris Hoy, Robertson just had to drive home to secure a dominant win.  All the other LMP3's had their problems during the race.  The #5 Villorba Corse came in second, before the second LNT prototype, 22 laps behind the leader.  The #15 SVK by Speed Factory had to retire after several contacts and losing some of its bodywork.

GTC saw the #59 Thiriet by TDS BMW Z4 leading the class, untill he ended up in the gravel trap at turn 3 right after a safety car period.  This saw the #62 AF Corse taking the lead, comfortably building it up to a 2 lap gap at the end of the race.  With the checkered flag in sight, the #68 Massive Motorsport Aston Martin with Kristian Poulsen at the wheel came in charging hard to the BMW, but Franck Perrara ultimately managed to keep track position to come in second.

After a well deserved summer break, the next ELMS race is scheduled at Le Castellet on September 6th.  With another exciting race behind us, a very competitive LMP2 field & door to door battles in the GT classes, we should be in for a thrilling weekend again.

Full race classification can be found here

Kristof Vermeulen