[ELMS Race] 2016 ELMS Round 5: 4h of Spa-Francorchamps

[Ephaeton]

The ELMS does its maiden visit to the glorious ardennes course, the first return of an "european" le mans style series after the ILMC in 2011. And guess who won (in P2) back then? That's right, it was Thiriet with Becche and Thiriet himself on board back then as well. Half a decade ago. After the ELMS expansion this year this is the first time the 5th round does not mark the end of the season.



The ELMS is joined by the Renault Sport Trophy (3 races), the Eurocup Formula Renault 2.0 (2 races) and the Michelin GT3 Le Mans Cup (1 race).

Also to add to the fun is the one-off entry of belgian racers WRT, coming to the track with the vanthoor brothers (actually "only" two out of the three, Laurens and Dries) and Will Stevens in an (Ligier) LMP2. Altogether we'll be seeing 41 entrants on the course (trumping the WEC). 13 LMP2s, 20 LMP3s and 8 GTEs will be contesting for the ardennes honors. Will Thiriet continue its streak after wins in 2011 as well as the previous round in Le Castellet (and Imola, before that)? Will another FCY (yo, CotA, yo Le Castellet!) hand them the win or will it be a proper fought battle across the four hours? We'll see.

Here's the full entry list (PDF) (or HTML)

Spotter guide

Event timetable

Here's the timeanddate conversion & countdown links for non-CET people:

• FP1 (countdown)
• FP2 (countdown)
• Qualifying sessions (countdown)
• 4h of Spa-Francorchamps - RACE (countdown)

The entry to the race is free - whether it's in person or as a netizen - and broadcast over the ELMS' dailymotion channel

I don't remember the proper URL for the live timing, but IIRC it should pop up on the series website come the action.

Interesting, next to WRT actually challenging TDS, there's some championship potentially to be decided.

(Note: Thanks, google cache)

[Ephaeton]

dry track, yet not too warm (18 to 20 deg C), everybody getting their laps in.. but either nobody but Dragonspeed went for it, or they were just the fastest. 2:08/:09s for the top 8 P2s, TDS 4th fastest, WRT 6th, 2:15/16s for the P3s, 2:19s for the top3 GTEs. Blancpain's 24h had a fastest lap of 2:18.793 for comparison (by L. Vanthoor who is now peddling that Ligier for WRT during this race). Our resident Mike Hedlund still slowest best posted time of the GTE drivers with a 2:26 (during the bronze driver session, a 2:27 during FP1)

Track limits seemingly enforced (5 min stop&go for AT racing), which is good IMO.
Sadly still on a work trip so won't be able to see Quali (argh), looking forward to the race itself tho.

[Ephaeton]

Mike improving by some 3 seconds on his 13 lap outing this FP.

Fastest of all, Nico Lapierre, dipping into the 2:07s. WRT obviously with some problems, 2/3 drivers didn't run, and Laurens only doing a 2:15 on 2 laps altogether. Here's the Classification of FP2 and the classification of fastest lap by driver (cumulated) after FP2. All this on a dry, yet cold track.

[Ephaeton]

Qualifying LMP2s:
DragonSpeed, Thiriet by TDS, G-Drive, Eurasia, Algarve, Greaves, SMP and then finally WRT. So kinda the usual picture. 2:06.603 is the Pole time, #2-#7 are in the 2:07s.
LMP3s: Graff, United, newbies Tockwith, Panis Barthez, ... Duqueine only seventh. 2:14.392 is the pole time (+0.101 off Krohn's LMP2!), (the vast majority of) the whole P3 field in 2.5 seconds.
GTEs: AT Racing, the Hedlund-less Proton, AF Corse, JMW, Aston Martin, the Hedlund Proton... Pole time is a 2:17.038 (beating the 24h race lap record, at least), with (most of) the field within 2 secs.

Full classification

Weather was fine

Looking forward to tomorrow's race (albeit seemingly I'm the only one currently doing so on 10/10s )

[TheMightyM]

So how did Idec Sport Racing manage only a 2:19.616, behind everything else that set a qualifying time?

[Ephaeton]

Originally Posted by TheMightyM

So how did Idec Sport Racing manage only a 2:19.616, behind everything else that set a qualifying time?

In their third lap (out of 4) they set a 2:10.318, but that time was not counted, presumably due to track limits, leaving them with lap 4, the 2:19.616 (deduced from this, p.2 right column)

[Akrapovic]

Gt3 LM Cup about to start. There's about 40 people currently watching. But hey its spa.

[tux]

Some poor driving from Flohr to make a 488 sized hole in the side of the Barwell Lambo.

[Akrapovic]

As good a race as you can have with 10 cars after losing a few at the start. Good drive by Shaitar. He dealt with the pressure very well.

This series could be good with more entries. Why not let LMP3s into this too? Theyre selling enough of them that 10 P3s wouldn't be out of the question.

[tux]

I agree Akrapovic, or allow people with Huracan Super trofeos, Ferrari Challenge, Porsche cup cars/GT4 to run in an invitational class or something.

[J Jay]

13 minutes to race start, for anyone (like me) that almost forgot this race was on this weekend.

[bentley speed 8]

Formation lap starts

[Starfish Primer]

Originally Posted by tux

I agree Akrapovic, or allow people with Huracan Super trofeos, Ferrari Challenge, Porsche cup cars/GT4 to run in an invitational class or something.

I remember when GT3 was supposed to be cup/challenge/trofeo cars plus some artisan preparations.

[Ephaeton]

Originally Posted by J Jay

13 minutes to race start, for anyone (like me) that almost forgot this race was on this weekend.

How could one improve the race thread anchor to strengthen the hint?

[Starfish Primer]

I think FIA should take more seriously the wheels going off problem. Is it so complicated to move to a Nascar 5 wheel nut arrangement?

[Ospi]

Originally Posted by Starfish Primer

I think FIA should take more seriously the wheels going off problem. Is it so complicated to move to a Nascar 5 wheel nut arrangement?

Was a rim failure, not a nut allowing the wheel to come off.

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by Ephaeton

How could one improve the race thread anchor to strengthen the hint?

Not much more you could have done really, I've been logged in for the last week but I haven't actually looked at any of the threads until an hour ago.

Originally Posted by Starfish Primer

I think FIA should take more seriously the wheels going off problem. Is it so complicated to move to a Nascar 5 wheel nut arrangement?

Looked more like a tyre than the whole wheel to me.

[TzeiTzei]

Originally Posted by Starfish Primer

I think FIA should take more seriously the wheels going off problem. Is it so complicated to move to a Nascar 5 wheel nut arrangement?

"Not invented here". So yes, it probably is quite complicated

[J Jay]

Krohn car in the gravel with the #60 ... and Tracy wasn't even driving at the time!

[Akrapovic]

Didn't tracy get in during the first early stop?

[Starfish Primer]

Originally Posted by J Jay

Looked more like a tyre than the whole wheel to me.

Originally Posted by Ospi

Was a rim failure, not a nut allowing the wheel to come off.

Thanks, but it is not the first time we see a complete wheel going off because a failure of the single wheel nut.

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by Akrapovic

Didn't tracy get in during the first early stop?

I didn't see it, so Jonson would have stayed in unless I missed the change.

Edit - Yes, #47, #38, #1 all stopped during the FCY.

[Ephaeton]

Originally Posted by J Jay

I didn't see it, so Jonson would have stayed in unless I missed the change.

Edit - Yes, #47, #38, #1 all stopped during the FCY.

I didn't post the live timing link, in hindsight it's super obvious...

http://europeanlemansseries.com/en/live

[J Jay]

Great driving from Findlay to keep Van der Garde behind on the run into the bus stop while going both ways round Roda's Porsche.

[Akrapovic]

Harsh penalty for the 60 tbh.

FCY under investigation.