[ELMS Race] 2015 4 Hours of Hours of Le Castellet (Paul Ricard)

[TheMightyM]

It’s race weekend in the south of France for the fourth of five ELMS races of 2015.

The are 27 cars taking part (10 LMP2, 4 LMP3, 8 GTE-Am, 5 GTC). Note that Ibanez Racing has withdrawn its two LMP2 entries.

Also, we have an explanation for why SMP Racing is now going by AF Racing. It’s a legal issue. As Graham Goodwin reports:

Confirmed visually this morning is the fact, suggested here as a possibility/probability yesterday, that the AF Racing BR01s are racing this weekend on Dunlops. This would not have been possible under the SMP Racing banner with Goodyear Dunlop legally constrained from doing business with an entity in the ownership of Boris Rotenberg, a named exclusion in the ongoing US Trade sanctions around the Ukranian crisis.

The schedule is available here. (Qualifying is at 9am local time Sunday with the race at 1:00pm)

A version of the entry list is available here.
Free Practice 1 results are available here. (AF Racing fastest)
Free Practice 2 results are available here. (Thiriet By Tds Racing)

[Deleted]

With 27 preliminary cars it's on tied 8th place for fewest entries of the total of 57 ELMS events so far.

The Z4 GTE has received eight liter fuel break (while Porsche loses six and gains weight) + bigger refueling restrictor, along with other bits and piece bop updates. Z4 GT3 has also gained less weight and bigger air restrictors. So I guess it's their time to win now, congrats to the Bimmer representative in the committee room

[Deleted]

GT2 Ferrari had the overall top speed on Mistral again...
http://elms.alkamelsystems.com/Resul...actice%202.PDF

It's becoming a habit at HTTT.

Also it's shocking that the ACO hasn't attempted to bop up the LMP3s as once again all of them are slower than top GTs. Maybe the Ginettas just cannot have any power increase or they'll explode out of the way... the other P3 marques should have a walkover

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by Chiana

Also it's shocking that the ACO hasn't attempted to bop up the LMP3s as once again all of them are slower than top GTs. Maybe the Ginettas just cannot have any power increase or they'll explode out of the way... the other P3 marques should have a walkover

The drive-train is the same for all of them... and there's absolutely no reason to think that the engines should be anywhere near over-stressed at this point. But yeah, it will be interesting to see how the Ligier fares at Estoril.

[Deleted]

The ACO pinpoint for LMP3 was projected to be "2 second faster than LMGTE", and they've now had four races to boost it up but nothing's been done (or if they have it's not shown), so I do still suspect it's Ginetta itself not being able to go through with performance boosts. Maybe the engine can take it but other parts can't I don't know. Aren't they still overweight too?

Or ACO just waits to see how the Oak car obliterates the Ginetta and says that explains it.

Anyway, official timing sheets still type the SMP tires as Mics even though they are obviously Dunlops. In any case, this does mean that only Krohn and Pegasus stay as non-Dunlops and the last flag carriers of tire war.

[Speed-King]

Originally Posted by Chiana

The ACO pinpoint for LMP3 was projected to be "2 second faster than LMGTE", and they've now had four races to boost it up but nothing's been done (or if they have it's not shown), so I do still suspect it's Ginetta not being able to go through with performance bosts. Aren't they still overweight too?

I agree that the problem is probably the Ginetta. I just don't think there's a point in speeding them up just as the Ligiers are about to come into the series. For all we know, such a power boost might well see the Ligier nipping on the heels of the of the P2s.

[Deleted]

Then again if the Onroak car (and others later) are as good as they are claimed to be, Ginetta is either gonna cry for some considerable bop or give up entirely, as in fold the "factory" LNT cars and just let the leftover customer teams to figure it out - if there are any left midway next season.

[TF110]

Nice trick by the smp squad to use dunlop (owned by goodyear, of America, F-yeah! screw you Russian businessman)

[Ospi]

Imo the Ginetta business plan was always to rush a car out early knowing it wouldn't compete with the ligier so they could sell a bunch and get a season out of it before becoming redundant. I hope the aco don't bop down the ligier to keep things competitive given they're slower than the gts. Need to find a way to make those ginettas quicker.

[TheMightyM]

Alessandro Pier Guidi puts the AT Racing Ferrari 458 on the GTE-Am poll.

Franck Perera puts the TDS Racing BMW Z4 GT3 on the GTC poll.

[TheMightyM]

The livery on the BR-01 makes the fin look absolutely massive.

[tux]

Originally Posted by Ospi

Imo the Ginetta business plan was always to rush a car out early knowing it wouldn't compete with the ligier so they could sell a bunch and get a season out of it before becoming redundant. I hope the aco don't bop down the ligier to keep things competitive given they're slower than the gts. Need to find a way to make those ginettas quicker.

This taken from DSC.

"The Ginetta has seen significant changes since the Red Bull Ring, the car now within the weight limit for the first time and sporting revised bodywork too which DSC saw the team testing recently at Silverstone, the car producing lap times significantly better than the fastest race laps in the ELMS season opener earlier this year."

I agree though, i think once the other LMP3 cars start competing the Ginettas will have a very tough time.

[J Jay]

Just missed the start, did Dolan just get caught out off the line?

[Gingers4Justice]

Originally Posted by J Jay

Just missed the start, did Dolan just get caught out off the line?

I believe the technical term is that he got "proper mugged off".

[J Jay]

Originally Posted by Gingers4Justice

I believe the technical term is that he got "proper mugged off".

I can understand Jota wanting to change things up from the usual driver order, and Dolan can hold his own in the meat of a race, but seemingly not at the start. But if he get close to the BR01's before the first stops it will have worked out nicely for them.

[Hawkwood]

Originally Posted by Gingers4Justice

I believe the technical term is that he got "proper mugged off".

We have the next Martin Brundle with that type of in depth analysis

[J Jay]

Oh, I half-expected (and thought) the thread was stickied.

Safety car for the stalled #2 Ginetta. Big break for Jota.

Edit - Bad break for Jota, Dolan is slow off the restart and loses the Gibson under pressure from Hirsch.

[Ginaro Zukovsky]

How nice it is to have a pit lane reporter that can speak english and ask some decent questions!

Would also be nice to have virtual safety car so the GTE leader doesn't get a lap advantage, or a ALMS style waveby if needed.

[J Jay]

Cracking battle for 2nd in P2 between the Thiriet, AF #21 & Graves cars. Shaytar doing everything he can to keep Thiriet and Lancaster behind. All the while Albuquerque is free to nurse his two-stint old tyres and keep a healthy lead for Tincknell.

[TheMightyM]

So the instant the race ends, time & scoring dies. Nice, not even enough time to put the results in my database…

[bentley speed 8]

Back to back victories for Jota, and a Gibson 1-2.

Good race for the BR01s, leading the race at the beginning. The switch to Dunlops seems to have paid off well.
Just a real shame that they will only be able to compete until 2016.

[Ospi]

Originally Posted by TheMightyM

So the instant the race ends, time & scoring dies. Nice, not even enough time to put the results in my database…

It'll all be up on alkamal by now in more detail than you could wish for.

[tux]

Jota won on the road but were penalised 45 seconds after Albuquerque was 1:57 too long in the car. Greaves move up to first, AF Racing 2nd, Jota drop to 3rd.

Jota still lead going into Estoril but the gap is now 1 point.

[J Jay]

That's a big one dropped from Jota in a race they looked comfortable in. It's not as if Albuquerque was low on fuel when he brought it in. That's a 1 minute 57 second gap right? Rather close to a flying lap of the track - it seems like someone forgot to carry the one...

[bentley speed 8]

Well, now that is a costly mistake. Though the final race will now be more interesting