© Planetlemans - Brecht Decancq
What would the Le Mans Series be without its GT classes. At Spa three GT1 cars and 16 GT2 cars will be in action. Three manufacturers in GT1, five in GT2 will entertain the fans around the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. Let’s see who will be racing where and who will have the best chance to win.
GT1: And then there were three…
Only three cars are entered for the Spa-Francorchamps round of the Le Mans Series. ARC Bratislava-Kaneko had planned to enter one of the Full Speed Racing Saleens while their own car is not ready, but the deal which included Lemeret and Muytjens did not materialize. Larbre will also skip Spa. Perhaps the team is still somewhat afraid after the previous run here (Spa 24 Hours 2008), but more likely due to the fact that two cars are entered for the FFSA GT round at Dijon.
Luc Alphand Aventures, IPB Spartak Racing and Jetalliance Racing will be there though, making it a three-way battle nevertheless.
Luc Alphand’s Corvette C6.R was en route to a victory at Barcelona a month ago when the French owner/driver put his car in the gravel trap, handing over the lead to the Lamborghini. In Spa the team is back with the same line-up and hoping to repeat last year’s victory.
One advantage for the Alphand team could be a new line-up for the IPB Spartak Racing Lamborghini Murciélago R-GT. Rather than the familiar Kox-Rusinov line-up the Dutch ace will be joined by young Czech drivers Erik Janis and Filip Salaquarda. With the two Czechs new to the Le Mans Series much will depend on the qualities of Peter Kox.
The third and final GT1 car is the Aston Martin DBR9 of Jetalliance Racing. Not used in FIA GT the team has decided to run its DBR9 once before heading to Le Mans. Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer, Thomas Gruber and Alex Müller will do whatever they can to fight the two other GT1s in an attempt to take their first win in the Le Mans Series and perhaps the final win of their GT1 Aston.
GT2: Interesting field of sixteen GT2 cars at Spa.
Sixteen cars have been entered for this weekend’s race at the Spa-Francorchamps circuit. With cars from Ferrari, Porsche, Aston Martin, Spyker, Lamborghini there is a lot to compare in this class.
Reiter Engineering will debut their new Lamborghini Gallard LP560, with Christophe Bouchut and Albert von Thurn und Taxis behind the wheel. Despite being shown at Paul Ricard during pre-season testing and some private tests the second round of the LMS will actually be first race of the car. Let’s see what it can do against the other entries.
Another new entry is the Advanced Engineering Ferrari F430 GT2 for Griffin-Bamford. This Ferrari is expected to be used as the Team Seattle entry for next months Le Mans 24 Hours. A similar rebranding of a car is happening at ProSpeed Competition. The Belgian team, which won the opening round of the FIA GT Championship at Silverstone only last weekend, will enter the Paul Daniels owned Porsche 997 GT3 RSR. Paul Daniels will be joined by Markus Palttala. Unfortunately the car is a 2007-built 997 with 2008 updates and it seems unlikely that it will be able to fight for the top places.
So who can fight for the top spot in GT2?
Two Porsches are certainly in it for winning. Barcelona’s winner, the #77 Team Felbermayr-Proton, will be back at Spa with Marc Lieb and Richard Lietz again. On the entrylist Horst Felbermayr Sr is also shown as the third driver, but we know from the ‘senior’ driver that he is smart enough to stay out of the car when he thinks the car can win. And why risk losing a championship?
The second Porsche that could win is the IMSA Performance Matmut entry. The team’s duo (Raymond Narac and Patrick Pilet) are a force to be reckoned with and if the car keeps on the track and out of trouble this team should be considered as a threat to the #77 Porsche.
Team Felbermayr-Proton’s #88 is the fourth Porsche in the field, but its line-up and results so far make it possible to say that this car needs more than just some luck to get a top result.
Finally Ferrari…next to the Advanced Engineering F430 GT2 there are no less than eight F430 GT2s on the grid: JMW, Hankook, two FBRs, Team Modena, Virgo, Easyrace and JMB Stradale Racing.
Several of the Ferrari’s have top line-ups, with JMW Motorsport having one of the best (Bell-Bruni). The #92 Ferrari was the best of the rest at Barcelona and hopes to beat all Porsche teams at Spa this weekend. But with Simonsen and Kaffer in the Hankook-Farnbacher Racing car, Jaime Melo joining Antonio Garcia and Leo Mansell at Team Modena they will also face some opposition from their own ranks.
Easycall, JMB (with Julien Rodrigues this time and at Le Mans), the two FBR cars as well as the Virgo Motorsport cars are unlikely to fight for a podium finish in the GT2 class, unless the top teams and/or drivers hit trouble.
Spyker Squadron will be there with its Spyker C8 Laviolette GT2R again. At Barcelona things started really well with fast lap times, but come race day Jarek Janis was replaced by Benjamin Leuenberger due to an injury and three laps into the race it was already over. The problems have been solved and with Janis unfit to race at Spa the Dutch team has drafted in Peter Dumbreck. The combination of Tom Coronel and Peter Dumbreck is one of the strongest in the class; let’s just hope the car’s reliability will be as good. A decent result is something this team needs before heading to Le Mans.
We end our GT2 preview with Drayson Racing. The British team used the Le Mans Series test at the Bugatti circuit to get more miles in preparation for the Le Mans 24 Hours. Marino Franchitti tested for the team, but won’t be racing at Spa. The team has got more Aston Martin Racing support and the team is placed next to its big brothers in LMP1. Cocker and Drayson will be hoping to beat even more cars than at Spa and go to Le Mans with a positive feeling.
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