Although many eyes were focused on the Audi and Peugeot works entries at last weekend’s 12 Hours of Sebring it was the older ORECA run 2010 Peugeot 908, driven by Olivier Panis, Nicolas Lapierre and Loic Duval which took the checkered flag in Florida.
Hot on its heals was the six day old Highcroft Racing HPD ARX-01e. The private teams beat the works teams fair and square in Prototypes!
In the GT Class, BMW Motorsport scored a strong 1-2 with their revised M3 which will compete in the American Le Mans Series and Intercontinental Le Mans Series, the two series which ran in tandom at Sebring.
Twelve hours earlier, it looked like a prototype battle would be between heavy-weights Audi and Peugeot, but reliability, punctures and a costly accident between Marc Gene and Dindo Capello early into the race weakened the big team’s hand. The works Peugeot had the pace to win.
This left ORECA and Highcroft to stay out of trouble and remain competitive. It really was a dream come true for both teams for different reasons. Few people thought much of the ORECA Peugeot before the race, thinking the new car would speed into the distance, but as predicted on Speedhunters last week, the proven older machines stayed out of trouble.
Anyone who watched the online feed will have seen the emotion on team boss Hugues de Chauncac’s face as Loic Duval crossed the line after 12 hours. This was an important this is for the team.
Hugues ran the team behind the 1991 Le Mans winning Mazda 787B win.
It wasn’t all plain sailing, ORECA came under pressure from ALMS champions, Highcroft racing, in their newly updated HPD-ARX01e eventually taking the second spot on the podium, having lead briefly.
This was a stunning debut, up against works competition the small team, fighting for sponsorship arrived at Sebring a week earlier with a car in bits.
The Honda powered team didn’t really expect to figure. A great performance by the team, led by David Brabham, Marino Franchitti and Simon Pagenaud.
Highcroft PR guru Paul Ryan woke up the following day and posted ” Had a weird dream last night that we beat both factory Audis and Peugeots in Sebring……Hang on – we did! “ on his Facebook account.
The team were stunned. I’m hoping Highcroft can get some more sponsorship and run the whole series. Regardless, the team will be back at Le Mans in June.
In the meantime, ‘Brabs’ won’t be resting. He’s also racing a full season in the FIA GT1 World Championship for Sumo Power GT with the Nissan GT-R.
Many teams and drivers showed their sign of support for Japan. Highcroft are also raising money here.
Peugeot took the final podium spot with Frank Montagny, Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy, 12 seconds behind the Highcroft machine. The two Audis finished in 4th and 5th. A disappointing final race for the R15.
In LMP2, Honda had additional cause to celebrate, Level 5 winning this class, ahead of the Signatech Nissan by a comfortable10 laps, but both cars suffered problems, as they had come straight out of the box. LMP2 is very weak this year and the series needs to have a look at performance and cost of these.
The GT battle was fantastic, ending with a 1-2 for BMW. Andy Priaulx, Dirk Muller and Joey hand taking the win. 10th place overall.
This is a huge boost for the brand as they scored maximum points for the ALMS and ILMC Championships.
Speedhunters’ Tommy Milner had a great debut in the Chevrolet Corvette, taking the final step of the GT podium and setting the fastest lap of the Corvette drivers.
Milner had driven hard moving up from 6th position at the beginning of the last stint following a new windshield. “That was probably the hardest I’ve had to work in a race car to see out of the windshield,” Milner reported. “The crew changed the entire window in nothing flat, and that was great because the car was really, really good. When the sun went down, it definitely picked up grip.”
Unfortunately, the #4 Corvette clashed with Patrick Long in the Flying Lizard Porsche 911 early on taking out the Patron ESM Ferrari F458 of Johannes van Overbeek who was minding his own business.
Repairs to the Corvette dropped them down the field but they eventually finished 4th.
Early on it was a close battle between Corvette, BMW and Ferrari with the AF Corse run F430 and Risi Competitzone run F458 Italia. Risi had run at the front early on before reliability problems dropped them back and ultimately into Retirement. The F458 is going to be very quick on both sides of the Atlantic once the new car blues are ironed out.
This close battle bodes well for the future of the ALMS, ILMC and Le Mans.
The Falken Porsche ran competitively all weekend with new team Walker Racing looking after the operation. Running fourth before gearbox issues appeared. Unfortunately 4th gear and then the entire gearbox let the team down, resulting in retirement with three hours to go.
The car does look great though!
Falken, owned by, a subsidiary of Japan based Sumitomo Industries also proudly displayed the Japanese flag
Ferrari did win the GTE-Am class, a Pro/Am class for the ILMC Series with Tracy Krohn Nic Jonsson and Michele Rugolo.
Quick shout out to Black Swan Racing who won the GTC class for Porsche 911 GT3 Cup cars. Damien Faulkner, well known in Europe for his Porsche Supercup exploits made his debut in the ALMS and made a lasting impression. Hope we see the Irishman again on this side of the Atlantic.
It was a great race and impressive to see these so-called under-dogs on the podium. With a huge entry the flow of the race suffered a little with nine, (yes, that’s correct) Yellow flag caution periods! Luckily, the last 1/3rd of the race was left to do just that…. race. I suspect this was mainly down to the reduced number of runners.
The two series now take different paths, meeting up again at the end of the year in Atlanta for Petit Le Mans. The second round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup will take place at Spa in May. This is the event the new Audi R18 Coupe will race for the first time. The European Le Mans Series begins next month at Paul Ricard (and continues at Spa). This is where the new Aston Martin Racing Prototype will make their debut.
Meanwhile, the American Le Mans Series moves onto Long Beach in April for what is effectively a Sprint Race. Gone are the Peugeots, Audi’s and most of the other Prototypes. You are left with Highcroft (hopefully!), Cytosport Aston (which retired at Sebring), Corvette, BMW and Ferrari.
In the meantime, you can re-live if you haven’t seen it via ESPN3.com or ALMS.com depending on territory.
I’ll leave you with this image. ORECA decided to run ‘I Love US Racing’ stickers on their car for Sebring. I wonder if they will remain all season now!
-Andy Blackmore
Images: ALMS, Highcroft Racing, Krohn Racing, BMW, GM, Falken Tires
OFFICIAL SPEEDHUNTERS SUPPLIERS
didn't send anyone this year?
those BMW's always looked mean..
This is a great example of why SpeedHunters is #1 Great to see Oreca and Highcroft do well. I tried to watch the online feed, but it was too choppy. Hopefully it improves.
These are great collection thanks for the sharing.
Just in case anyone is looking to watch the races, the race at Paul Ricard is the opening round of the Le Mans Series (not the ILMC) where the AMR-ONE will make its debut, while the R18 will make its debut at the next ILMC race which is Spa.
excellent recap up Andy..
That 458 sure does look proper.
How come there were no driver blogs or event features and what not?
No comment on the LMP-Challenge cars? the cheaper spec series with good racing that actually beat the full on LMP2s?
Ryan - Thanks for that. Sorry about the confusion, you are spot on.
That shot above of the Krohn Ferrari is stunning. Mad props to whoever shot it.
I am surprised the Ferrari didn't catch fire...
i never noticed before, but is it just me, or does Highcroft Racing's stylized H logo look like a fairly blatant ripoff of VW's R logo? (like on R32's)
I must admit it seemed as though the challenge cars both prototype and gt were merely there to help make up the rest of the field.
Fantastic racing though, the GT class was amazing, always nipping at each other heels, great racing and great drama, BMW worked for that win alright.
Audi has lost a bit not only by not taking the top 3 but also by not bringing their R18 to prep it in time for Le mans. I was quite surprised at the performance of the new cars Peugeot had brought. Peugeot too was stunned by the performance. I feel that Audi too might have had surprise results, in addition to gaining valuable data.
Those Sebring pits were murder, at Le Mans it is so much easier to get the car into the pits. I felt great pity for the drivers who did not have a gps nav system to help them navigate to the pits.
Thank you guys for giving us a preview, and can you direct us to where we can watch the Paul Ricard, Spa, Imola, and Silverstone events when they come around?