So, going into Saturday, it's actually kinda weird sensation to have favorite picks for something other than just the 24 Hours. I mean, every year I watch the support race/races as good morning fun, prepping up the atmosphere, but previously I haven't particularly "cared" who won what. Maybe it was nice to see the beautiful Ferrari 250LM of Monteverde winning the 1949-6X Legends than some random Lotus, or Jaguar rather than Mercedes in the Group C, or in Porsche Cup some factory driver beating another, but I don't think I really cheered for anyone. But now here, it's different.
The two teams I'm REALLY looking forward in victory-hunting are, ironically, the two cars sitting at the front of the grid.
"The Brundle car"
- Would be great for historical LM reference
- His win would boost the general event media exposure outside the "specialist media"
- His win would boost up his own chances of getting again into LMP2 as Silver next year
- I suspect it would also boost United Autosport's morale on making the big race in 2017
Ginetta
- You know, the underdog winning the army of clones, it's got a ring to it - and you've got to hand it to them in sticking with the car for this
- Would perhaps make others consider Ginetta as LMP3 brand again (and perhaps, perversely, Ginetta themselves would look into LMP3 again
)
- As I said before, it would be extremely funny, in front of of Oak/Onroak home base and crowd, to have non-Oak winner, and in the most important P3 race of the season!
Some others I'm interested:
- Racing Holland: obviously, who wouldn't want these success?
- ADESS: they seem to be lacking just as the chassis always has, but it's something different and also they got the car delivery very late so it can be sort of excused (plus the driver 'talent' is what it is). I hope they get past GT3s and survive to the end passing some of the Onroaks. I guess it's like the CLM of this race
- Yvan Muller's team, you know slow success might slowly persuade Muller himself also back, it's bit like Seb Loeb's team was
- Some other teams that have cars competing in the main race too, dual campaigns are always interesting particularly if they can double-up the success in the main race
Now, obviously and as I've said many times before, it would've been great if this more than just "Ligier" fest, but generally speaking the front of the grid is of solid quality, and next year when the other makes (incl local Norma) are more up to speed I suspect it to be more varied. Plus of course the event itself will be more established.
The GT3s, I don't care of itself (though I cannot say I care of LMGTE in the main race particularly much more now
), but it'll be interesting where in the overall order they situate and whether any of them cause traffic issues. It's just 55 min race (so note: not 1 hour as previously said!) so the chances for such are pretty low, and also the density is very low with these entry count on over 13km track.
Hay and Parsons will commentate on it for Eurosport like they did for the Legends previously. I'm bit worried as they might be alright in reminiscing times of 50 years ago, but not when discussing modern machinery and paying attention to actual happenings. Also I hope they don't get paired with Cole, but not holding my breath