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I saw the first of the 2 races at Imola this weekend just gone, sadly not a massive amount of cars but thoroughly entertaining none the less. Plus a good amount of nostalgia and engine noises...
Alex Kapadia in the ex SMP Oreca 03 was quickest all weekend but it still led to some good racing.
The Peugeot 908 (V12 edition) was looking good until a spin near the end of qualifying. Coming out of the last corner and tagged the wall with the rear. and didn't emerge for the rest of the weekend.
The ex Dyson Lola of Steve Tandy was looking good as well, a faster pitstop put him in front of Kapadia who slowly caught Tandy and passed him with a few laps to go.
There was a great battle foe 3rd between the Creation of Gareth Evans, the Audi R8 of Travis Engen and LMPC of Freiser (which must have had it's silencers removed as it made a lovely throaty sound!)
The 458 GTE was the quickest GT car on track but was plagued by gearbox issues, but lovely to hear it's shrill as it went past. The 2 Aston DBR9's sounded SO lovely as well, makes me miss GT1 even more. The Venturi sadly didn't get much running but certainly looked lovely having never seen one in the flesh.
Surprisingly attrition hit the newer Oreca 03 LMP2 cars (although the Pilbeam, Courage-Oreca LC75 and Lucchini did as well but maybe this is perhaps in keeping with period...)
Those of us in the grandstand gave the Courage-Oreca team a cheer when they finally got it into the race about 5 laps down! Lots of running back and forth attempting bump starts.
Mike Newton ran well in his MG Lola, closely followed by the ex Kolles Lola LMP2 as well which provided much needed variety from the Orecas.
Sadly had to leave before Sundays race but hopefully more will come out for the Brands Hatch round as the variety and race length is just right for these cars.
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