'10 LMS Finalé • Silverstone • '10 ILMC Round 1

[tux]

The GT2 Vantage claimed its first victory today winning race 1 of the International Gt Open at Brands Hatch run by Villios Racing so indeed the car is now fast enough to compete. They beat top teams and driver pairings of Autorlando, Imsa Performance and Af Corse.

[Victor_RO]

Still on the subject of Astons... what actually caused the retirement of the #007? Autosport lists it as "spun off" on the result sheet, but I can't really remember hearing about it on the RLM broadcast. Where did that happen?

[chernaudi]

Heard that had happened, too. I read it on Planet Le Mans, but no reason was given. I knew that one of the Aston's handgrenaded an engine at Le Mans, but that was after 23+ hours of having its neck rung.

On Racing Sports Cars' F1 section, some cars are listed as being spun off, but that usually means that the car was ditched due to accident or powertrain damage. Car could've spun and got stuck in gear, and couldn't move, or might have burned up the clutch if in too high a gear--an Audi R10 blew a clutch at Le Mans in '08 after it took off from a stop in 3rd gear or something, having gotten stuck in that gear during a spin.

[Deleted]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

Still on the subject of Astons... what actually caused the retirement of the #007? Autosport lists it as "spun off" on the result sheet, but I can't really remember hearing about it on the RLM broadcast. Where did that happen?

They had damage to the clutch and a puncture as well, but in the end they indeed did spun into the gravel.

[chernaudi]

Pretty much explains what I wrote: car was ditched after the clutch gave out trying to get it out of the gravel most likely.

[gwyllion]

Originally Posted by Victor_RO

The car has to start on the tires it qualified on in the LMS aswell, IIRC.

Indeed, article 7.13 of http://www.lemans-series.com/en/s02_...sportif_GB.pdf

• One set of tyres will be marked for each car for the qualifying practice session.
• At least 3 of these marked tyres will have to be used for the start of the race.
  In case of infringement of this rule, penalty will be at the Stewards’ discretion.

[cmk]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Pretty much explains what I wrote: car was ditched after the clutch gave out trying to get it out of the gravel most likely.

According to Andy Meyrick (fide DSC) the clutch was toast long before Primat spun it into the gravel, but the lack of clutch made getting it out impossible.

[chernaudi]

If the clutch was gone early in the race, how on earth did they get it out of the pits? I guess that shutting the engine off may've helped, as that was a common trick in NASCAR when they started using the Jerico dog-clutch road racing gearboxes on ovals.

[cmk]

That's as reasonable a guess as any. Andy definitely says the clutch was gone from Adrian's stint, and IIRC he started the car.

[henk4]

Originally Posted by chernaudi

Peugeot may've switched to a softer compound because of the trouble they had during practice and qualifying,

wow, the afcionado never stops whining obviously. The problem that Peugeot encoutered during qualifying was called Radical, a large piece of its body work to be precise, that it left on the track during the second half of the qualification session. The yellow flags were waved there, so if you plan to go there full throttle, the stewarts may have a question or two for you. You are surely aware that the Audis went out early for qualifying, and the Pugs in the second half of the session.

Anyway, quoting the Mc Mish explanation for everything is a bit silly, because what he is uttering is just a morale booster for the public opinion, or in short, PR BS.....

On the other aspect that we were discussing here, I had a conversation with Lord Drayson at the Revival meeting this weekend, and the team haa to change the engine, plus the whole fuel line system and related stuff to have the run on european fuel. So yes they, may have been able to do better if they had more time to work on that (although they should have had some experience from Le Mans, I would say). The LMS fuel reduced the power of the car by about 50-60 BHP.