Team Modena finished the 2009 Le Mans Series season third in the LM GT2 category teams’ championship – fourth place in the final round at Silverstone in the highly competitive category good enough to clinch the position in not only the team’s first season of GT2 but also their first season racing the Ferrari F430 GT. Drivers Antonio Garcia, Leo Mansell and Jaime Melo were competitive all the way through the hard fought race, the car consistently a front runner, and did enough to secure the points the team needed.
“We are very happy to be third in our first season in GT2,” said Team Principal Graham Schultz, “it will be good to get some silverware in Paris at the prize giving. We have lots of people who want to come with us for that event – it is a great result for the team.”
Qualifying
Jaime was in the car for Saturday afternoon’s 20-minute qualifying session, and did two flying laps, recording times just thousandths of a second apart on each. The Brazilian declaring himself happy with the set-up of the car prior to the race, and was fourth quickest of the 14-car strong GT2 field.
“We qualify the car on medium compound tyres,” said Jaime, “with most of the other teams on soft tyres, so we knew there would be a difference. and I just tried my best,. In the race we will be very competitive, the car is good.”
Race
Jaime was in the Ferrari for the race start, and from fourth on the grid came through second at the end of the first lap. In a tight battle at the front of the LM GT2 field, he slipped to third briefly before taking second again and running that position as the leading Ferrari early in the race. Antonio took over after Jaime completed two rapid stints, the team continuing to be part of the lead battle as the race continued, Antonio pitting from the lead on lap 103 and emerging to hold second place.
Dropping temperatures were making track conditions difficult for the drivers, grip levels falling away rapidly, and once again the Ferrari was hit by a quicker prototype, this time with Antonio behind the wheel. Unlike the previous ground, the car continued and Leo was able to bring it across the line after 170 laps of racing in fourth position.
PR below - 80 images from the race weekend on the Team Modena web link at the bottom of this article:
“The car was good early in the race when the track was warmer,” said Jaime, “we had a balanced car but couldn’t get the tyre temperatures. I got past the Porsche on the opening lap just after Becketts, then the Ferrari spun so it was a good lap to take two places straight away. It was a good race – we did our best and got he result in the championship.”
“My first flying lap I got hit,” explained Antonio, “the left mirror was out, for most of the prototypes you just have to open the door, but without the mirror you cannot see who is coming and they just dive in.
“That was a struggle,” said Leo, “the car felt good for the first couple of laps, then the grip went and it was difficult. I tried to push and keep it on the track, but we ended up fourth and took third in the championship.”
The result also sees Antonio and Leo joint third in the drivers’ championship, a fine result for Leo in his first season in the testing discipline of endurance racing.
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