SPA LMP1 POLE & PODIUM
Drivers in the renowned yellow Dunlop winners caps took every spot on the GT podium in Spa today at the final round of the 2004 Le Mans Endurance Series. Freisinger won the race but Sebah took the Championship. In the prototype category it was the Creation team that flew the Dunlop flag, finishing third after a hard race. 19 of the 41 cars competing raced on Dunlop tyres for the 1000km race.
Qualifying/Grid Dunlop runners performed well again in qualifying with overall and LMP1 pole position and top seven slots in the GT class. The Creation Autosportif Zytek driven by Jamie Campbell-Walter and Nicolas Minassian qualified with a time just under four-hundredths of a second ahead of the Audi trio, while other Dunlop runners put in strong performances including the RML MG Lola and Rollcentre Racing Dallara in 5th & 6th respectively.
In the GT class Dunlop dominated the grid again – this time with the top seven places. Freisinger took pole in the Porsche GT3 with only a chance of clinching the championship if disaster fell for Sebah and JMB, starting 3rd and 5th in class.
Nicolas Minassian, Creation Autosportif – pole position “The car was fantastic. I think we knew we had the pace and the story was putting it all together. Tyre wise I’m really happy. They’re good out of the box, fresh on the car and also consistent – I put in the qualifying time on my 8th or 9th lap. I couldn’t be more pleased.” Race The Creation Zytek took the lead from pole but a collision with the leading pair of Audis resulted in bodywork damaged that caused a puncture. After pitting Minassian rejoined in thirteenth but battled to make his way back through the back. Blistering times, consistently only hundredths of a second from the fastest lap, moved the car steadily back up the timing screens and by the two-thirds stage of the six hour race was back in a podium position. The GT battle raged between the top championship contenders with Freisinger in the lead from the early stages – knowing that a win was essential to make up the points deficit where the sat in third place at the beginning of the weekend. The impressive win with a 2 lap lead and 9th overall wasn’t enough however as Sebah overcame their problems on the day to finish third and claim the GT Championship.
Jamie Campbell-Walter, Creation Autosportif – 3rd “The car was good today and we showed that we could have won the race if it hadn’t been for the contact with Kaffer. We lost 5 minutes twice through contact and that would have been enough. We pushed hard to make up the time and ended up with third. The car ran well and the tyres were good. We had no problems double stinting and the intermediate for Nic’s stint in the rain were fantastic.” Martin Short, Rollcentre Racing – retired following accident “We had a new tyre from Dunlop and we could do quadruple stints on them. The DBA is using the same compound, and look how quick Jamie Campbell-Walter’s going!"
Stephane Ortelli, Freisinger Motorsport – 3rd “It’s a good victory. We made the best choice of tyres each time for the conditions and they were consistent as usual.” Mark Lieb, Sebah Automotive – 3rd GT & 1st in GT championship “This was a team win. It’s amazing what they’ve done. The car and tyres have always been consistent and we’ve had a lot of support from Dunlop.”
Graham Shuter: Dunlop Motorsport “1-2-3 in the GT championship is fantastic. It means a lot because we entered an international endurance championship for the first time with this new tyre and we’ve not only won the championship but have all top three spots. We’ve had no tyre issues all year and people are now looking at the Dunlop tyre in a new light. Now we can look forward to next year and winning for the championship again
LMES - Spa 1000 Km - Provisional Result Pos N° Drivers Car Class Laps Best Time
1 88 DAVIES J HERBERT J Audi R8 LM1 ==144== 2:06.626 2 5 CAPELLO R ARA S Audi R8 LM1 ==143== 2:06.787 3 3 MINASSIAN N CAMPBELLWALTER J DBA 03S Zytek LM1 ==139== 2:06.774 4 13 FREI A HANCOCK S COCHET J Courage C65 AE LM2 ==137== 2:13.433 5 69 STACK J HIGNETT S COLLINI G Zytek 04S LM1 ==136== 2:07.666 6 7 ERDOS T NEWTON M RAMOS M MG Lola-AER LM1 39.774 2:10.198 7 86 BOUCHUT C LAMY P ZACCHIA S Ferrari 550 Ma GTS ==132== 2:20.091 8 26 BELMONDO P GOSSELIN CY EYCKMANS W Courage C65 AE LM2 ==129== 2:14.595 9 85 ORTELLI S COLLARD E Porsche 996 GT GT 28.869 2:27.895 10 87 ENGE T PERGL R GOUESLARD P Ferrari 550 Ma GTS 1:05.515 2:19.700 11 36 de FOURNOUX JR BOUVET JB BOULAY S WR V6 LM2 1:36.264 2:22.192 12 62 DELETRAZ J-D HEZEMANS M Ferrari 575 GT GTS ==128== 2:21.763 13 93 JONES A MAASSEN S Porsche 996 GT GT ==127== 2:28.361 14 11 DUMEZ S DUPARD O BLANCHEMAIN JL Panoz LM1 12.279 2:17.213 15 80 POMPIDOU X LIEB M Porsche 996 GT GT ==126== 2:27.246 16 81 THYRRING T NIELSEN LE LONG P Porsche 996 GT GT 1.071 2:27.975 17 27 INGRAM J GAW J PEARSON R Lola AER LM2 2:18.405 2:23.777 18 32 PERONI P SAVOLDI M FRANCIONI F Lucchini Judd LM2 ==125== 2:15.636 19 70 RUSINOV R MELO J LONGIN B Ferrari 360 Mo GT 31.672 2:27.309 20 61BOSCH J SULLIVAN D Ferrari 575 GT GTS 1:12.204 2:21.515
BIAGI T 21 52 BENNET P WHIGHT P LESLIE D Saleen S7R GTS ==123== 2:22.137 22 90 ICKX V RABINEAU T TINSEAU C Porsche 996 GT GT 1:00.561 2:31.586 23 75 HALLIDAY L MASARATI P Porsche 996 GT GT 1:20.680 2:31.048 24 84 BURGESS A COLLIN P MUNDY G Porsche 996 GT GT ==122== 2:30.792 25 96 BARAZI J VERGERS M DUDFIELD N Porsche 911 GT GT ==121== 2:30.944 26 99 ROSTAN M BRUNEAU P Pilbeam JPX LM2 8.036 2:22.353 27 76 LABHARDT F MICHAELIAN J CASADEI M Porsche 996 GT GT ==120== 2:35.540 28 92 FABRIS M WILSON R KIRKALDY A Ferrari 360 Mo GT ==111== 2:28.338 29 91 HARTSHORNE J HYDE S SHARPE A TVR Tuscan T40 GT ==105== 2:33.183 30 31 RICARD C FAVRE P FARGIER G Lucchini Alfa LM2 ==63== 2:21.375 Dunlop runners
