Final Qualifying BPR GT Endurance

03/04/96

In an overcast and drizzling final qualifing session, the Ferrari F40's of Team Ennea Igol continued their domination of the front row of the grid by turning up the boost pressure and blitzing the assorted Mclarens's. With a terminal speed in excess of 190mph the F40's were a clear 2 seconds ahead when the heavens opened and practice was curtailed. The Giroix/Deletraz/Cottaz '96 spec McLaren coming closest with a 1'53.491 against the Ferrari's best of 1'51.512.

As for the rest of the field, there seem to be a number of factions broader than the GT 1,2,3 class structure might suggest. The most obvious change is the addition of a new revised version of the Le Mans and GT Championship winning McLaren F1 GTR. The "Big Macs" arrived on the scene a year ago and went on to dominate the series winning all but one race, the Gulf and Harrods car's sharing the trophies between them but for a single Porsche victory.This year however, some of the teams, including the Champions West Competition driven by John Nielson with team owner Thomas Bscher and Harrods Racing, have decided against purchasing a new $1m model and have instead opted for a $150,000 upgrade pack which won't be race ready until the 3rd race of the year at Jarama, Spain. Consquently we now have old '95 cars equiped with new engines (which are some 30bhp down on last year) and with various chassis and areodynamic modifications. Competing with new cars, with new chassis and engines but suffering from a lack of development and testing. The best of the "old" buntch was the Harrods car, driven by former LeMans winner and Sports car Champion Andy Wallace and ex-Ligier and Tyrrell Frenchman Olivier Grouillard. Despite suffering from handling difficulties, caused by the need to make such substancial bodywork and chassis developments and moreover a mis-fireing engine, the result of mixing old engine management systems with new BMW V12 engines. The team has qualifyed on the 3rd row behind Bellm/Weaver's '96 Gulf McLaren and Porsche's new fatory entry GT2 'E (for evolution) 911.

The rest of the field includes a futher 2 Mac's - which sound fantastic red lining in 6th down the back 3 mile straight - and an assortment of Venturies, 2 Callaway Corvettes and a plethora of some 30 Porsches'. Two points of interest come in the shape of British entrys. The gloriously brutal V8 Marcos, now in it's second year and running very quickly under the control of Marcos Racing Int out of Holland and piloted by Euser/Bacle and fellow Hungarian Thomas Erdos. While old timer, though he'll kill me for saying it, Jan Lammers and super- quick Brit Alex Portman have the brand new Lotus V8 which with it's combination of 550bhp, handling dynamics and first class technical back up must be a sure bet for at least podium finishes later on in the season.

The F40's must start favorite for tomorrow's clash, when no doubt they'll have the boost turned right up soa s to establish some sort of early lead. But, this is not a sprint, but a race of endurance, spread over 4 hours where fuel, tyre and weather can be the overall deciding factores. If the gearboxes hold together (which was never acheived last year) than the Olofsson car will be hard to beat, but don't be too suprised to see the mighty Mac's muscleing their way through towards the end and taking at least one podium place.

Nicholas Frankl -- The Auto Channel
Paul Ricard, France.