Allan McNish and Pierre Kaffer turned the tables on their Audi UK Team Veloqx team by winning round two of the new Le Mans Endurance Series at the Nurburgring.
McNish showed that he had no lasting effects from his shunt in the Le Mans 24 Hours by taking over from his German team-mate to drive the second half of the 1000km event and bringing the #8 Audi R8 home over a lap ahead of the #88 sister machine of Johnny Herbert and Jamie Davies, who were forced to take second spot as they had at La Sarthe.
Although the Creation Zytek qualified on pole, it was the Veloqx Audis that proved to be the strongest combination in what turned out to be a timed race over six hours. The Team Goh Audi also led at times, but the majority of the running was made by Kaffer, who started the #8, and Herbert, who drove another marathon stint in the #88.
The real talking point of the race, however, was the weather, which played havoc with strategies up and down the pit-lane. A brief shower right at the start merely heralded what was to come, with a combination of torrential downpours and lighter drizzle kept the teams on their toes, but the outcome was also affected by the speed at which the Nurburgring tarmac dried between the showers.
Both the Veloqx cars suffered spins, particularly Kaffer, who beached the #8 in the turn gravel and required a tow to rejoin, and there were incidents up and down the field.
The Team Goh Audi should have claimed third spot to complete an R8 top three, but was found by the spinning JWR Porsche and required a lengthy late pit-stop to repair its real suspension. This allowed possibly the star of the show - the Creation DBA-Zytek - to climb back into third spot, with Nicolas Minassian particularly impressive as he spent the early part of the race dicing with Herbert and the Audis.
Behind the Goh Audi, the lone Pescarolo completed the top five, ahead of the Rollcentre Dallara and RML Lola, which both suffered their fair share of problems but continued to plug away to the end. Rollcentre newcomer Patrick Pearce had a particularly fraught debut after copping some of the worst weather, but acquitted himself well in the trying conditions.
With the LMP2 category proving as fragile as it had at Le Mans last month, the leading GTS contender again featured in the top ten overall. However, just as had been the case at Monza prior to the 24 Hours, the Vitaphone Saleen would not be the recipient of top honours, the Alzen/Bartels/Konrad car again falling foul of late problems to drop behind the metronomic Larbre Ferrari 550. On this occasion, the black-and-aqua S7 finished the race, but was on the tail of the Ferrari when the flag fell.
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IXO 1969 FORD GT40 LE MANS WINNER
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£20.00
£19.00
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| Superb 1/43rd scale model of the 1969 Le Mans winning Ford GT40, car no. 6 in the distinctive `Gulf Oil` livery, driven to victory by J Ickx & J Oliver. Model comes in presentation perspex case and special Ixo Le Mans packaging. |
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