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Vallelunga ELMS

02/09/2001

PK Sport - Ricardo

In Italy

The usual Robin Liddell / Mike Youles pairing in #60 were partnered by (PK / Ricardo regular) Piers Masarati and local man Maurizio Possumato in #61. In some ways the pressure was off for this last round of the inaugural ELMS, because a good finish would secure the GT title for Mike and Robin. The best laid plans etc.

Robin, Mike and #60 settled in well on Friday, second to Wolfgang Kaufman in the Paco Orti car. Piers also reported “a useful session, lots of track time and setting up the car went well.” Maurizio knows Vallelunga, so he was content to familiarise himself with the car. One of the pleasures of the ELMS is the chance for the drivers to get in plenty of laps on day one, but Robin explained that “it’s a slightly tricky track: a quick out section with a more technical return section.”

The times were all very close in GT, as you’d expect from a bunch of well matched Porsches: Freisinger, Parco Orti and Harlow 911s were all right in contention. #60 developed an oil leak, and problems with #61’s engine meant that the crew were looking at a busy schedule to be ready for Saturday.

Robin proved the competence of their work with the fastest laps early on in Saturday morning’s session, getting down to a low 1:15. Romain Dumas went a little faster for Freisinger later on, but it was looking very competitive throughout the class. Robin had “the usual Porsche lightness on the inside front wheels, which is causing the odd lock up into the slower corners. It feels better on used rubber rather than new,” which boded well for the race.

Piers was “chasing understeer” in #61. He was not unhappy with a 1:16.647. Maurizio was demonstrating his local knowledge with some different lines at some of the corners.

Qualifying was a tale of temperatures, and when you happened to be out on the track. It was hot, dry and sunny to start with, a little cooler with a little cloud in the middle of the session and then hot and sunny to finish. Unsurprisngly, the best times were set in the slightly cooler middle period: Wallinder 1.14.820, Dumas 1.14.850 and Liddell 1.14.876. Robin reported that the sun came out just as he started his ‘hot’ lap, and such subtle changes in the weather can make a difference – he remained on the third best time, 56 thousandths separating him from Wallinder’s effort.

Piers was a delighted fifth with a 1:15.377. “This demonstrates how well I’m adapting to the car now.”

Robin and Piers both had a second stab at a quick time, but the track was slower, so they had to settle for where they were – which was more than satisfactory. Wolfgang Kaufmann in the Paco Orti car was the big loser, setting times at the beginning and the end of the session, he missed the faster middle period. His car would handle better in the race.

Mike Youles and Maurizio Possumato did the running in the race morning warm up, both scrubbing in new tyres. A light drizzle drifted across the track at the end of the warm up, but a dry race was in prospect. Robin would start, which was a change in the #60 routine (“then we’ll see what happens”), while Maurizio was down to run for an hour, then hand over to two shorter stints from Piers.

Two of the team’s main rivals had widely different experiences. Wolfgang Kaufamnn found that the Paco Orti Porsche was handling much better after the team “found a problem”, while Terry Rymer dumped the lead Harlow Porsche off the track. The damage didn’t look too bad, but the mechanics had a task ahead of them to get it ready for the race.

The weather was fine for the start, as expected, and Robin made a good getaway, passing Dumas and chasing Wallinder. Robin conceded second to Dumas and was content (all right – wrong word, when is a driver ever content not leading) to sit in third for now, although that became fourth when Kaufmann took the Orti Porsche into the lead of the class. “It was great to do the start – my first ever in GT racing! – and I got ahead of Dumas, but first he and then Kaufmann came past out of the hairpin. I could keep up with them round the whole lap, which meant making up for the time lost at the hairpin.”

Maurizio had a reasonable start, running close behind Adam Simmons (fifth) for a while, then dropping back into the clutches of Tony Littlejohn in the Cirtek car.

Mike Youles explained that “Robin started the 60 car so that in the event that the car were to break down in the first stint, he would score the points for the championship,” - rather than Mike, although the ideal situation would be for both to score equally.

At the 38 minute mark, Maurizio spun the #61 car on the approach to the Curva Essa, nearly collecting the leading Panoz. He continued, and pitted at one hour as planned, for Piers to finish the race.

Robin pitted as well, staying in the car. But he was back within ten minutes with severe clutch slip. The car was straight into the garage for a closer look: a giant fan was obtained from the caterers, MSL, and the crew set to work under the jacked up Porsche. Any hope of a class win was obviously gone at the first sign of a problem: the intention now was to get the car back out again with Mike in it, so he could score points and leave the pair as joint leaders of the Championship.

Piers was in a good fourth at 90 minutes, chasing the two Harlow Porsches and the Freisinger car. He took on fuel only for his last stop, and was soon joined on the track by the sister car. Mike was reduced to laps of 1:45, but he only had to complete ten to be classified as a points scorer. Mission accomplished, but a frustrating way to end his season.

Not quite though. Mike Pickup: “We gave it a wash and a polish and sent Mike out to cross the line. It wasn’t the way we would have liked to finish the ELMS, but I’m comfortable with the fact that over the season, we got the job done. It was a tall order when we started out at Donington in April, but the team have worked marvellously well all year and we’ve got the results race after race.”

Piers was pleased with another finish, although sixth in class didn’t reflect the effort he’d put in.

A low key finish to the ELMS? No chance, there was a party to be had! Next stop is the event at Sepang in Malaysia, the Le Mans Race Of Champions. That will complete a fascinating series of adventures, on and off the track, for PK Sport / Ricardo. It began at Daytona in February, took in Le Mans (and a finish at the first attempt), the likelihood of the GT title in the ELMS (at the first attempt at an international series) – yes, Mike Pickup, you can feel entirely chuffed with what you and the team have achieved. Youles to take a step back for next year? Perhaps the fun element will be scaled back without him, but Mike Pickup’s nerves will be much happier.