GruppeM - FIA GT Championship - Spa 24 Hours
Practice & Qualifying

Warm-up on Saturday morning came too early for some people. Actually, ahead of a twenty-four hour race, it came too early for just about everyone, and GruppeM was not alone in electing to give the damp and unforgiving track a miss. The team’s garage and smart new truck remained shuttered and locked for several more hours and, despite the settings for breakfast, the hospitality was equally deserted.

Seen in the light of the team’s previous two days, this was a reassuring sign from the FIA GT Championship GT2 leaders. The build-up to the Spa 24 Hours is not as protracted as it is for Le Mans, and everything ends up getting crammed into a few days at the end of the week. Free practice started late on Thursday morning, with the two GruppeM Porsches comfortably running first and second in GT2 – just as you might expect. The times fell somewhat short of those they’d set just a short while ago during official practice, but with the track in poor condition, that was also hardly unexpected.

“They had a twenty-five hour race here recently,” explained Adam Deborre, Number One on the GruppeM #88. “The track was still covered in dirt and rubber from that, and it’s also been raining on top of a greasy track, so it was very slow.” Steve Bunkhall, who doubles as chief race engineer as well as Number One on the #66, also pointed out that the kerbs have all been repainted ahead of this weekend, so offer fewer opportunities for fine-cutting corners in confidence. “When we came here for the test, the car worked well. So, in session one, it all went as expected. The track was very “green”, and the kerbs were fresh, so we were not as quick as we’d been before, but we were happy with what we did, even if the times were well off the pace.”

The results from that first session suggested that it was business as usual for GruppeM, although there are a couple of significant differences within the team this weekend. The regular driver line-up has been swollen by the arrival of two more experienced Porsche ‘veterans’; Stéphane Ortelli joining Emmanuel Collard and Tim Sugden, while Lucas Luhr will share the 66 alongside fellow Germans Mike Rockenfeller and Marc Lieb. It makes for two exceptionally strong squads and further enhances the team’s already solid chances. Just how much the presence of these two new faces alters the complexion of the rivalry between the two cars won’t be revealed until the race is well under way, since GruppeM is sticking to its usual routine, and awarding top honours in strict rotation, round-by-round. That means Marc Lieb would be getting the qualifying tyres and starting the race in car #66, and Manu Collard would enjoy similar privileges in the #88.

First practice revealed the #88 just a fraction quicker than the #66, posting a best of 2:23.456 to be half a tenth faster, but the needle-match was about to be rudely halted very early in the day’s second free practice period. Marc Lieb was taking first run in the #66, and had completed three laps. He wasn’t hanging about, and had just set a time of 2:25.787 as he dived down the hill towards Eau Rouge. If he lifted through the dip, it was only by a hair, and then he was belting up the hill on the other side. At the same time the #112 Levy G3 Porsche was rising up much more slowly and, as they reached the top, it moved across, just catching the tail of Marc’s Porsche as he swept by. At such speed, he didn’t stand a chance. The car was whipped into a frightening spin before skipping backwards across the edge of the track and into the barriers. “You’ll have to get the details from Marc,” suggested Steve, “but it was a very nasty accident.” Those details, when they came, were delivered in a very matter-of-fact style. “It was a huge accident, yes,” admitted Marc, although a slight shrug of the shoulders suggested that he wasn’t that fazed by the incident. “I was travelling perhaps fifty or sixty clicks quicker than he was. I thought he’d seen me, and was going right. Perhaps he hadn’t, I don’t know, but just as I came by he moved left.” This appeared to coincide with the sight of blue flags from the marshal’s post nearby. “I could do nothing,” admitted the German. “It was a big impact. I was doing maybe 150 or 160. I have a sore neck today, just a little, but otherwise I’m OK.”

Marc’s final comment summed up the incident perfectly. “He said he didn’t see me. I have to believe him,” but there are concerns amongst the regular FIA GT competitors that the standards this year are not as high as usual. We often hear this complaint when different championships come together for a major event, but there may be more than the usual degree of truth in the observation this year. “There are a lot of drivers out there having problems with the traffic. I’ve never known it this bad before,” said a genuinely concerned Lieb. “We have fewer cars this year, but more problems. I don’t know why that is.” Kenny Chen, team owner at GruppeM, was being very understanding. “Marc was very unlucky, but we have several Cup class entries this weekend. Some of the drivers are simply not used to the speed differentials, that’s what it is.” Just how relevant this really is will become clear when the racing truly begins on Saturday afternoon.

If the #66 was having unforeseen problems, there were no such concerns for the #88, with Emmanuel Collard and Tim Sugden joined for the longer race by Stéphane Ortelli. “It’s great having Stefan in the car,” said a relaxed Adam Deborre. “The atmosphere is very relaxed and laid back, and it’s just like a regular FIA meeting. That means it’s Manu’s weekend, so he gets the (qualifying) tyres and the set-up, and Tim and Stépane can just help him drive it home.” That’s perhaps a slight oversimplification, but things do seem to be going far better for the #88 so far. “I’m just concerned that we may have used up all our good luck now, before the race even starts!” added Adam. “We had an engine mounting problem when the car was being set-up on the flat-patch, but apart from that, it’s been a pretty smooth run - just a few minor issues, including a slight misfire in qualifying that cost us half a session, but no major headaches.”

Qualifying
Indeed qualifying did prove to be a remarkably unruffled affair for the #88 GruppeM car, with Collard topping the times from the very beginning with a best of 2:22.856 – the quickest time to date from either car. The #66, meanwhile, continued its battle to overcome the results of Marc’s accident. “The guys had been onto the car as soon as it got back to the garage,” explained Steve Bunkhall. “Paul, Al and Karl especially, but helped by all the rest, they did a fantastic job getting it ready again. Unfortunately, just ahead of that first qualifying session we discovered a problem with the tracking at the rear. It seemed the damage was more serious than we thought.” They fought on anyway, and by the time the second session began, the car was at least in a condition to go out. More fundamental repairs would have to wait until later.

Conditions were less favourable by the time the next session began at ten o’clock, with rain having fallen in the meantime. Times were always going to be slower, and with this in mind the #88 did just nine full laps, enabling each of the three drivers to complete their requisite night-time laps, and then packed up for the day. Even so, 2:41.151 was still quickest in GT2 by almost a second from the Autorlando Sport Porsche #67.

Under the circumstances, the times being set by the #66 were far better than expected, and third in class (2:42.723) was certainly nothing to be ashamed of. “The car wasn’t right, but it was close enough, so all the drivers could really do was their night qualifying,” conceded Steve.

With the second session flagged out at half eleven, Friday was about to start very early for the crew on #66. It was after midnight before the car was back in the garage, and they promptly set-to and started stripping down the back end prior to fitting a new rear subframe and engine. It was the beginning of a very long night.

Only twenty-five of the thirty-seven starters took part in Friday’s third and last qualifying session. With that minor misfire to address in the case of the #88, and an almost total rear-end rebuild having been completed on the #66, both GruppeM cars were out on track, and riding high – 12th and 13th overall. Thankfully, everything went perfectly this time around, with Marc Lieb setting a best time in the #66 of 2:24.477 to top the charts in GT2, followed closely by Manu in the #88, clocking 2:25.971. “The car went out in race trim,” explained Steve Bunkall, in reference to the rebuilt #66. “It was fully prepped, so they did very well to set such a quick time. The crew had worked very late into the night and I can’t say enough about how well they’ve done. They worked remarkably hard, and they’ve been great. It was a fantastic effort, and thanks to them, it’s now looking great for the race.”

Although the #88 starts on GT2 pole, fifteenth overall, there’s a feeling in the team that the #66 may be the quicker car at the start of the twenty-four hours.” The two cars are 180 degrees apart,” said Adam. “They’re completely different in the way they’re set-up, but we’ll only see when we get out there which is going to be the more consistent. We’ll be trying to double stint the tyres, and might even triple stint through the night. I just hope that the track will come to us as the race develops. We might not be the quickest at the start, but come the morning, we might have the edge.” Marc Lieb wasn’t so sure. “I don’t know if we’re quicker or not, but we have definitely had more of the bad luck!” he joked. “The only goal we have is to finish the race. We need to be first or second at each six-hour point during the race, and that will be OK, no big deal. We have to be competitive and finish the race. OK, we could win, but the strategy is to be in the points throughout the 24 hours.”

At the back of Adam’s mind, however, is the championship. There seems little doubt that the title is heading GruppeM’s way this season, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t strong rivalry within the team. Either car can still win, but events this weekend could determine which one it will be. “If the 66 wins this race, and we DNF, that could be the championship wrapped up,” he observed. This apparent dominance by GruppeM may be one of the factors behind the FIA’s announcement that things will change next year, and the factory-backed teams will no longer be welcome. This prompts a response from Kenny Chen. “Last year we were 1.5 seconds behind the Freisinger cars when we ran against them at Donington and here at Spa. This year it’s four or five seconds between us and P3. Simply, if the other teams had a good set-up and some good tyres, I’m sure they could give us a hard time too. People shouldn’t complain that we are too quick or that we have too much support. Instead, I want to see these other teams improving their performance to meet ours.” In principle, the idea is sound. In practice it seems unlikely that anyone with the necessary funding is going to come forward at this late stage in the season and pose a serious threat to GruppeM’s dominance. That, however, should be no reason to suggest it couldn’t be encouraged to happen next year. Surely the aim should be to raise the game to the highest level, not hobble it back to the lowest?

In the meantime, there’s a twenty-four hour race to run. “These races are all about reliability, team collaboration . . . and finishing,” says Kenny. We’ll soon find out just how true that is.
Marcus Potts