Season 2,
Round #5
Circuit de 2.4 Heurs du Mans, FR
Laps 36
May 7th, 2016 13:00
Weather: Dry, Partly Cloudy
1. GT3 Pro Chris Chavana, Mercedes AMG #29, -36 laps
2. GT3 Pro Tom Senchak, McLaren #2,
3. GT3 Pro Sean Fleming, McLaren #60,
4. GT3 Pro Alex Hinton, RUF #3,
5. GT3 Pro Michael Watts, Mercedes AMG #28,
6. GT3 Pro Nic Worsfold, RUF #21,
7. GTLM Am Abe Wozniak, Corvette C7R #64, -+1 laps
8. GT3 Pro Chris Bowman, RUF #72, -+1 laps
9. GT3 Pro Railer Cantrell, Cadillac ATS-V #19, -+4 laps
10.GT3-Am Brian Batiato, Mercedes AMG #20, -+6 laps
11.GT3 Pro Matthew Spurrell, McLaren #60, -DNF (Engine)
12.GT3 Pro Søren Christensen, Bentley #7, -DNF (Retired)
13.GTLM Am Chris Jones, Corvette #3, -DNF (Suspension)
14.GT3 Pro Eric Cline, Mercedes AMG #15, -DNF (Accident)
The 24 Hours of Le Mans is the world's oldest active sports car race in endurance racing, held annually since 1923 near the town of Le Mans, France. It is one of the most prestigious automobile races in the world and is often called the "Grand Prix of Endurance and Efficiency". As the Series makes their 5th stop on schedule McLaren has a huge points lead. But with 10 races still to go the Mercedes are trying to make their presence known. In a Provisional qualifying session it was the newest Danish driver Soren Christensen, who set the pace in his Bentley with a brilliant lap of 3:52.718. Matthew Spurrell, who's been dominating the Series was able to get within one tenth of his time but ultimately settled for outside pole. In fact the top 7 drivers beat the qualifying record in Season 1.
With the front row set, Chris Chavana (3rd), Tom Senchak (4th),and Nic Worsfold rounded out the top 5.
At the start of the race, radio issues plagued Christensen and he didn't get a good start when Green was called, and it allowed Spurrell and Chavana to jump ahead. The race start went fairly smoothly until contact forced Sean Flemming, to change his strategy and pit early with damage. Flemming, who recently left the successful McLaren team to run for Aston Martin in place of Ben Wells, who was locked out of the race due to contract implications. Spurrell was setting the pace early until around lap 7 making a mistake and handing the lead to Chavana. The first to retire was , Eric Cline, who was having a decent race making his way to 8th place and closing in on Michael Watts when he made heavy contact with the wall, damaging his car beyond repair. Christensen, frustrated by his poor start, was trying to get around Chavana when he incurred aero damage and pitted for repairs early. Then while making his way through the field spun again while going over the kurbs in the Corvette section. He felt something wasn't right with the handling of the car and retired to the pits midway through the race. Chris Jones suffered a similar fate incurring damage and brought the car to the pits only to find it was repairable forcing him to retire early. As the race progressed into the Night, the top half of the field kept pushing on and stringing together some very hot laps stretching their gaps. But before sunrise Spurrell's McLaren, suddenly lost power and forced him to retire with engine issues. At this point the race came down to Senchak and Chavana.
As the Sun came up and the race strategies played out, Senchak was the only major challenge to Chavana as the laps counted down, but a late spin left him out of contention for the win as Chavana was dealing with a fuel mileage issue on his end. Flemming had a great showing in his new Aston Martin bringing home a podium in 3rd. Alex Hinton, back from a schedule conflict that forced him to miss the first 4 races was able to bring home a 4th place finish. Watts and Nic Worsfold battled hard in the final laps of the race with Worsfold coming up short on fuel in the end and giving Watts another top 5 and Worslfold finished 6th. Abe Wozniak was able to finish in the 7th position giving a good consistent run in his Corvette. Chris Bowman, couldn't share the success of the other RUF's from Daredevil Racing, finishing 8th place a lap down, but overall had a very uneventful race. Railer Cantrell, who won the pole for Season 1's race here struggled to find his pace in the Cadillac, but managed to pull out a 9th place finish several laps down. Brian Batiato brought his Dyno-might Motorsports prepared AMG in 10th place after the stewards sat him after lap 30 for cutting the track too many times. Spurrell, Christensen, Jones, and Cline all finished 11th, 12th, 13th, and 14th respectively.
Many teams are glad to be heading to shorter Monza race, as Le Mans was a true test of focus, and endurance not only for Man but Machine.
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