2008 Le Mans Series Paul Ricard HTTT Test
This Sunday the European endurance racing season will kick off with the now traditional 'official' test on Bernie Ecclestone's highly advanced Paul Ricard track. Although showing up is not mandatory, many of the teams and manufacturers use the test to try and show their latest equipment to the public. With 36 entrants, this year's test is busier than ever and marks the debut of quite a few new teams and manufacturers. There is even the option to simulate a full 24-hour test run, although only a few teams have to opted to run through the night.
Having already tested at Paul Ricard throughout the winter, Peugeot have opted to stay clear of the official test. This means that the first Audi-Peugeot clash will be at the season opener in Barcelona in a month's time. The first thing for Audi to do is to better the time set by Peugeot last year and for the remainder they can size up the competition, which consists mostly of heavily upgraded or completely new machinery. There are high expectations of the Aston Martin engined Lola coupe, which reportedly set some very fast laps in testing already. The long 'Mistral' straight should certainly suit the freer breathing production based V12 engine. The French Oreca-Courage and Pescarolos have both been upgraded considerably over the winter and should be close behind. Less likely to be immediately on the pace is the Spanish / Basque Epsilon Euskadi, which only covered its first miles yesterday.
In LMP2 the big news is the arrival of the Porsche RS Spyder, which has been setting the class on fire in ALMS for the last two seasons. Both cars have stellar pilots, so they will be the cars to beat. The only all new car in this class is another Lola coupe, this time powered by an equally new Judd V8 engine.
GT racing in ACO sanctioned competition is gradually moving away from the GT1 class with GT2 gaining momentum quickly. All of the cars in GT1 are at least three years old now, so there will be few surprises. The highlight of the class must be the Aston Martin Racing DBR9, if it wears the Gulf livery.
There is little doubt that Aston Martin will be mentioned most in the reports from Paul Ricard as the manufacturer appears in every class but LMP2. GT2 will see the public debut of the V8 Vantage racing car, which will hopefully add more flavour to the battle between Ferrari and Porsche. The arch rivals will both field new versions of their racing cars, which Porsche clearly needed more than Ferrari. Although the entry list suggests that Spyker will field their new coupe racer, we have been told that the test will be carried through with the old car fitted with some new parts. The Laviolette will be debuted the day after the test in Geneva.
