Originally Posted by
MulsannesCorner News
Just a couple of days after Martin Short puts his Radicals up for sale does he fill us in with what his plans are for 2007. On Tuesday I sent Martin an email, "Who's on your short list (chassis-wise)?" And Martin came back..."Its a very Short list. Lola or .............????" Count the...s, I suspect there are just about 9 dots there. And today he tells us that indeed, he will be running a Pescarolo LMP1 next year:
The night before I flew to Le Mans, I chanced across a 1974 edition of Autosport. On the front page was a Matra, winning the 1000 kms at Brands Hatch. And driving the other Matra, that came second was Henri, looking a little younger than now...who was very upset as the victory was stolen from him a few laps from the end.
And he remembered every moment of that race after I told him of my Autosport experience.
It underlined to me how long Henri has been in the sport and what he has achieved. He is an old dog, and he knows all the tricks.....
He is a legend, and an institution. I hope he gets the support from the sponsors in France so he can again take the fight to the
factories. I am just delighted to be part of it, in our own small way.
Martin continues filling us in with some of the details, "Our chassis will be #2 (of the new batch of 2007 tubs), and we'll be racing what is essentially a 2006 car, but with the new chassis, new crash box and modified bodywork." The Pescarolo, being a hybrid LMP1, is illegal next year in the Le Mans Endurance Series in its current form and will need a monocoque and crash box replacement in order to take into account the higher crash ratings the new regulations insist upon. The Judd V10 will be used, most likely the new GV5.5 version.
"The only other chassis seriously in consideration for us was the Lola. We came very close to it, then I discovered the Pesca was up
for grabs, and it all seemed to make perfect sense!" And the Pescarolo C60 has asserted itself quite well this year in the Le Mans Endurance Series with no fewer than five wins (out of five events) and a second at Le Mans.
"As Henri pushes ahead with his upgrades next year on his two 2007 cars, we'll be ultimately benefiting from those. We'll have a junior role, and be serving as Henri's Apprentice. I'm sure Henri's true 2007 cars will be faster (than ours), but we'll be climbing his ladder and his development will come to us.
“Talking in detail to Henri, there are so many things that he's fixed, problems for example similar to ones that we had with the Dallaras. He's gone ahead and done it. Development like that is very expensive, but Henri has just gone for it and done it. He's done the aero testing – as he says 'on my 1:1 wind tunnel, on the runway' – and the reliability testing, and focused on the speed too. Between Henri and his Engineer Claude Galopin, almost every other sentence included 'and this reduced the speed at Le Mans by 6 kph, this improved it' etc. etc. We were left in no doubt as to what they were about.
With Pescarolo also supplying a '07 regulation monocoque for the Lister team we're seeing a welcome bit of cooperation amongst the privateers. Clearly the task is a daunting one though, with the two Titans, Audi and Peugeot, getting ready to go head to head next year it will be interesting to see what the privateers can pick up. But with cooperation and a pooling of resources amongst the privateers (sharing development and start up costs for common items like tubs, etc.), the privateers will have a better chance to make a dent in the manufacturers dominance.
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