03.07.2004 better weather held for just long enough this morning to allow the Larbre Competition Ferrari 550 Maranello to improve its qualifying position to second iN GTS: SECOND LMES QUALIFYING SESSION REPORT FROM THE NURBURGRING

Dry but windy conditions for the second qualifying session this morning meant that most of the forty one runners contesting the third round of the Le Mans Endurance Series at the Nurburgring later today improved on their rain-affected first session times.

While at the front of the grid the Creation Autosportif DBA-Zytek saw off the challenge from the three Audi R8 runners during the forty five minute final session, in GTS, the Konrad Motorsport entered Saleen S7-R, always a rapid qualifying prospect, retained the provisional pole it earned yesterday.

The better weather held for just long enough to allow the Care Racing and Larbre Competition Ferrari 550 Maranello, shared by Christophe Bouchet, Pedro Lamy and Steve Zacchia, to improve its qualifying position to second in the hotly-contested GTS class, after the team was caught out yesterday by the changing conditions.

Bouchut set the car's fastest time of 1:57.488, a time closely matched by Lamy who just a few laps later posted a 1:57.50. The Frenchman, despite suffering from oversteer, was happy with the car’s performance and felt it was now where it should be for the coming challenge in the race.

Next up were the two Barron Connor Ferrari 575 GTC racers, the 61 car shared by reigning FIA GT Champion Thomas Biagi, team owner John Bosch and former F1 and Indycar legend Danny Sullivan, squeezing out its sister 62 car, crewed by Mike Hezemans and Jean-Denis Deletraz, by less than one tenth of a second.

The GTS field was completed by two further Saleens and two Chrysler Vipers, the latter pair sandwiching the interesting new privately developed A1-Engineering Porsche 996 T which will be making its racing debut this afternoon.

The GT class sees three Ferrari 360 GTCs take on the Porsche hordes. The JMB Racing example, crewed by Stephane Daoudi and Roman Rustinov set a best time of 2:02.372 this morning to claim third in class, 1.2 seconds adrift of the pole winning Farnbacher Racing Porsche 996 GT3-RSR. The Autopalace car was next up, Giovanni Lavaggi and Steve Hiesse, turning in a 2:02.560. Further back in ninth came the Cirtek Motorsport example driven by Frank Mountain, Rob Wilson and Karim Ojjea.

Finally, added Italian flavour comes from two Alfa Romeo V6-engined prototypes running in the P2 class, the Lucchini SR2, entered by the French Palmyr outfit, and the Tampoli RTA01, from Austrian based Renaur Motorsport.

The 195-lap, six hour race around the Nurburgring begins at 4pm local time this afternoon.

GTS Combined Qualifying Times: 1 Bartels/Alzen/Konrad  Saleen S7-R  1:57.057, 2 Bouchut/Lamy/Zacchia  Ferrari 550 Maranello  1:57.488, 3 Biagi/Bosch/Sullivan  Ferrari 575 GTC  1:58.196, 4 Deletraz/Hezemans  Ferrari 575 GTC  1:58.271, 5 Gabbiani/Bennett  Saleen S7-R  2:00.140, 6 Alberlein/Knapfield/Stanco  Saleen S7-R  2:00.408, 7 Besson/Halliday/Kempen  Chrysler Viper  2:00.513, 8 Kaufman/van der Poele  Porsche 996 T  2:02.499, 9 Morini/Strada  Chrysler Viper  2:03.174