15.08.2004 The third round of the LMES proved highly successful for Ferrari with Larbre taking GTS victory while JMB Racing claimed the GT win: LMES race report AND result from Silverstone

JMB Racing Ferrari 360 GTC on its way to GT-class victory at Silverstone yesterdayAllan McNish and Pierre Kaffer won the Silverstone 1000kms comfortably in their Audi R8, their second victory in three rounds of the Le Mans Endurance Series, and in doing so they took the lead in the serie for drivers.

The pair had an almost faultless run to the flag to claim victory by a lap over the rest of the field as their principal challengers struck trouble and lost.

The Creation Autosportif team ran strongly, rising as high as third overall at one stage but hit problems in the third hour when the exhaust header broke, leaking hot air onto the gearbox which stuck in fourth gear.

The Team Jota car was also having a great run with Sam Hignett on board, but lost a lot of time when Gianni Collini was also hit by the Lister Storm and spun into the gravel.

They finished behind the Team Nasamax bio-ethanol fuelled DM139, which had its best finish ever. Robbie Stirling, Werner Lupberger and Romain Dumas drove the Judd V10-powered car to fifth overall, 13 laps down on the dominant, victorious Audi.

Jean-Marc Gounon, Alexander Frei and Sam Hancock took their second LMP2 win of the year in the Courage Competition C65. They had a completely reliable run to finish 10 laps clear of the WR Peugeot of Jean-Bernard Bouvay and Jean-Rene de Fournoux while Philippe Favre, Gregory Fargier and Christophe Ricard lost 20 laps with a broken suspension yet brought their Palmyr team Lucchini home in third position.

Their podium was at the expense of the Tracsport Lola AER of John Ingram, John Gaw and Rick Pearson, which lost an almost guaranteed podium when a starter sensor failed after they had built up a 20 minute cushion. The trio were heartbroken, yet drove to a disconsolate fifth in class, behind Pierre Bruneau and Marc Rostan who maintain their lead at the head of the drivers’ championship.

Larbre Competition has moved to an unassailable position in the GTS class having won the class for the third time this year. Its drivers Pedro Lamy, Christophe Bouchut and Steve Zacchia will have to wait until the final round to be assured of an unassailable lead, needing just a single point to win the title. They took victory after the Konrad Motorsport Saleen S7R stopped in the third hour with two broken fuel pumps, leaving Michael Bartels stranded out on the circuit for the second race in succession.

Mike Hezemans recovered from his bout of influenza to drive at Silverstone with Andrea Piccini and Jean-Denis Deletraz, the trio finishing second in their Barron Connor Racing Ferrari 575. Phil Bennett, David Leslie and Paul Whight were third in the Graham Nash Saleen, their best result of the season.

The battle for the GT class came down to reliability, and Stephane Daoudi and Roman Rusinov took their first win of the year in the JMB Ferrari 360 and moved to the head of the drivers’ championship. Piers Masarati and Xavier Pompidou recorded a fantastic second position in class, despite racing a four-year old GT3-R entered by Sebah Automotive. They beat the Farnbacher Racing Porsche of Patrick Long, Thorkild Thyrring and Lars Eric Nielsen, which rounded off the podium.

The Porsches struck uncharacteristic trouble throughout the race, the Freisinger Motorsport car the first of the front runners to go when Emmanuel Collard pitted with a broken power steering system. Collard, who shared with Stephane Ortelli, was aboard when the car dropped further time following a collision with a prototype and buckled a wheel, but by that time they were a long way behind.

The Cirtek Motorsport Porsche of Sascha Maassen and Adam Jones, winners at the Nurburgring and former title leaders, retired in the second hour while leading when the engine died with Jones at the wheel. Johnny Mowlem and Mike Jordan were delayed early in the race with a clutch problem in the JWR Porsche, while Robin Liddell, Yukihiro Hane and Gilles Vannelet needed to change the gear selector in the T2M Porsche. Kazuyuki Nishizawa and Haruki Kurosawa scored a single point for the Choroq Porsche team, having been penalised five minutes on the charge of overtaking in the pitlane.

Two TVR Tuscans reached the finish, Jonny Kane and Warren Hughes ahead of Richard Stanton, Graeme Mundy and John Hartstone, despite losing time with an exhaust problem in the final hour of the race. Tony Burgess, Philip Collin and Gerard Lesoudier were fourth in their Seikel Motorsport Porsche, and the Freisinger team picked up four points for fifth position in the LM-GT class
2004 LE MANS ENDURANCE SERIES RD3, SILVERSTONE: RACE RESULT AFTER 195 LAPS
Pos  Num  Class  Drivers  Team  Car  Laps  Time  Gap
1.  8  LM P1  Kaffer, McNish  Audi Sport UK Veloqx  Audi R8  195  5:33:37.992   
2.  5  LM P1  Ara, Capello  Team Goh  Audi R8  194  5:34:51.662  1 lap 
3.  88  LM P1  Davies, Herbert  Audi Sport UK Veloqx  Audi R8  193  5:34:14.375  2 laps 
4.  22  LM P1  Dyson, Kerr  Zytek Engineering  Zytek O4S  192  5:34:57.214  3 laps 
5.  14  LM P1  Stirling, Lupberger, Dumas  NASAMAX  Nasamax MG  182  5:34:09.977  13 laps 
6.  69  LM P1  Stack, Hignett, Collini  Team JOTA  Zytek O4S  181  5:34:36.313  14 laps 
7.  13  LM P2  Gounon, Frei, Hancock  Courage Competition  C65 Courage  178  5:34:35.724  17 laps 
8.  7  LM P1  Erdos, Ramos, Newton  RML MG Lola  Lola MG  174  5:31:16.425  21 laps 
9.  86  LM GTS  Lamy, Bouchut, Zacchia  Larbre  Ferrari 550 Maranello 174  5:34:55.595  21 laps 
10.  62  LM GTS  Hezemans, Deletraz, Barde  Barron Connor Racing  Ferrari 575 GTC  171  5:34:23.990  24 laps 
11.  52  LM GTS  Gabbiani, Benett  Graham Nash Motorsport  Saleen S7R  169  5:33:50.458  26 laps 
12.  36  LM P2  Fournoux, Bouvet  Welter Racing  WR V6  168  5:34:18.621  27 laps 
13.  61  LM GTS  Biaggi, Sullivan, Bosh  Barron Connor Racing  Ferrari 575 GTC  167  5:34:51.305  28 laps 
14.  70  LM GT  Rusinov, Melo, Daoudi  JMB Racing  Ferrari 360 GTC  166  5:35:03.315  29 laps 
15.  6  LM P1  Short, Barbosa, Pierce  Rollcentre Racing  Dallara Judd  165  5:34:35.945  30 laps 
16.  80  LM GT  Pompidou, Franchitti  Sebah Automotive Ltd  Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  165  5:34:46.808  30 laps 
17.  81  LM GT  Thyrring, Nielsen, Rockenfelle  Farnbacher Racing  Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  165  5:35:26.927  30 laps 
18.  84  LM GT  Lesoudier, Collin, Klasen  Seikel Motorsport  Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  163  5:33:47.814  32 laps 
19.  85  LM GT  Ortelli, Collard, Vasiliev  Freisinger Motorsport  Porsche 996 GT3 RSR  162  5:34:44.347  33 laps 
20.  89  LM GT  Berridge, Stockton, Caine  Chamberlain Motorsport  TVR 400R  161  5:34:36.976  34 laps 
21.  91  LM GT  Hartshorne, Mundy, Stanton  Race Sports Salisbury  TVR 400R  156  5:35:18.256  39 laps 
22.  31  LM P2  Ricard, Favre, Fargier  Palmyr  Lucchini Nissan  153  5:35:20.082  42 laps 
23.  77  LM GT  Kazuyuki, Kurosowa, Manabu  Choro Q Racing Team  Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  150  5:34:22.637  45 laps 
24.  99  LM P2  Rostan, Bruneau  PIR Competition  Pilbeam JPX  148  5:33:45.565  47 laps 
25.  90  LM GT  Ickx, Daniels, Rabinau  T2M Motorsport  Porsche 911 GT3 RS  142  5:34:42.342  53 laps 
26.  27  LM P2  Ingram, Gaw, Pearson  Tracsport  Lola AER  139  5:35:08.548  56 laps 
27.  71  LM GT  Jordan. Lidell  JWR  Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  124  5:34:00.315  71 laps 
28.  20  LM P1  Nielsen, Keen  Lister  Lister Storm  126  4:20:03.910  DNF 
29.  35  LM P2  Leroch, Haesebrouck, hahn  G Force Racing  Pilbeam Nissan  121  5:33:50.779  DNF 
30.  10  LM P1  Andrews, Lockie  Taurus  Lola Caterpillar  105  3:55:46.633  DNF 
31.  28  LM P2  Randaccio, Maddalena  Team Ranieri Randaccio  Tampolli Ford  105  4:14:49.890  DNF 
32.  59  LM GTS  Berte, Alzen, Konrad  Vitaphone Racing  Saleen S7R  94  3:03:26.348  DNF 
33.  3  LM P1  Minassian, Walker, Kinch  Creation Autosportif  DBA Zytek  85  2:27:11.032  DNF 
34.  92  LM GT  Jones, Maassen  Cirtek Motorsport  Porsche 911 GT3 RSR  80  2:51:17.841  DNF 
35.  93  LM GT  Mountain, Wilson  Cirtek Motorsport  Ferrari 360 Modena 55  1:49:26.016  DNF 
36.  34  LM P2  Devlin, Owen, Pullan  K2 Race Engineering  Pilbeam Judd  55  1:53:48.699  DNF 
37.  97  LM GT  Hiesse, Lavaggi  Auto Palace  Ferrari 360 Modena  8  2:45:43.038  DNF