Which obviously they’re doing now daily in Jolly
‘Ol England…
Perusing Daily Sports Car prior to this year’s
Battle on The Bricks. I ran across the article noting how 110,000 raving mad
for motor racing spectators attended this year’s Four Hours of Silverstone
European Le Mans Series (ELMS) race, Aye Karumba!
Can Y’all imagine that many spectators showing
up for IMSA’s six hours Battle on The Bricks race? Not to mention that ELMS
doesn’t even feature the Crème de la Crème FIA Hypercar category.
The field was comprised of some 44 entries.
With 13 LMP2, 8 LMP2 Pro-Am, 10 LMP3 and 13 LMGT3 participants.
As it was great to read that the No. 18 IDEC
Sport, the Genesis Magma Racing co-entry of Jamie Chadwick, Mathys Jaubert and Daniel Juncadella won the race. Being
their third win of the season. Having claimed W’s at Barcelona and Paul Ricard
previously.
The race was held in somewhat wretched
conditions, first being delayed an hour due to inclement weather. And then a
further 48 minutes due to two Red Flag periods for incidents.
Juncadella held off Tom Dillmann in the No. 43
Inter Europol Competition entry during the final pitstop exchange. After Nick
Yelloly who’d led much of the race, had a spin when staying on dry rubber too
long! While IDEC Sport made the switch to wet weather tyres correctly…
As the rain intensified, Pietro Fittipaldi
brought the No. 10 Vector Sport home third. While the Seester’ #28 IDEC Sport
was fourth, and Theo Pourchaire brought His #25 Algarve Pro entry home in
fifth.
The Wet ‘n Wooly track conditions played havoc
with many competitors, including the LMP2 pole sitter No. 48 VDS Panis Racing
entry, who were forced to serve a costly Stop ‘n Go penalty for entering a
closed pit. This caused them to ultimately finish eighth and see their points
lead shrink from 21 markers to just six ahead of the No. 18 IDEC Sport entry.
With the #43 just one further point behind, with just the season finale at
Portugal remaining.
For which I’ll
miss the Four Hours of Portimao’s outcome, having occurred this past Saturday,
October 18th, but am rootin’ for the No. 18 to pull off an upset…
The LMP2 Pro-Am class had its lead shuffled
too. When the leading AO by TF No. 99 entry of Louie’ Deletraz was handed a
five second time penalty. Seeing them drop to second place behind the No. 20 Algarve
Pro Racing entry.
Yes, that’s the same No. 99 Spike the Dragon
IMSA LMP2 entry featuring Dane Cameron, Louis Deletraz and team owner P.J.
Hyett, who’s the Amateur driver…
The LMGT3 Tintops outcome was also chaotic.
When apparently the No. 86 GR Racing Ferrari 296 GT3 had snatched the lead from
the#50 Richard Mille AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3. Yet the #86 had trotted by when
the third and final Red Flag was thrown with seven minutes remaining. As the
Race Director decided the rain was too treacherous to continue.
Thus the race’s results reverted to the final
full lap before the Red flag and hence, the two Prancing Horses swapped
positions, and the No. 50 AF Corse won instead…
I find it interesting that many of the drivers
are able to compete in multiple series. As the names Yelloly, Deletraz,
Dillmann, Cameron, Fittipaldi, et al. Are all regulars this side of thoust Gory
Puddle in IMSA Competizione.
While I tend to recall that last year’s Battle
on The Bricks race saw 18 of the 20 IMSA GTP drivers also competing in the FIA
World Endurance Championship. (WEC)
Meanwhile, following Silverstone, Genesis Magma
Racing (GMR) promoted both Juncadella and Jaubert onto its GMR001 Hypercar
squad for next year’s inaugural WEC campaign. Which was the reason for
competing in this year’s ELMS, as a tune-up campaign for aspiring racers and
team personnel to potentially move forwards.
The only disappointment is the news of Jamie
Chadwick being left on the sidelines. With GMR claiming Her 2026 plans will be
announced at a later date. Making me wonder if She’ll just be an Endurance
“Specialist?” As I’d really like to see Jamie get a fulltime ride in a Hypercar
entry.
Hmm, perhaps Chadwick can spend another year honing Her craft before becoming a regular series competitor in IMSA when GMR supposedly enters competition in 2027?
