The Racing Spirit of Leman crew get the thin edge of the wedge at ELMS finale in Portimao
Monday, October 21, 2024
Having already endured twenty hours of competitive mixed class racing after the five rounds so far, the Portuguese finally presented any scenario of nearly half the LMGT3 grid in with a distinct possibility of lifting the class championship by the end of Saturday’s four-hour race.
The #59 Racing Spirit of Leman AMR crew of Derek DeBoer, Valentin Hasse-Clot and Casper Stevenson had until this point been the team to beat, but results from the previous round at Mugello has seen that crew slip to second in class albeit on the same points tally as the then leading #57 Kessel Racing Ferrari.
Then there was the #97 Grid Motorsport with TF AMR trio of Martin Berry, Lorcan Hanafin and Jonny Adam who had seen their championship chances stay alive thanks to their second placed finish at Mugello three weeks beforehand but there were still a further three to four teams who still retained a mathematical chance beyond this teams already mentioned.
Then there was the #97 Grid Motorsport with TF AMR trio of Martin Berry, Lorcan Hanafin and Jonny Adam who had seen their championship chances stay alive thanks to their second placed finish at Mugello three weeks beforehand but there were still a further three to four teams who still retained a mathematical chance beyond this teams already mentioned.
Going into what was a wet set up and test day, most of the crews were getting to grips with the latest round of Balance of Performance adjustments before going into the more formal preparatory sessions with both Aston Martins within the top five in class at the end of FP2. Qualifying was equally good with the #97 car of Berry snatching brand honours over the #59 car of DeBoer with a P3 start over a P4 starting slot respectively.
It was literally all to race for after that under what ended up being a glorious Autumnal day in southern Portugal. Or at least that is how it should have been!
Early contact for one LMGT3 runner with a spun LMP2 car in the opening laps saw an early Safety Car period being thrown before the race before the race finally got underway with ten minutes having elapsed but trouble soon came the way of the #59 car. First the #50 Ferrari removed several of the Aston’s front dive planes upon passing in one corner before the #63 Iron Lynx Lamborghini made further contact with the #59 just a few corners later, spinning both cars although both were able to rejoin.
Further time was lost for the #59 when the rear screen again removed itself from its fixing positions to hang precariously over the rear wing. Having first thought about pitting, DeBoer was told to stay out before being instruction to pit from Race Control.
All of this had dropped the #59 car well down the order but the #97 car from TF Sport had elevated itself to second in class at the time and by the time of the first scheduled stops within the GT class, the #97 car was running third and the #59 in tenth!
Going into the second hour, there was further Safety Car intervention for cars having spun on track after contact as Stevenson had taken charge of the #59 car after the American had completed his minimum drive time, but he too lost time as he had to actively avoid two spinning prototypes immediately in front of him. The #97 would enjoy a near uneventful event in comparison up until this point.
Going into the final hour, the #97 car was looking comfortable at the head of the pack whilst the #59 could do no more than avoid being tail end Charlie but a further Safety Car intervention threw much of that to the wind as that closed up all of the gaps again with the #59 again in the wars after contact with a further LMP2 car saw that car spin into the gravel.
That left a thirty-minute dash to the flag but the damage had literally already been done to the #59 championship chances and the running order at the time also took the #97 out of the equation.
The 2024 season eventually finished with both Aston Martins taking perhaps their worst finishes of the season to date with the #97 Grid Motorsport with TF finishing just ahead of the mega delayed #59 cart in P8 and P9 respectively. That had the effect of dropping the Racing Spirit of Leman AMR crew finishing third overall within the LMGT3 class (an eventual ten points down) whilst the #97 Grid Motorsport with TF Crew finished in seventh.
It was another great ACO rules season and both AMR powered crews can hold their heads high with what was achieved.
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media
Photo credits – Teams / Series / social media