1000km Nürburgring: 1-2 for Peugeot as battles rage behind

The 2007 Nurburgring 1000kms saw Peugeot record its third straight win in the series, the winning car, driven by Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy completing the full 1000kms, 195 laps during the six-hour event.

The race, attended by 10,000 spectators, featured wonderful battles throughout the field for the final place on the overall podium, victory in the "LM" P2, "LM" GT1 and in the "LM" GT2 categories.

Ultimately, Peugeot finished the race as clear winners with Stephane Sarrazin and Pedro Lamy crossing the line more than a lap ahead of their team-mates, Nicolas Minassian and Marc Gene. The two black cars ran nose to tail for the opening hour, but shortly after the first round of pit stops, Minassian returned to the pit to top up the oil, and the team filled up with oil at every subsequent stop.

The number 7 car was further delayed by a gear shift problem, cured by changing the steering wheel, and at the end a front wheel bearing began to cause concern, all of which left the lead 908 to take victory unchallenged, ahead of the Pescarolo of Jean-Christophe Boullion and Emmanuel Collard.

The battle for third place was closely fought between the Courage, Pescarolo, Creation and Charouz teams. The Pescarolo had a troublefree run to finish four laps down on the winning Peugeot but Jan Charouz left it until the penultimate lap to take fourth place from the Creation of Shinji Nakano.

The Charouz Lola started from the back of the grid after failing an airbox test after qualifying, but Stefan Mucke wasted little time making his way through the field during the first two hours, pitting in seventh place overall after two hours. After that, the Lola suffered only a puncture during the race, which was held in dry conditions and without a safety car period.

For a long time it looked as though the Courage of Jean-Marc Gounon and Guillaume Moreau would take free run, however, after a puncture caused them to lose the lead briefly with Ayari behind the wheel. "It was important for us to score points," said Ortelli. "After the puncture we had a lot of ground to make up."

Team Modena finished second for Aston Martin, Antonio Garcia and Christian Fittipaldi taking the place by 18 seconds from the Corvette of Jerome Policand, Patrice Goueslard and Luc Alphand, which was itself just 0.422s ahead of Christophe Bouchut’s ill-handling Aston Martin. The Modena Aston Martin ran for much of the race with traction control switched off. "When Bouchut overtook me in the first half hour of the race, I decided it would be better to turn it off," said Garcia.

Eighth overall was the Zytek of Tom Chilton and Hayanari Shimoda.

Chilton was the fastest man on the track at one stage, but an electrical problem meant that the British driver then had to use the clutch for each gear change, costing time before the team repaired the problem.

Jan Lammers’ Racing for Holland team finished ninth overall, seventh in the "LM" P1 class, apparently with Peter Kox driving. Lammers had his helmet stolen on his way to the Nurburgring and had to use Jeroen Bleekemolen’s helmet for the opening two stints. "I put his helmet in the tyre oven to dry it out for him," said Jan. "Unfortunately I melted the inside of it, so he had to use Peter Kox’s helmet for the final two stints."

Virgo Motorsport enjoyed a perfect race to take victory for Ferrari courtesy of Allan Simonsen and Rob Bell. The pair crossed the line 1m30s clear of the Team Felbermayr Porsche of reigning champion Marc Lieb and Xavier Pompidou, who were delayed at each tyre change pit stop by a sticking rear wheel. "We just had fuel and tyres at every stop, and no problems with the car" said Bell. "We had all sorts of plans, and they all fell into place. We led from flag to flag, which was perfect."

Third was the Farnbacher Racing Porsche of Dirck Werner, Pierre Ehret and Lars Eric Nielsen, ahead of the GPC Ferrari of Matteo Bobbi, Alessandro Bonetti and Fabrizio de Simone.

Mike Newton and Tommy Erdos drove a perfect race to win the class in their RML MG Lola, taking sixth position overall and moving smoothly into the lead of the drivers’ standings. Starting from pole position, the two never put a wheel wrong to take the victory by a lap from the Zytek of Juan Barazi, Michael Vergers and Karim Ojjeh. The Quifel Team ASM Lola claimed third, trouble-free but beaten on pace.

It was a competitive race and each podium team paid tribute to each other. "We counted down every second to the finish," said Newton having so often watched victory slip from their grasp in the closing moments of the race. "There is terrific competition up here on the podium, it was not a win with a big gap to second place."

The Embassy Racing team was on course for a strong position with Warren Hughes and Neil Cunningham in their Radical, but a long stop and a brief pit �� re, caused by oil leaking onto a hot exhaust, dropped them back to sixth behind the Horag Lista Lola.

1. Sarrazin/Lamy, Team Peugeot Total,Peugeot 908 HDI FAP, 195 laps

2. Gene/Sarrazin, Team Peugeot Total,Peugeot 908 HDI FAP, 194 laps

3. Collard/Boullion, Pescarolo Sport,Pescarolo Judd, 191 laps

4. Charouz/Mucke/Yoong, Charouz Racing,Lola B07/17, 188 laps

5. Campbell-Walter/Ortiz/Nakano, CreationAutosportif, Creation CA07 Judd, 188 laps

6. Chilton/Shimoda, Arena Motorsport, Zytek07S, 187 laps

1. Erdos/Newton, RML, MG Lola AER, 188 laps

2. Barazi/Vergers/Ojjeh, Barazi Epsilon, Zytek O7S, 187 laps

3. Amaral/Burgueno/de Castro, Quifel Team ASM, Lola B05/40 AER, 187 laps

4. Lienhard/Theys/van de Poele, Horag Racing, Lola B05/40 Judd, 186 laps

5. Hughes/Cunningham, Embassy Racing, Radical SR9 Judd, 185 laps

6. Binnie/Timpany/Buncombe, Binnie Motorsport, Lola B05/40 Zytek, 183 laps

1. Ortelli/Ayari, Team ORECA, Saleen S7R, 181 laps

2. Garcia/Fittipaldi, Team Modena, Aston Martin DBR9, 180 laps

*3. Alphand/Policand/Goueslard, Luc Alphand Aventures, Corvette C6R, 180 laps

4. Bouchut/Gardel/Gollin, AMR Larbre, Aston Martin DBR9, 180 laps

5. Perrazini/Cioci/Tavano, Racing Box, Saleen S7R, 178 laps

6. Blanchimain/Dumez/Vosse, Luc Alphand Aventures, Corvette C5-R, 177 laps

1. Bell/Simonsen, Virgo Motorsport, Ferrari 430 GT, 173 laps

2. Lieb/Pompidou, Team Felbermayr Proton, Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, 173 laps

3. Werner/Ehret/Nielsen, Farnbacher Racing, Porsche 997 GT3 RSR, 172 laps

4. Bobbi/Bonetti/de Simone, GPC Sport, Ferrari 430 GT, 171 laps

5. Belicchi/Chiesa/Kane, Speedy Racing Team, Spyker C8, 170 laps

6. Lambert/Lefort/Lemeret, Ice Pol Racing Team, Ferrari 430 GT, 169 laps

An exceptional grid of 45 cars took the start for the third CER round of the season. Among them was the debut of the Porsche 906 of Peter Voegele, and the Ford Capri Kent of Douglas Titford and Trevor Reeves. The overall podium was shared between two Prototype 2s and one Prototype 1. Allen Timpany and Eric Havette set the fastest lap at the wheel of their Chevron B19.

There will certainly be a similar number of competitors at the next race, in Spa-Francorchamps, on the 18th of July!

Both 207 Spider Cup races in Germany were thrilling affairs. The first contest saw Dino Lunardi come out on top of a classic showdown with Julien Briché, Julien Schell, Grégory Guilvert and Maxime Soulet. The latter two were sidelined after tangling, but Briché and Schell went on to join Lunardi on the podium. The top-three was the same after Sunday’s race but in a different order, with Schell coming out best of a last-lap collision with Lunardi who was second.

Andzej Dzikevic for Tanagra Racing Team won the Radical World Cup race one from Shaun Balfe and Nigel Taylor. Kaiser Ross in the Slipstream SR8 claimed third. Rubig Motorsport’s Ernst Kirchmayr took SR3 honours. Race two featured a first corner incident caused the Balfe pair to drop to 18th, though they still won. Jurgen Gullert of LVT Logistik took second followed by Slipstream’s John Stanley and James Swift.

- Marine Alainguillaume -