TVR race results from Spa
Three TVRs took part in the Le Mans Endurance Series
RSR team boss Lawrence Tomlinson recently purchased the two TVRs that raced at Le Mans this year but failed to finish. The cars, numbered 40 and 41, were driven by Greensall/Caine/Coleman and Kane/Hughes/Tomlinson respectively. After getting off to a flying start, car 41 was to soon suffer at the hands of an Audi R8 at the famous Bus Stop chicane within the first hour of the race. The pictures tell the story - the whole front of the car wiped out.
The Audi suffered from an engine fire and also retired.
The other RSR car suffered problems with its braking system and it too was forced to retire having only completed 19 laps.
The Race Sport/Peninsula T400R was also back, piloted by John Hartshorne, Adam Sharpe and Steve Hyde. It fared better, notching up 105 laps, but failed to complete the race.
Full results
Freisinger won the race but Sebah took the Championship. In the prototype category the Creation team finished third after a hard race. 19 of the 41 cars competing raced on Dunlop tyres for the 1000km race.
Qualifying/Grid
The Creation Autosportif Zytek driven by Jamie Campbell-Walter and Nicolas Minassian qualified with a time just under four-hundredths of a second ahead of the Audi trio, while other Dunlop runners put in strong performances including the RML MG Lola and Rollcentre Racing Dallara in fifth and sixth respectively.
In the GT class, Freisinger took pole in the Porsche GT3 with only a chance of clinching the championship if disaster fell for Sebah and JMB, starting 3rd and 5th in class.
Nicolas Minassian, Creation Autosportif – pole position said, “The car was fantastic. I think we knew we had the pace and the story was putting it all together. Tyre wise I’m really happy. They’re good out of the box, fresh on the car and also consistent – I put in the qualifying time on my 8th or 9th lap. I couldn’t be more pleased.”
Race
The Creation Zytek took the lead from pole but a collision with the leading pair of Audis resulted in bodywork damaged that caused a puncture. After pitting, Minassian rejoined in thirteenth but battled to make his way back through the back. Blistering times, consistently only hundredths of a second from the fastest lap, moved the car steadily back up the timing screens and by the two-thirds stage of the six hour race was back in a podium position.
The GT battle raged between the top championship contenders with Freisinger in the lead from the early stages – knowing that a win was essential to make up the points deficit where the sat in third place at the beginning of the weekend. The impressive win with a 2 lap lead and 9th overall wasn’t enough however as Sebah overcame their problems on the day to finish third and claim the GT Championship.
Jamie Campbell-Walter, Creation Autosportif – 3rd, said, “The car was good today and we showed that we could have won the race if it hadn’t been for the contact with Kaffer. We lost five minutes twice through contact and that would have been enough. We pushed hard to make up the time and ended up with third. The car ran well and the tyres were good. We had no problems double stinting and the intermediate for Nic’s stint in the rain were fantastic.”
Martin Short, Rollcentre Racing – retired following accident -- said, “We had a new tyre from Dunlop and we could do quadruple stints on them. The DBA is using the same compound, and look how quick Jamie Campbell-Walter’s going!"
Stephane Ortelli, Freisinger Motorsport – 3rd -- added, “It’s a good victory. We made the best choice of tyres each time for the conditions and they were consistent as usual.”
Mark Lieb, Sebah Automotive – 3rd GT & 1st in GT championship, said, “This was a team win. It’s amazing what they’ve done. The car and tyres have always been consistent and we’ve had a lot of support from Dunlop.”
Check these photos out:
www.speedpics.nl/pages/photos/?action=photos&category=F38289EF05&subcategory=50C0CDF9D0
Kaffa should be in line for a fine for driving the fireball back to the pits
and then all the way round and down to his pit crew!
Never seen anything like it.
GCerbera said:
Talk about wrong place wrong time for the TVR, you've really got to feel for them.
Check these photos out:
www.speedpics.nl/pages/photos/?action=photos&category=F38289EF05&subcategory=50C0CDF9D0
Kaffa should be in line for a fine for driving the fireball back to the pits
and then all the way round and down to his pit crew!
Never seen anything like it.
Graham thanks for pointing out the site, it has really opened my eyes this morning :-)
Especially these pictures..
www.speedpics.nl/pages/photos/?action=photos&category=FCAEFE692E&subcategory=9E12B35CDC
, feel sorry for the Tiv particularly as its in private hands 
mutley said:
What you can't see from those images is that the R8 is on wet grass, therefore has no control and Kaffa is as mucha passenger in the incident as Hughes is.
NOt sure, isn't the bit next to barrier painted concrete
. If you checkout the previous pics on the site you will see No8 had to travel a fair way before he emerged from that T junction without looking, indicating nor slowing down 
. Harry
Gassing Station | General Motorsport | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff