Strakka Racing finished 3rd in the FIA World Endurance Championship
LMP1 Privateers’ category at the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, achieving
its pre-race aim of a points-scoring finish with its ultra-reliable
Honda Performance Development ARX-03c.
This was despite losing almost a lap to its class rivals with an
unfavourable Safety Car deployment and losing additional time in the
pits replacing the rear bodywork panel, after the #35 LMP2 car
accidentally hit the back the Relentless Energy Drinks-supported LMP1
car.
The Silverstone-based team’s all-British driver line-up of Nick
Leventis (London), Danny Watts (Buckingham) and Jonny Kane (Thame) was
able to enjoy 161 laps of dry running at Spa, gathering vital data ahead
of its next race, the Le Mans 24 Hours (22/23 June).
With 20ºC air and 33ºC track temperature, Jonny made a clean start
from 8th overall/3rd LMP1 Privateer to hold position. He came in as
planned after 21 laps to hand over to Danny, but no sooner had he got
into his rhythm, than car #25 (running immediately behind) spun into the
barriers at Eau Rouge. As the queue formed behind the Safety Car, Danny
was unlucky to lose the best part of a lap to Strakka’s LMP1 Privateer
rivals, Rebellion, who was able to complete almost a full lap before
joining the Safety Car convoy.
Later, whilst in a line of traffic braking for the Bus Stop corner,
car #35 ran into the back of Danny – although Strakka cleverly waited
until the next scheduled pit stop to replace the damaged rear panel.
Nick carried on the momentum with an excellent middle stint, carving
his way through the backmarkers and pushing hard to enable the team to
be in a position to benefit from any problems ahead. Which is precisely
what happened, as Strakka moved up to 7th overall when the #7 Toyota
retired.
Nick Leventis: “The main purpose for us at Spa was to bring the car
home and score WEC points. We were careful, stayed out of trouble and
were pretty much on our own for the entire race. We knew after
qualifying we weren’t going to be able to challenge for LMP1 Privateer
victory, yet we were still unlucky to lose a lap with the Safety Car and
time repairing bodywork damage, neither of which was through fault of
our own. We have work to do moving forward towards Le Mans and the rest
of the season, and we’ll be working hard to get more pace out of the
car. But we’re moving forward confidently and with typical Strakka
spirit we’ll be aiming for victory and double WEC points at Le Mans.”
Jonny Kane: “Our race pace was a little bit closer than we’d had in
qualifying and the car felt really good, so a lot of positives have come
out of the Spa race and it’s very encouraging. The car felt well
balanced, had good grip, ran faultlessly and I had no issues whatsoever.
Le Mans is a completely different story, because anything can happen in
a twenty-four hour race. I can’t wait to get testing there, because the
low-drag kit has always been very strong for us around there and we’re
confident that will bring us another step closer.”
Danny Watts: “To finish on the podium and score our first points of
the season was a great achievement. Spa is a difficult circuit to get a
good car set-up, and we had a great set-up for the race. Our car lacked a
little bit of overall pace, but I never had any issues in my stints –
except when I almost got wiped-out by an LMP2 car at the Bus Stop! There
was rear bodywork damage, but it didn’t cause any problems to the aero,
so I kept going. At the end of the race I was following Sébastien Buemi
in the Toyota – he was a carrot on a stick to me and was fun to chase! I
really enjoyed the race, we’ve learnt a lot about the car and we’ll now
head to Le Mans with a solid points-scoring finish under our belts.”
Dan Walmsley, Strakka Racing Team Manager: “It’s been a really
challenging race weekend and we’ve made massive progress with the car.
The drivers are all happy with the way it handles on track, although we
are lacking some pace and that’s what we’ll be focusing on between now
and Le Mans. Everyone in the team has been fantastic. We were missing
our chief mechanic, Paul Stephens, who’s recovering from an operation,
so the guys really pulled together well and Jay Davenport chief
engineered a car from a clean piece of paper to a great race car this
weekend. All three drivers played their part too; it was a busy race
track and we managed to avoid everything we could and the LMP2 car that
hit us was purely accidental on their part. We’re now looking forward to
unlocking more pace with our car and taking the fight to Le Mans.”
Time-lapsed significant race moments
0mins: Danny takes the chequered flag. 7th overall/3rd LMP1 Privateer
9mins: Fuel
57mins: Driver change, Danny in for Jonny. Tyres & fuel.
1hr 50mins: Fuel.
2hrs 13mins: Moved into 7th overall (#7 Toyota retired)
2hrs 38mins: Driver change, Jonny in for Nick. Tyres & fuel.
3hrs 29mins: Driver change, Nick in for Danny. Tyres, fuel and replace damaged rear panel.
4hrs 18mins: #35 ran into back of Danny at Bus Stop.
4hrs 18mins: Fuel. Remained 8th overall/3rd LMP1 Privateer.
4hrs 45mins: Minor contact with #95 when overtaking.
4hrs 58mins: Safety Car (#25 crashed Eau Rouge). Lost almost a lap to Rebellion in queue formation.
5hrs 15mins: Driver change, Danny in for Jonny. Tyres, fuel & change steering wheel (sticking paddle shift).
6hrs 00mins: Jonny makes a clean start from 8th overall/3rd LMP1 Privateer (outside of Row 4) to hold position.