Catalunya: Pescarolo weekend summary

PESCAROLO AUTOMOBILES: A HAPPY MANUFACTURER

For the 1st race of the Endurance season in Barcelona, there were no less than 5 Pescarolo cars on the starting line. Four finished the race ranking highly, with only one missing after coming off the track.

There were of course the 2 cutting edge LMP1 cars from Pescarolo Sport. Also the LMP1 of the English team Rollcentre; a 4th LMP1 from Saulnier Racing, and the great new Pescarolo LMP2, making its debut at Saulnier Racing.

PESCAROLO SPORT: A SATISFIED TEAM

As predicted during the presentation of the event, the two major duels did indeed take place: Peugeot/Audi in diesel, Pescarolo/Oreca in petrol. It is now clear that Peugeot has come out on top following its first European confrontation with Audi, but an unexpected surprise appeared in " petrol ". The Aston Martin engine seemed to develop an absolutely astonishing power in the " petrol " category. The starting grid displayed an exact representation of the engine strengths over these different categories: the diesels out in front, the Lola inbetween, and the Courage- Oreca beside the Pescarolo, both of them powered by the same Judd engine. The LMP2 cars (Porsche Lola Pescarolo) made heavier in Europe as per regulations, were not far behind them.

A PARTICULARLY LIVELY RACE

The duels that had been forecast did not disappoint the huge public crowd present at the Catalunya circuit. They witnessed a 6 hour Grand Prix! In the Pescarolo-Judd N16, Jean-Christophe Boullion and Emmanuel Collard were outstanding as usual, but they were handicapped for the whole race due to a faulty driveability control which forced them to manage the slipping of the rear wheels themselves, and which in addition contributed to a slight worsening in the road holding ability of the rear tyres. This did not prevent them from finishing the race in a superb 4th place, outdone only by a Peugeot, an Audi and the fantastic Lola. In the N17, an aerodynamic 2007 version, Christophe Tinseau and Harold Primat had no problem at all and finished the race in a very respectable 7th place. This excellent overall result allows Pescarolo to be placed 3rd in the manufacturer Championship, behind Audi and Peugeot.

EXCEPTIONAL BEGINNINGS FOR THE PESCAROLO LMP2

In preparation for the finish, and following driving that was full of wisdom and verve, Matthieu Lahaye and Pierre Ragues could have been contemplating a podium in the LMP2 for their first race. Unfortunately a battery problem requiring rapid and efficient intervention by the Saulnier Racing team stripped them of this reward. They nevertheless finished in a fine 13th place overall, and 5th in their category, beaten only by the 3 Porsche cars and the Lola.

Both teams returned to their respective workshops more motivated than ever to prepare for the second test of LMS 2008, the 1000 Km of Monza on 27th April

-credit: pescarolo.com