Crews revised for the 6 Hours of Silverstone
The 24 Hours of Le Mans, the third round of the FIA World Endurance Championship 2012, was a special event due to its length, all driver crews included three drivers. The 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, the second round of the Championship, served as a dress rehearsal for Le Mans for many teams. There is aother change of scenery for the 6 Hours of Silverstone, which will be held on the 26th of August with appearances, disappearances, returns and reshuffles.
Aston Martin Racing have entered three Vantages, two racing in the LMGTE Am class. At the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the British team finished on the third step of the LMGTE Pro podium. The other car entered this year, (No.99) LMGTE Am had to retire. We find the latter on home turf (Prodrive is based in Banbury) with a crew that goes from 100% Danish to 100% British, with Andrew Howard, Jonathan Adam and Paul White. A third Vantage (No.98) will be driven by Roald Goethe, who also owns the Pescarolo 03 of Pescarolo Team unfortunately absent in Britain, with Stuart Hall his protégé.
Both Irish teams Murphy Prototypes and Status Grand Prix, who are not participating in the entire Championship, continue their momentum from Le Mans, and Spa-Francorchamps for the former, where they scored a magnificent podium finish in LMP2 in the Belgian Ardennes. The trio of Jody Firth, Warren Hughes and Brendon Hartley stay in the Oreca-Nissan No.48 while only Alexander Sims remains in the Lola-Judd No. 30, with the Jousse brothers, Julien and Maxime, making their appearance.
Championship competitors ADR-Delta, who are currently ranked second in LMP2, have Jan Charouz again after the successful experience at Le Mans with a sixth place finish and the fourth in the FIA WEC. Lotus, another competitor racing the whole season, have two Lola-Lotus entered for the occasion. The car No.32 will be in the hands of American Kevin Weeda, British James Rossiter and Italian Vitantonio Liuzzi, former Formula 1 driver who has taken a liking to endurance.
In addition, the Jota team has the services of former Peugeot Sport driver Nicolas Minassian, who also be at his home race, as he lives in England. His former colleague of Peugeot Sport, Stéphane Sarrazin will be driving for Starworks Motorsports after racing at Le Mans with Toyota.
Finally, a difficult series continues for the Gulf Racing Middle East team, forced to enter only one car. Stefan Johansson is joined by Frédéric Fatien, who has been unavailable since the 6 Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. All teams will be at Scrutineering for the 6 Hours of Silverstone next Thursday (tickets here).
Dave Davies
Photo: LE MANS (SARTHE, FRANCE), CIRCUIT DES 24 HEURES, 24 HEURES DU MANS, MERCREDI 13 JUIN 2012, FREE PRACTICE.