http://inpitlane.com In Pit Lane Fri, 18 May 2012 15:37:27 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 en http://inpitlane.com/archives/13610 http://inpitlane.com/archives/13610#comments Fri, 18 May 2012 15:37:27 +0000 Brett Ramsey http://inpitlane.com/?p=3610 http://inpitlane.com/archives/13610/feed http://inpitlane.com/archives/13596 http://inpitlane.com/archives/13596#comments Wed, 16 May 2012 21:24:42 +0000 Brett Ramsey http://inpitlane.com/?p=3596 Austrian Formula One driver Christian Klien will co-drive with Russell Ingall at the V8 Supercar Endurance races at Sandown and Bathurst this year. Klien, who made 41 F1 starts for teams including Jaguar and Red Bull will drive the Supercheap Autos Commodore with the two time Bathurst winner. The 1000 kms enduro around the Mountain won't be Klien's first look at the famous track, earlier this year he drove a production Lotus at the famous circuit although that's a long way  from the 640 BHP that he'll need to deal with in the Commodore. Although he is best known in Australia for his F1 career, Klien has considerable endurance experience with a best result of a third place at Le Mans in the factory Peugeot in 2008. Klien had a secret test with Walkinshaw Racing recently and will drive the Supercheap Auto Racing Commodore in the enduro co-driver practice session at Phillip Island this Friday ahead of the weekend's fifth round of the V8 Supercar Championship, the Phillip Island 300.]]> http://inpitlane.com/archives/13596/feed http://inpitlane.com/archives/13571 http://inpitlane.com/archives/13571#comments Fri, 04 May 2012 09:02:30 +0000 Brett Ramsey http://inpitlane.com/?p=3571 http://inpitlane.com/archives/13571/feed http://inpitlane.com/archives/13567 http://inpitlane.com/archives/13567#comments Fri, 04 May 2012 05:22:27 +0000 Brett Ramsey http://inpitlane.com/?p=3567 A dream debut Audi's new hybrid e-tron R18 as the #1 car driven by Fässler, Lotterer and Treluyer, the winning trio of the 24 Hours of Le Mans 2011, setting the fastest time of day one in the lead up to the Spa 6 hour race this weekend. Audi dominated taking the top four places in a dry practice. Former Formula 1 driver Nick Heidfeld in the Lola-Toyota #12 of Rebellion Racing was the quickest of the petrol powered cars but he was well off the pace set by the dominant Audi team. Olivier Pla led the way in LMP2 with the Morgan-Judd #24 of OAK Racing with a time of 2'10'058, improving by nearly six tenths of the time achieved by Soheil Ayari before the lunch break. The Lola-Judd of Status GP occupied second place, (as it did in the first free practice session), before leaving the track. Third was the Oreca-Nissan #26 of Signatech-Nissan driven by Nelson Panciatici, a rookie in endurance racing who has adapted quickly to his new discipline.]]> http://inpitlane.com/archives/13567/feed http://inpitlane.com/archives/13559 http://inpitlane.com/archives/13559#comments Mon, 30 Apr 2012 11:27:48 +0000 Brett Ramsey http://inpitlane.com/?p=3559 Although they won't be at Spa for round two of the World Endurance Championship the Toyota TS030 hybrid will be a the track this weekend. The team will complete a functionality test of its new chassis at the Magny-Cours circuit in France. Following the accident at Paul Ricard on 4 April, which damaged the monocoque of the first TS030, the team has worked hard to accelerate production of a second car. This will be completed directly before transportation to the one-day functionality test. A total of seven test days were cancelled in April as a result of the testing accident, giving the team no opportunity to validate the aerodynamic and hybrid system specifications intended for its first race. So the team had no choice but to miss the WEC Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps event, which takes place on 3-5 May. Yoshiaki Kinoshita, Team President: “I would like to express my thanks to the staff members at Toyota Motorsport GmbH who have worked so hard to deliver our second monocoque ahead of schedule. Now we have a very intense testing programme to prepare for Le Mans, beginning with an initial functionality test to shakedown our systems.”]]> http://inpitlane.com/archives/13559/feed http://inpitlane.com/archives/13555 http://inpitlane.com/archives/13555#comments Sun, 29 Apr 2012 13:34:37 +0000 Brett Ramsey http://inpitlane.com/?p=3555 The glorious uncertainty of endurance racing played out once again as Jim Pollicina and Ryan Simpson took out the Phillip Island 6 Hour, round two of the Australian Manufacturers Championship. In a thrilling  duel to the end, Formula Ford star Simpson - chased down and passed - reigning champions Stuart Kostera and Inky Tulloch, to take the lead with just two laps to go. The winners had to do one more pitstop than the TMR prepared car, but still had the pace to pull off a remarkable victory. The father and son team of Tony and Klark Quinn started from pole position and stormed to an early lead. But their race ended in bizarre fashion when a trolly jack went through the driver’s side floor during a routine pit stop.]]> http://inpitlane.com/archives/13555/feed http://inpitlane.com/archives/13529 http://inpitlane.com/archives/13529#comments Thu, 19 Apr 2012 11:23:36 +0000 Brett Ramsey http://inpitlane.com/?p=3529 The Nissan DeltaWing  kicked off its European testing program in England at Snetterton, in Norfolk, yesterday with Scotsman Marino Franchitti and German Michael Krumm getting the opportunity to sample the car in wet conditions. Steady rain throughout the morning enabled the team to undertake wet weather development with tyre partner, Michelin, with the hugely innovative 1.6-litre Nissan DIG-T turbo-powered car. With the famous Le Mans 24 Hour race just two months away, the Nissan DeltaWing team gained valuable information about the ground-breaking car's performance in typical European track conditions, having conducted all of its development work so far in America.]]> http://inpitlane.com/archives/13529/feed http://inpitlane.com/archives/13503 http://inpitlane.com/archives/13503#comments Wed, 11 Apr 2012 08:54:35 +0000 Brett Ramsey http://inpitlane.com/?p=3503 In a move that can only be described as "interesting" Toyota have announced that as a result of a "testing accident" it is not able to participate in the WEC Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps. A media release sent out today, April 11, claimed that during testing at Paul Ricard, on Wednesday 4 April, the TS030 HYBRID was involved in an accident which damaged the team’s only monocoque. According to the team the damage is too severe to repair. A replacement monocoque cannot be produced and sufficiently tested to ensure reliability within the limited time available. "Therefore Toyota Racing has informed the organisers of the FIA World Endurance Championship of its decision to withdraw from the WEC Six Hours of Spa-Francorchamps, due to be held on 5 May." The decision is sure to raise some eyebrows with the team now to make its first appearance at the Le Mans 24 Hours in June.]]> http://inpitlane.com/archives/13503/feed http://inpitlane.com/archives/13491 http://inpitlane.com/archives/13491#comments Tue, 10 Apr 2012 08:03:39 +0000 Brett Ramsey http://inpitlane.com/?p=3491 The Audi team of Stephane Ortelli and Laurens Vanthoor secured a double victory with a win in both races for the opening round of the new look 2012 FIA GT1 World Championship at Nogaro. “I never expected, even in my best dreams, that we would achieve this result at the first race." said Vanthor after the race. "I am still quite speechless, but I think it is because we did a great job, we worked hard together, and we did a lot of testing. Audi have put a lot of effort into it, as well as Belgian Audi Club WRT, and then the co-operation with Stephane (Ortelli), everything is going the perfect way at the moment. I am really happy, this is one of the most beautiful victories I have had, so I hope we can continue in this direction.” The second WRT car, the No.33 of Frank Stippler and Oliver Jarvis finished second as they had done on Sunday to round out a perfect Easter weekend for the German manufactuer. Third was the ALL-INKL.COM Münnich Motorsport Mercedes SLS of Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock, from sixth on the grid, just ahead of their team-mates Nicky Pastorelli and Thomas Jager.]]> http://inpitlane.com/archives/13491/feed http://inpitlane.com/archives/13486 http://inpitlane.com/archives/13486#comments Sat, 07 Apr 2012 22:59:45 +0000 Brett Ramsey http://inpitlane.com/?p=3486 Ferrari is on pole for the opening round of the new look GT1 World Championship at Nagaro in France. Finnish driver Toni Vilander put the AF Corse Ferrari 458 Italia grabbed pole early ahead of the WRT Audis of Stephane Ortelli/Laurens Vanthoor and Frank Stippler/Oliver Jarvis. “First of all it is good to be in the championship,” Vilander said. “Even in the testing I found many very good drivers, great cars and great teams so I think it’s going to be a very tight year. I only got to know Filip (Salaquarda) on Monday and we started to build our confidence together. “These cars are a bit special to drive, ABS and stuff like that is completely new to me. I am looking forward to tomorrow. Hopefully we have the pace to get a good result.” Mercedes will start out of fourth place with the Munnich Mercedes of Marc Basseng and Markus Winkelhock just ahead of the second AF Corse Ferrari of Francesco Castellacci and Enzo Ide.]]> http://inpitlane.com/archives/13486/feed