It was a day of highs and lows for Embassy Racing at the official test in Le Mans on Sunday.
We had several objectives that we wanted to complete by the end of the day. The main priority was for rookie driver Joey Foster to complete 10 laps of the circuit in order for him to be a qualified Le Mans driver which would allow him to participate in the official practice sessions come race week and obviously compete in the race proper. Once we had that little task taken care of it would be business as usual, conducting some performance work with our more experienced drivers Jonny and Warren and then giving as much track time as possible to Joey to allow him to familiarise himself further with the track and car.
We seemed to have brought the recent West Yorkshire weather with us to Le Mans as the conditions were changing so much over the track throughout the day and it was Warren who went out first to test the water as it were, on a damp track. After 9 laps in the wet Warren came in to hand the car over to Joey. Joey completed 11 laps with relative ease, passing his rookie test and becoming a qualified Le Mans driver, although he didn’t look like a rookie. Considering the changing conditions and red flag stops his times were extremely competitive.
So, with that box checked it was over to Jonny who probably had the toughest session of the day, encountering every track condition possible, starting his session on inters on a drying track, then as the heavens opened he came in for full wets, then went back to inters again before finishing the session on slicks. However, it didn’t seem to matter what conditions were thrown at us, our times remained competitive throughout. So many times this year the WF01 has set some good times only for the Porsche RS Spyders to quickly beat those times and leave us struggling to match them for pace, but that didn’t happen on Sunday. As they improved, so did we, trading times in the top 3 or 4 with the two Porches and the Barazi Zytek.
Things were going as planned, in fact things weren’t just going as planned, they were actually going well.......maybe a little too well.
Joey took the reins again and with 30 minutes remaining of the of the test and with two laps to go of his session he came off the track at the Dunlop Esses, hitting the barriers hard and bringing a premature end to our session, an incident which put a damper on an otherwise successful day. The damage to the car was extensive and the team will now spend their time rebuilding the car ready for scrutineering on Tuesday 10th June.
Team Manager Jody Firth said:
“On the whole the day was extremely positive until the final moments. Joey is now qualified to enter all official sessions. We found that the car is competitive in its Le Mans trim in all weather conditions and we have been able to assess data on all three tyre types as well as fuel consumption in wet and dry conditions. We have a good baseline setup to work from come race week and the team are beginning to feel at home with Le Mans.”
Team Principal Jonathan France remains upbeat despite the late setback
“On the whole, a positive day’s testing. I am pleased to say that the car ran trouble free for the whole day and we are encouraged by the pace of the car in all conditions. Obviously the incident towards the end took some of the shine off proceedings but we will dig deep and bounce back for race week. I have no doubt that we will have the best prepared and presented race car that we possibly can. No stone will be left unturned prior to the main event, with every team member playing a vital role.”
