LMS report: 2001 Finals
1/24 LMS Round 4: Les Neuf heures de Le(eu)warden, Nov. 24/25, 2001 Leeuwarden, NL
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Tim Gurtzgen's Qualification put their R8 on the second row.
Veterans on home turf; The OLT Nissan and EM60's Toyota
 
The TS020 of EM 60 made it home "On a wing and a prayer", but had no problems filling the void left by the illustrious Weam team.
 

At halfway point Sideways BMW saw light at the other side off the tunnel and managed to recover..


..by then it was clear to B-24 that for their Old Panoz Chassis the end off the road was near .
The TS020 of Special frank in MRCL's fastest corner "Boswandeling"
Reversal off fortune at MRCL
The 10th edition of " Les Neuf heures de Le(eu)warden was an eventful race.
All off the top six finishers lead the race at one point or another, lost laps once mechanical gremlins struck and had to drive like hell to get back in the race.
In a reversal off fortune the main players in the race were those teams that had experienced a nightmare start off the season.

Carrera Specialist
Not very happy on a wooden track both German teams had found their form once the Championship returned to more familiar surfaces. With their 2nd win in a row Special Frank confirmed their reputation as Carrera specialist, but most happy was Gurtzgen racing. For once not plagued by grip problems the team's new Audi was quick out off the box. Contradicting all set-up theories their resin
bodied car was fast and robust. Even the 80gr heavyweight body could not keep them from a fine 2nd place.

In house competition
Although their luck doesn't travel well, on home ground, MRCL teams always put up a good fight. Even if it is between themselves.
For their 10th edition founding fathers Hans Lanting and Johan Post went for the tried & Nissan 390. Some say that, after 5 Nissans, Hans can apply the decals blindfolded same goes for Johan's last minute setups. This year they had to dig deep as the burden of racing and race control seemed heavier than ever. Relying on the decennium of experience OLT delivered the goods and took a hard-fought 3rd.

Newly formed EM 60 had no problems filling the void left by the illustrious Weam team. Noblesse oblige so Crack driver Erwin Post easy pole was no surprise. So fast was the silverclad GT that lesser gods as Thijs Postma and Andretti JR and SR. rose to the occasion and punched out strong stints with steady drives.
However Erwin had warned the team that to finish first, you first have to finish. But even he could not foresee how prophetic his words would be. After running in the lead for 2 hours, disaster struck in the dark. Trying to hammer a totally bent chassis back in shape the team lost 100 laps and several more pitstops had to be made to get back to speed. But eventually the speed returned. Fighting back to sixth overall was a good show of perseverance, and their car had the scars to prove it.

Mindpower's resin resurrection.
From the ashes of their R#3 baptism of fire, Luc Roels had restored his Resin R8 back to concourse winning form.
Eager to prove the endurance capabilities of both his team and his resin bodies, they were more motivated than ever. They even made a pre race test run at the MRCL covering a good 400km's in the process. Strengthened by the first sub 6sec lap ever recorded at the Leeuwarden track they were ready to rumble and rumble they did.
But not completely like they had hoped. The Gulf Audi had an ingenious system to brace the body in frontal crashes. Crash bars extended forward from the chassis and absorbed most of the impact. But after 4 hrs they cried enough and started to bent downwards at each impact. Each time the rumbling heralded yet an other pitsstop to bend them back up. This effectively lost them a spot on the podium.

Reversal of fortune
Series leaders B-24 and Sideways were the only 2 teams that run the same car throughout the Championship and in Leeuwarden the competition had finally caught up.
Was it metal fatigue in their aging chassis, or were they too complacent having a big points lead? Fact is that at half way point the teams fortunes switched dramatically. This time Sideways recovered its pace and B-24 shot it self in the foot..... continuously.
After a difficult start Sideways managed to improve their car during the race and in the end even sneaked by Mindpower to take 4th.
B-24's Panoz seemed to come apart at the seams. In a string of disastrous pit stops they lost 130 laps and collected a total of 120 sec. in time penalties as their body failed to maintain the min ground clearance. For the team that had so convincingly won last year's race 10th place was their worst result ever in the LMS.
But then again, they did manage to pick up the Championship title and not by a small margin. So..you win some, you lose some, 2001 has been a wonderful Year.
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