For the first time in the history of the Le Mans Series an 8 hour race was scheduled as the season opener. As a consequence the leading teams in sports car racing – among them KSM from Siegburg, Germany – had to cope with a much longer race distance compared to the classic 1000 km LMS rounds.
KSM, using a Judd V8 engine for the first time, but still with its proven Lola LMP2 chassis, had to face 11 competitors in the class. Altogether there were 41 cars on the grid, 27 prototypes and 14 GT racers. The team had already been searching for a while for a 3rd driver to strengthen the driver squad of KSM regulars Hideki Noda and Jean de Pourtales, who have been with the team since 2008. Shortly before the beginning of the 1st LMS round 2010 KSM signed a contract with British driver Jonathan Kennard. Jonathan already has significant experience in motor racing. The 26 year old and very quick driver from England had scored a win in the British F3 championship, several podiums in the Superleague Formula and did a test drive for the Williams F1 team.
5 weeks ago during the official LMS test days at Paul Ricard KSM faced several problems with the gearbox control system. After an in-depth analysis and some changes the team was confident to have solved these problems and was very optimistic for the race. Unfortunately these problems came up again and it took 2 practice sessions to sort it out, so an optimal set up could not be developed for the Qualifying session. Despite this there was still a significant advance in lap times, so in the end KSM scored a 9th place on the LMP2 grid.
After a very good start Jean de Pourtales managed to advance into 7th position and could keep pace with the front-running competitors. At the end of his 2nd stint the problems with the gearbox control system came up again, forcing the mechanics into a lengthy, but successful repair session. Coming back into the race in 40th position overall and in 12th position in class, Hideki Noda drove 3 stints and advanced to 9th position in the LMP2 class. For the last 2 hours of the race it was Jonathan Kennard’s task to build on this and bring the car to the chequered flag. He managed both very well and impressed with very consistent and quick lap times. In the end the team finished 8th in class and in 29th position overall. Because of the long race distance of more than 1,500 km, double points were given to the teams, so KSM scored 12 points, making this quite a positive start to the season. In addition they got 5th place overall in the Michelin Endurance Challenge, a classement for the best speed/fuel consumption ratio, even outrunning the Le Mans-winning Peugeot in this discipline.
Hardy Schiller: “After the test in March we were confident that we had sorted out the problems, but unfortunately this was not the case. Nevertheless we did not give up and were rewarded with 12 championship points. I think especially at the end of the race we have shown what is possible with our package and we will hope for a good performance in the next LMS round at Spa Francorchamps.”
Kai Kruse: “These points were hard work, but once again it has become clear that persistence will be rewarded. Despite our shortfalls in the practice sessions I was happy with our race performance. This makes me believe that better results can be achieved in the future, although there is still some hard work ahead of us. All of us were impressed with the very strong debut of Jonathan in the LMS. His very quick and consistent lap times were convincing and we hope to be equally quick at Spa Francorchamps.”
Source : KSM