The second round of the European Le Mans Series takes place this coming weekend at the Italian circuit at Imola near Bologna, home of the former San Marino F1 Grand Prix. Planning to feature strongly among the nine Ferrari 458 Italias due to race at the 3 Hours of Imola are Ram Racing’s two gleaming white entries.
The British team, which marked its ELMS debut at the 3 Hours of Silverstone with second and third place finishes in the production-led LMGTE category, heads to Italy with a single, focussed aim – victory at the 4.9km Autodromo Enzo & Dino Ferrari.
Silverstone-based Ram Racing’s driver line up of Johnny Mowlem (GBR) and Matt Griffin (IRL) in the No.52 entry and Americans Gunnar Jeannette and Frankie Montecalvo in the No.53 all firmly believe that victory is within their grasp, and that it was only denied them at their home round due to the appalling weather conditions. The USA drivers will both be making their first visit to Imola, and in the early stages will rely on the experience and advice of their European team mates, both of whom have raced there before. The Imola track is renowned as being difficult to conquer, and its twists and turns require accuracy as well as speed but the rewards are high when it all comes together.
Fresh from a Portuguese race win in a Ferrari 458 in the GT Open series last weekend, Ireland’s Matt Griffin explains why he loves the Italian circuit: “The track has lots of high speed elements which suits the car, and you know that any race you do with Ram Racing you’re going to have a fantastically prepared car under you – as evidenced at Silverstone – which makes a driver’s job much easier.
“The Imola circuit is quick technical but I love it as it’s an old style track, with lots of history which you can feel all around you. You need maximum commitment to do well here, with the high speed corners, but it’s very rewarding. The trickiest corner is the Acque Minerali as it is downhill, high speed which makes it difficult on the brakes, and then there’s an uphill exit; as a driver you can make a big difference to your lap time here but if you’re over the limit you can run the risk of going off. You have to be pinpoint accurate.”
Despite the four-week gap since the 3 Hours of Silverstone, the team has been busy refining and preparing its GTE cars in readiness for the weekend.
Team Principal Dan Shufflebottom says that the intervening weeks have allowed the team to go over the cars with a fine tooth comb: “We’ve had a chance to carry out some improvements to the cars that we didn’t have time to do before Silverstone such as ceramic coating of the exhausts, and heat shielding the fuel cell and the back of the chassis. The dampers have been back to Dynamics to be re-valved and tested on their dyno and hopefully this will work to our advantage over the kerbs in Imola.
“As far as the competition is concerned, we’ve had a Balance of Performance adjustment which comes into effect from this weekend which includes a larger engine restrictor and another 12 litres of fuel, taking us up to 102 litres. This should, in theory, benefit us more than Porsche as the larger restrictor is likely to hurt their fuel economy heavily but the gain here is also balanced by an additional 25 kg of ballast we have to carry. Until we all get there, and see what happens in practice, it’s speculative as to who gains and who loses but I think we should do well. We obviously hope it doesn’t rain for the race – although there are showers forecast for practice on Friday – as the track surface can be very slippery in the wet. I think we all had enough rain at Silverstone to last us a season!”
The European Le Mans Series will be run alongside the FFSA GT Tour in Italy as part of a weekend of racing at Imola. Two one-hour practice sessions will take place on Friday, 17th May followed by a 20-minute qualifying session on Saturday morning. The three-hour race starts at 4:00 pm (CET) on Saturday afternoon.
Source : RAM Racing