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The Peroni Endurance Touring Car Series has been running for twelve years, but 2008 sees the championship moving up a notch with full FIA Board approval. Since its inauguration the status and popularity of the ETCS has grown steadily, and races regularly attract grids of fifty cars or more. Entrants adhere to the same basic regulations that apply to the Nurburgring 24 Hours, with some slight amendments to classes, tyres and overall weight to enable less powerful cars to remain competitive. Both petrol-engined and diesel-powered cars are eligible to compete. Teams run squads of two or three drivers, with all drivers required to complete a minimum of three laps in qualifying.

Although largely centred upon Italian circuits, this year’s 7-event ETCS calendar includes additional races in the Czech Republic (Brno), Portugal (Villareal), Croatia (Rijeka). The 2008 series is scheduled to include six four-hour races, and one six-hour event that will run through into the night. In addition to these seven ETCS races, Strakka Racing is also preparing entries for the Vallelunga Gold and Silver Cup events.

Peter Hardman Races to a Brace of Podiums in Hungary

Peter Hardman had a very successful weekend at the Hungaroring, 20 kilometres outside Budapest, racing in the 2008 Shell Ferrari Historic Challenge (August 30th-31st). The Strakka Racing team driver was there to take part in the annual Ferrari Racing Days meeting, where he competed in the same 1966 Ferrari P3 (412P) that he last contested, alongside regular co-driver Nick Leventis, at the Le Mans Classic in June.

The Ferrari Historic Challenge is one of the top international competitions for historic Ferrari racecars, and involves events at major circuits around the world, from across the USA and Europe. It provides a rare opportunity for enthusiast to see, hear and watch legendary historic Ferraris being driven as their designers originally intended - with passion and flair.

To even out the chances, cars are divided into eleven classes and allocated a grid dependent upon the type of car and its date of manufacture. Peter was competing in the Grid C category for GT cars and sports prototypes fitted with disk brakes, although this still meant he was racing against some cars with far superior power and performance potential. "The field included short wheelbase Ferraris, GTOs, 206 Dinos, Daytonas and BBLMs, plus a 312 PB, and somewhere in the mix there was me in the P3," said Peter. "The BBLM and 312 PB are bigger, more powerful and are entitled to run on slick tyres, so they should be quite a bit quicker than the P3, but we managed to give them a good run for their money!”

The weekend started with free practice and qualifying on the Friday, followed by a twenty-five-minute race on the Saturday, and then a second similar race on the Sunday. “We ended up with a couple of second places in qualifying, which I thought was good for my first visit to the track - and what a great track it is! We then followed that with two seconds in the races,” grinned a well-satisfied Peter. “In the first race, on Saturday, we were narrowly beaten by Irvine Laidlaw in his Ferrari 312 PB (1972) and finished 10 seconds ahead of Jean Guittard (1981 Ferrari 512 BB LM)."

"Then, on the Sunday, I managed to get ahead of Irvine at the start and lead the race for several laps before he came back at me towards the end. The car doesn’t usually get podiums in this kind of field, so I’m really pleased to have got two. Irvine was always going to be there or thereabouts, but after he’d followed me for three laps, I think he must have realised just how hard I was trying. Up against cars like the 312, racing on slicks, it’s quite a challenge to get the P3 going so quickly!”

The Ferrari Racing Days weekend is hugely popular in Hungary, with a strong timetable of races ranging from the historic, through contemporary, to the very latest Formula 1 machinery, managed under the F1 Clienti department at Maranello. “There was a huge crowd of some thirty or forty thousand, all of them enormously enthusiastic, and it was great for me to be able to race such a fantastic car in front of them. They really do love these old cars!” explained Peter.

Strakka Racing’s historic cars, such as the Ferrari P3 and the Aston Martin DBR1 that Nick raced so successfully at the Silverstone Classic a few weeks ago, are prepared and run for the team by Tim Samways Sporting and Historic Car Engineers

Pic: Paul Jarmyn of Fotografia-Corse

Strakka Racing in Italy for the Misano Six Hour ETCS

After two days of free practice during which they consistently topped the timing screens, Strakka Racing’s Nick Leventis and Peter Hardman contested round five of the 2008 Endurance Touring Car Championship in Misano, Italy yesterday(Sunday 20 July). Sharing the team’s BMW M3 GTR, they were looking all-set for a podium finish until a freak wheel-nut seizure, combined with a puncture, cost them forty minutes in the pits with a tricky suspension rebuild. It was a frustrating end to what had been a very promising return to the ETCS.

The Strakka Racing BMW had been absent from the previous three rounds while Nick and Peter concentrated on the Le Mans 24 Hours with Vitaphone, followed by the Spa 12 Hours and then last weekend’s Le Mans Classic. Their return to the ETCS began with an imposing run in both of Friday’s free-practice sessions, with the Strakka M3 out-pacing the similar but highly-favoured Duller Motorsport BMWs by more than a second.

Peter Hardman was quietly confident of securing pole during Saturday’s hour-long qualifying session, and having set provisional pole in the first ten minutes, handed the car over to Nick. Peter’s earlier time had just been bettered by one-tenth when he returned to the cockpit for the closing ten minutes. “Having been fastest in both practice sessions, I think we could have had pole,” he suggested, “but I got held up through one of the flat-out sections. The data showed we were well up on time, but that delay cost me five tenths, so we had to be content with second.” It was a narrow margin, with Peter just seven-hundredths of a second shy of Cesare Cremonese’s best of 1'42.546 in the #36 Arsenio Corse BMW.

Anticipating stints of roughly ninety minutes between fuel-stops, the team’s race strategy saw Nick taking the opening stint. “I made a great start!” he said. “I knew it would be a challenge with Gollin driving the lead Duller car, so I kept out of trouble. He got me into the first corner, but I was content with that.” Nick settled into third, and was dicing with the #36 Arsenio Corse BMW when former FIA GT champion Fabrizio Gollin embarrassingly tangled with his team-mate, Marco Bonamico in the #30 Duller Motorsport BMW. Both cars suffered, but Gollin’s #34 BMW was left stranded on the barriers and the safety car was deployed. That left the race for the lead between the #35 Duller car, the #36, and Nick. “I was held up at the restart, but was able to hold onto third quite comfortably, and then move through to second by the time I handed over to Peter,” he said.

After the first round of pitstops the Strakka BMW resumed in an easy third place, but a strong push from Peter saw the blue and white M3 back through to second as the race entered its fourth hour. Shortly afterwards, and just before he handed back to Nick, Peter took the lead. The pitstop, however, did not go to plan. The front left wheelnut refused to budge, and valuable time was lost. “I had to go back out on the same tyre in the end,” said Nick. “We’d had a lead of more than a lap over the next car, so I rejoined fourth.” He was recovering some of that lost ground, and two-thirds of the way through his stint, when that same front-left tyre suffered a puncture. “Sod’s Law it would be the same wheel!” observed Nick. Unable to remove the wheelnut, the team resorted to a replacing the complete corner, suspension and all. It took nearly forty minutes. “The lads did a great job to get us going again. It was a huge job, and to have it turned round so quickly was impressive, but in a six-hour race, that put us right out of contention.”

“We ran for seven hours in the Spa 12 Hours without a any problems. The car was perfect,” said Peter. “Then here at Misano, we have the wheel nut stick and then the puncture on the same wheel. How unlucky is that? That definitely cost us a podium, if not a win.” Nick was especially disappointed. “I feel very frustrated,” he admitted. “We had a clear chance of a second, and we’ve been let down by nothing more than rough luck. It’s tough, but these things happen.”

The team’s efforts are now focused on running their Aston Martin DBR9 in the Le Mans Series, with the next outing planned for the Silverstone 1000 Kilometres on September 14th.

pic: FotoSpeed

Strakka Racing Drivers at the Le Mans Classic

Strakka Racing’s Nick Leventis and Peter Hardman were back at Le Mans last weekend for a very different motorsport event from the 24 Hours they shared last month in the Vitaphone Aston Martin DBR9. This time they were taking part in the Le Mans Classic, co-driving historic racing cars around the full Le Mans circuit. The team’s three cars included the Aston Martin DBR1 that took victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1959, a beautiful Ferrari 246S from 1960, and a 1966 Ferrari 330 P3.

Responsibility for qualifying fell to the former Classic winner Peter Hardman, who responded with pole for the #29 Aston Martin in the Group 3 grid (for cars dating from 1957-61) and then an impressive 11th for the Ferrari P3 in the Group 5 class (for those originally raced between 1966 and 72). Sadly, recurrent gearbox problems in practice lead to the eventual withdrawal of the Ferrari 246, although Nick still maintains it “was the most beautiful car on the grid!”

When it came to the races, Nick took first stint in the Aston Martin DBR1, starting from the pole set by Peter. “It was a fantastic race,” he said, “but I couldn’t hold on to Gary (Pearson) in the D-Type Jaguar. He just had so much power and left me standing!” Nick held his ground, battling on for third, and left Peter well placed to fight through to second at the flag. That determined their grid position for the second race. Soon after the start Nick “found 5th gear instead of 3rd by mistake” and lost a handful of places, but recovered much of that ground before handing over to Peter, who continued the good work. He’d regained fourth place by the close, and the gap to the winning Jaguar D-Type was just 46 seconds. The final run for the Aston came at 10:40 on the Sunday morning, with Nick once again driving first stint. “I’d been looking forward to a good result, but I spun just after the Dunlop Bridge. It was entirely my own fault.” He slipped to 21st, but by the end of his four-lap stint he’d recovered impressively to sixth. Peter then took over the car for the second stint and pushed hard in the final laps to finish fifth.

The team’s first race in the Group 5 Ferrari 330 P3 came late on Saturday evening. “The start went really well,” said Peter. “I went quicker in the first two laps than I had in qualifying, and managed to battle through to 5th from 11th, but then I began to experience problems with the brakes.” It was a situation that grew steadily worse, and Nick was forced to drive very conservatively throughout his second-stint. Despite this, he crossed the line in a competitive tenth place.

The P3’s second race came at dawn on Sunday morning, and Peter took the 45 minutes solo. Starting from 8th, based upon his fastest lap from Race One, he battled hard to take the flag in fourth, but with one of the other competitors penalised for a hasty pitstop, the Ferrari P3 was reclassified third. In the car’s final race, Peter ran fifth before a noise from the back heralded a problem with the P3’s differential, and after three laps Peter parked up.

“The Aston did a great job to last all three races,” said Peter in admiration for the fifty-year-old DBR1. “The chicanes and tight corners are very tough on those old cars. The only disappointment was not being able to get the best out of the 246, but overall it was a very successful weekend.” Nick thoroughly enjoyed the experience. “I absolutely loved it, and it’s such a privilege to drive cars like these around the Le Mans circuit.”

The team has a few days rest before heading off to Italy for the next round of the Peroni Endurance Touring Car Championship at Misano, where Nick and Peter will be competing in the team’s BMW M3 GTR.

Strakka BMW Leads Spa 12 Hours

The Strakka Racing BMW M3, co-driven by team regulars Peter Hardman and Nick Leventis, and joined for this one-off endurance event by fellow Briton Christian Vann, worked through from fifth on the grid to lead the BTCS Spa 12 Hours by the half-way stage. Up against a daunting array of specialised “silhouette” and touring cars, the M3 was the front-running conventional car in a race highlighted by major incidents, accidents and mechanical problems.

Peter Hardman had given the team the best possible start by qualifying the Strakka BMW in fifth position overall. With only the highly specialised “silhouette” cars ahead of it on the 52-car grid, the team’s M3 was immediately the leading runner amongst the ‘standard’ entries. “The combination of the BMW engine and Michelin tyres really helped us put in a good time,” said Peter. “I went 2.5 seconds quicker than I’d ever gone round Spa before, and that was just one lap. I honestly believe we could have gone another second quicker.”

The first few hours of the race were marked by a series of major problems amongst the pre-race favourites, with five significant retirements. Throughout all this, the Strakka BMW M3 powered on untroubled, and by the end of the third hour was holding a comfortable second place. With five hours gone the race was looking even more settled, but it was a temporary lull. Having escaped the early spate of problems, the leading Delahaye Racing Renault Megane collided with a back-marker, leaving the Strakka BMW to move through into an uncontested lead. It was a position the trio of Hardman, Leventis and Vann consolidated for the next hour or more. “The car was running like a dream,” said Peter. “I did my first stint, and when I got back in again four hours later, it was as if I’d only just got out. The car was so easy to drive.”

As the race passed beyond the half-way stage the BMW’s advantage extended to more than four laps. Christian Vann was part-way through his second stint and leading comfortably when the first signs of a problem became evident. Smoke filled the M3’s cockpit, and the Walsall-based driver was quick to head for the nearest marshals’ post. “It appeared to be a repeat of the problem we’d encountered in testing at Jerez, when the exhaust overheated and cracked,” said Nick Leventis. “Christian had flames knee-high inside the car!” Extinguishers were used to quell the blaze, but the team’s race was immediately over.

The BMW’s demise handed the lead briefly to John Hartshorne’s Chad Racing Peugeot 406, then the DB Motorsport BMW 120, before Vanina Ickx came through in the recovering Delahaye Megane. She and co-drivers Bouvy and Loix then held first place to the finish.

“To have this follow on so soon after Le Mans is a bitter disappointment,” said Nick. “To be leading a race like the Spa 12 Hours is a great achievement, but more than that, we were in a very comfortable position, and were cruising along with a huge advantage. If we’d managed to hold on to that it would have been a truly memorable result. Even so, the guys have been away from home for over a month now and this has been a fantastic team effort.”

The next outing for Peter and Nick is the Le Mans Classic weekend, July 12th and 13th, when they will be recreating historic scenes from the past by racing an Aston Martin DBR1 and a Ferrari Dino 246. That will be followed by a return to the Peroni Endurance Touring Car Series with Round Five at Misano in Italy on July 20th. “Onwards and upwards,” said a philosophical Nick Leventis. “With some major races coming up, I think we’re now due some good luck!”

Valuable Experience for Strakka Racing at Spa

Strakka Racing made a very creditable debut in the highly competitive Le Mans Series at Spa-Francorchamps in Belgium yesterday. The team’s driver pairing of Peter Hardman and Nick Leventis steered their Aston Martin DBR9 to a high of second in class before finally crossing the line to take fourth place in GT1.

An entry in Round 3 of the 2008 Le Mans Series at Spa was the first stage in major new endurance racing programme for the Silverstone-based outfit, and offered dress-rehearsal opportunities ahead of the two drivers’ participation in the Le Mans 24 Hours next month. The news that Peter Hardman and Nick Leventis will co-drive the Vitaphone-entered Aston Martin DBR9 in the 24 Hours was confirmed earlier today, and taking part in the Spa 1000 Kilometres was the perfect introduction to the level and intensity of competition they will face at Le Mans. “This weekend has been a fantastic experience for me,” said Nick Leventis. “It’s all part of the learning curve as a driver, and just getting used to this amount of traffic has been invaluable.”

With more than forty cars taking part in four different classes, the pressure on any driver is intense, with significant speed differentials and braking capabilities between one category and the next placing additional demands upon a driver’s awareness and resources. “The plus side is that the track conditions here [at Spa] are much more demanding than those at Le Mans, from the traffic point of view, and we’ve coped here very well,” said Peter Hardman. “After this, Le Mans might not even seem so challenging!”

In a demanding five-and-a-half hour race punctuated by safety car periods, typically initiated by driver error and contact, the Strakka Racing pair coped well with the difficult conditions. Peter Hardman took the rolling start from fifth in class, and moved through to fourth on lap twelve. By lap 22 he was up into third, and after the first driver change to Nick Leventis, the Aston briefly held second place in class under the pitstops. However, a couple of minor errors included a spin at Les Combes that ended in the gravel and cost valuable time, with Nick relying on assistance from the marshals to regain the track. “I just locked up under braking, simple as that,” he admitted. “I was stuck in the gravel for ages!” Peter, who has mentored Nick for the past four years, was sympathetic of his protégé's predicament. “The car wasn’t at its best today,” he conceded. “We were struggling to carry speed into the corners and there was no margin for error. Even the slightest mistake and the back end just snapped away from you.”

Despite the handling difficulties, the pair pressed on to the flag, with the car running faultlessly in every other respect. “I’m very proud that we’ve finished, but I know there’s a lot more to come,” said Nick Leventis. “It’s a great start for the team, and it sets us up well for the Le Mans 24 Hours next month.” Peter Hardman agreed. “In the end we just needed to keep going to the finish, stay out of trouble, and take fourth place. We know there’s so much more to come from this car, so to get a result under these conditions is quite an achievement.”

The team’s next challenge will be the official Le Mans test day, to be staged at the famous Circuit de la Sarthe on the 1st June.

Strakka on Pole in Vallelunga

Strakka Racing’s Peter Hardman and Nick Laventis set the pace for this season’s Endurance Touring Car Series with a dominant run to pole in the opening round at the Corsican circuit of Vallelunga in Italy last weekend.

The team’s BMW M3 GTR had been quickest throughout practice, and Peter Hardman had the blue-and-white liveried BMW topping the timing screens after his first flying lap in official qualifying. That provisional claim to pole stood the test of almost the entire hour-long session, with co-driver Nick Laventis enjoying most of the middle period, and setting a pace that demonstrated the strength in Strakka’s 2008 driver line-up. As the hour drew to a close, Peter Hardman went out again. Despite a flickering fuel-warning light, he came through in the dying moments to put pole beyond reach, setting a time of 1.39.535 that was a full half-second clear of the second-placed BMW of Venturi and Meloni. “The car had been spluttering on fuel,” explained Peter, “but I was able to switch onto the reserve. I took the next lap easy, so the tyres were probably cooling, but I still went for it on that last lap, and was delighted to improve my time and secure pole.”

Peter Hardman took the rolling start in what was scheduled as a four-hour race, holding the lead through the first corner, and then immediately easing out a significant advantage over the chasing pack. For the first hour and ten minutes the BMW’s 3.2 litre straight-six ran like clockwork, and Hardman was able to establish a strong overall lead. Nick Laventis was suited up in the garage and preparing for his first stint when the M3’s engine suddenly gave up. “There was no warning at all,” said Peter Hardman. “We were leading quite easily, and seemed to have the race in the bag, and then the engine just went.” The exact reason for the failure has yet to be ascertained, but a failed piston is suspected. The engine was the same one the team had employed to win the six-hour Vallelunga Silver Cup late last year, and “still have plenty more running in it.”

“That was very promising, yet bitterly disappointing at the same time,” said a crestfallen Nick Laventis. “The car showed that it easily had the pace, and ran really well for the first hour or so with no problems. I was just getting ready to get in when disaster struck.” Nick’s time in practice and qualifying had demonstrated that he also had excellent race pace, and that the pairing is one of the strongest in the championship. “Obviously we’re very disappointed not to have finished, but we can take the positives forward into the next round and be confident that we have the pace and the car to win these races. It would have been nice to have finished though.”

The next round is scheduled for May 24th-25th at Brno, in the Czech Republic.

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