The Dino & Enzo Ferrari Autodrome played host to the third round of the International GT Open championship last weekend where Porsche, particularly that of the IMSA Performance Matmut team, endured a difficult event.

The car carrying Matmut’s colours has been Stuttgart’s strongest hope in the championship so far in 2010 and was planning to once again take the fight to Ferrari on their home patch. Sadly, fortune would favour the locals on this occasion despite Porsche’s best efforts. “It is only during qualifying that we struggle to compete,” said driver Patrick Pilet. “In race conditions we can easily match the Ferraris, but during qualifying it is really difficult to be ahead of them. I could understand if their advantage was only over one lap thanks to their better tyre management, but in reality it is the same over five consecutive laps. We can’t get ahead of them and we have no explanation for it.”

As it was, Raymond Narac secured a fifth row grid position at the end of his qualifying session while Pilet set the third fastest time of his group. More significant however was the car’s behaviour: “We have got nothing to complain about concerning the car. Indeed, we’ve rediscovered a good balance and it is now very comfortable to drive,” confirmed Raymond ahead of the first race.

Narac was understandably anxious ahead of race one thanks to the tricky first corner - Tamburello Chicane – and lost two positions at the start, dropping him behind several GTS cars which proved difficult to overtake. His predicament also meant he lost contact with the leaders, running half a minute behind them. After the mandatory driver change, extended by 30 seconds as a result of their double podium at the Nurburgring, Patrick continued the work started by Raymond and climbed back up to 4th position.

“Seven or eight laps before the end I slightly flat spotted one of the tyres. I had to back off. Despite this, we were the fastest car at the end of the race, but I did not try to take third place as the extra points didn’t outweigh the additional success ballast. The speed at the end of the race has only increased my curiosity regarding our level of performance in qualifying. It is a real enigma,” said Pilet.

Race two began with a sizable pile-up at the first corner, which saw the race red-flagged. Strangely though, the race clock continued to count down, meaning that by the time it restarted again 20 minutes later, it was time for the mandatory driver changes. “That profoundly altered the cards,” explained Patrick. “The A drivers who took the start spent less time than planned out on track, preventing them from building a gap. I came back into the pits in the lead, but due to the narrow margin I was ahead, Raymond returned to the action down in 4th position.”

Worse was to follow as a few laps after taking the wheel, Narac was forced back into the pits thanks to a puncture which might have been caused when contact was made with Gianmaria’s Ferrari shortly after the restart. The delay ensured that the #16 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR took the chequered flag down in 12th position, preventing IMSA Performance from scoring any points.

Now third in the overall classification, 34 points behind Barba and Kaffer, Narac and Pilet haven’t given up on their main objective. In the meantime, the entire IMSA Performance Matmut team will focus on another important event this season – the Le Mans 24 Hours – which kicks off with scrutineering on Sunday 6 June. In the meantime, Raymond Narac, Patrick Pilet, Franck Rava and the entire IMSA Performance Matmut team send Marcel Tiemann, who was involved in race two’s sizable accident, their best wishes and a speedy recovery.

That’s a question drivers Raymond Narac and Patrick Pilet will be hoping to positively answer this weekend when the International GT Open travels to the Dino and Enzo Ferrari circuit, where the Italian team’s Tifosis traditionally gather, for round three. It’s an area with a rich history in motorsport and one that the IMSA Performance Matmut team particularly enjoyed last season thanks to their second place finish.

This weekend however, Narac and Pilet will be after more than just the runners-up spot as they continue a championship comeback that started at the Nürburgring. Despite the 30 second handicap they will have to contend with during the weekend’s opening race, victory is by no means out of reach. “It will certainly be more complicated but hopefully with a well balanced car and very good qualifying session, we’ll be back at the front quickly and there might be a possibility to win,” said Narac. “But we need to be cautious with our closest rivals. Kaffer and Barba (70 points versus 54 for the IMSA drivers) will start with the same handicap as us so it looks like we will be very close on the track.”

Despite Imola being demanding on engines, the team’s Porsche 997 GT3 RSR should be comfortable. “The various chicanes and slow corners are followed by sections which are quite fast,” explained Pilet, “while the numerous acceleration zones require an excellent engine. In this area, the Porsche is very good. It is also a circuit where you need to climb the kerbs to set a competitive time and there’s also no worries about that. I’m hoping, above everything else, that we score the maximum number of points this weekend in order to reduce the gap at the top to negate the number of points lost in Valencia. We will have to be clever and choose the best strategy to achieve this. If we return home on Sunday night having done just that, we will have every reason to be satisfied before focusing on the Le Mans 24 Hours.”

You can catch all the action from both races live on Motors TV across Europe this Saturday and Sunday.

The week didn’t begin well however with drivers Patrick Pilet and Raymond Narac encountering a problem around the differential during free practice which hampered the important set-up work normally completed on Friday. With the issue solved, the IMSA pair began the second day of practice with a much better platform, which allowed them to set a very encouraging third fastest time on Saturday morning’s final session. In qualifying, Patrick was hoping for a place on the first or second row at least, but that was without factoring in Jaime Melo, who refused to move from the racing line on his slowing down lap. The blockage cost at least half a second and pushed the #76 Porsche down to eighth place on the GT2 grid.

As Sunday dawned, so the Ardennes’ conditions closed in, although the light rain which fell prior to the start did not warrant drivers opting for wet weather tyres. Nevertheless, as the cars set off on their formation lap, it was clear that grip was at a premium with several drivers being caught out, including those of Peugeot and Audi at the front! Pilet was another to misjudge the conditions as he spun at the first corner of the opening lap.

“Surprisingly, the car spun through 90 degrees but on the opposite side to where it should have gone, which made me think it wasn’t the conditions that were to blame. It looked more like a slight push from another competitor, but after checking the car, we did not notice anything suspicious at the rear and I did not feel anything when it happened,” pondered the Frenchman. Nevertheless, the chaotic start saw the driver from Gers drop towards the back of the pack, before the race was neutralised following another accident at the top of Eau Rouge.

Once racing resumed, Patrick embarked on a great comeback drive despite four flat-spotted tyres which caused the car to vibrate. “There was no way I was going to lose time by going back into the pits. I preferred driving like that as it was not going to have an impact on the car’s performance,” he confirmed.

Utterly committed, the factory Porsche driver continued to climb the order lap after lap and reached as high as second place before handing over to his team mate. With the race’s half way point approaching no one could have predicted what happened next; a power cut forced the race director to suspend racing. As the red flags flew, so the race for victory was effectively over for the IMSA Performance Matmut team. “They blocked the main pack from certain cars. Those in front were able to do one more lap which is why we lost a lap to the leaders! There was a lot of confusion. Certain teams even used the opportunity to repair their car, which surprised a few people,” explains Narac, who was then installed in the car. From then on, with three hours of racing remaining, it would be difficult to recover the handicap without luck playing its part.

After half-an-hour, the race resumed. Raymond and then Patrick, both fired up, completed an excellent second half thanks to an aggressive race strategy, especially concerning tyre changes, before light rain returned during the last fifteen minutes of the race.

“We knew that Spa would be one of the hardest meetings of the year for us. We have come out of it quite well despite what happened when the race was stopped. We finished in the top five, which allowed us to score some important points and move up to fourth in the championship. The overall result is good. It is a shame that it did not rain for longer as on a wet track I was able to gain three or four seconds a lap. When you consider that we finished ten seconds behind the second placed car, it is a bit frustrating. That’s life. The Porsche has again showed how competitive it is throughout the weekend and this is a positive note ahead of the Le Mans 24 Hours. The big meeting of the year is only one month away and it is reassuring to know that the car is working well before this very important race,” explained Pilet.

“Of course we will never be satisfied but when you see the level of competition this year, fifth place is not a bad result at all,” said Narac. “I do not know if the sudden performance of the BMWs will be confirmed but the battle is so close that to score a podium has become very, very hard. The team has done an excellent job this weekend and when you consider what has already happened to me at this track twice before, and when you see the carnage which unfolded during the race, I believe that we can be satisfied.”

Following the launch of this season’s Le Mans Series in France with the 8 Heures du Castellet last month, the championship travelled to the famous Spa-Francorchamps circuit, nestled amongst the Ardennes forest, in Belgium.

The rain which posed a threat for several days, along with temperatures as low as eight or nine degrees, was replaced by shy sunshine for today’s qualifying session.
“Yesterday, during the two free practice sessions, we worked hard to find the best set-up for a race expected to be held in both wet and dry conditions,” said driver and team owner Raymond Narac. “The car behaves differently from one section of the track to another, which is one of the usual challenges of racing at Spa-Francorchamps. We’ve sacrificed pure performance in order to have a car that will work whatever the track conditions, as the race is going to be long and difficult thanks to the changeable weather.”
This morning’s third practice session saw the team’s #76 Porsche 997 GT3 RSR find encouraging pace after setting the GT2 class’ third fastest time.

“The car is better balanced on a dry track and we have been able to follow our working plan and improve the set-up. But there are areas where we can still make progress,” explained driver Patrick Pilet.

Following this afternoon’s qualifying session however, the Frenchman was a bit disappointed to have only set the eighth fastest time, and to have been slowed by a fellow competitor during his quick lap: “We need to analyse the data and understand why, with the same set-up as this morning and a track temperature only one degree higher, we failed to replicate a similar level of performance and balance in the car. We could have been third had I had not been blocked on my flying lap by a certain Ferrari driver who is used to doing so.”

The IMSA Performance Matmut team were hopeful of scoring a good result in Germany last weekend and that objective was certainly achieved. On Porsche’s home soil, the French team scored a victory and second position in each of the two races. It was an excellent performance after the opening round in Valencia where another podium finish in the endurance race still hadn’t been enough to fully address all of the team’s uncertainties.

Despite being different results wise, the Nürburgring weekend began in much the same way as the previous round with regards the weather. As in Spain, the International GT Open field had to contend with changeable conditions, alternating between showers and sunshine, despite the track remaining largely dry throughout all three days. After having set some excellent lap times and topped the time sheets during free practice, Raymond Narac encountered some issues during qualifying, especially when it came to brakes. The man from Normandy, having been the fastest of the Porsches in fifth, was concerned with car’s behaviour ahead of the race. “That’s why we decided to return to a more conservative technical choice, which we could control much better,” said the driver and team owner. It would prove a wise decision with neither Narac nor Patrick Pilet requiring the car to be altered again.

During a first race which took place in dry conditions, Narac produced a perfect stint, encountering no problems at all, before handing over to his team mate, who would soon run in to difficulties when attempting to pass another driver. “I was slowly but surely climbing back up the order when, as I came up to overtake Gianmaria in the chicane, I locked the rear wheels. Like him, I went straight on but overtook at the same time. Five laps later, I was asked to let him re-pass following a decision from Race Control. In the end I lost some time letting him back past before overtaking him again on the same lap. I could not wait as there were only five or six laps to go and the drivers in front were several seconds ahead before I could catch and overtake,” explained Pilet. But despite laps running out, the Porsche works driver managed to reduce the deficit and grab the lead before the chequered flag. “It was quite satisfying as this victory not only allowed us to reduce the gap in the championship but also helps us to remain confident with the technical decisions we took. The team made the correct choices, the car had good performance and was enjoyable to drive during the entire race.”

The result was a massive boost for the team’s morale following a frustrating Le Mans Series race at Le Castellet and GT Open round in Valencia. It also offered optimism for the second race of the weekend, even if the team would have to contend with an increased time penalty of 25 seconds, a significant handicap, especially as the Ferraris were still very competitive.

“On Sunday, when we went out for the warm-up, the track was completely wet but dried quite quickly up until the start” said Pilet. “We decided to approach things differently compared to Valencia and didn’t alter the set-up ahead of the race. It was definitely the right choice!”

Starting from fourth place, Patrick quickly managed to climb up to second despite the treacherous track conditions remaining slippery in several places. “It was quite slippery but I managed to catch Lietz on the fifth lap. I was able to overtake him on the outside in a difficult corner but it was okay in the end. As soon as I was in the lead, I tried to build a gap before handing over to Raymond, who after observing the 25 second penalty, rejoined the race in fourth position. After overtaking for third, he caught Roda quite quickly who was not very fair when he tried to overtake him too. This could have ended badly but Raymond was cautious enough not to insist too much. To finish third is not a punishment, but in this championship third place does not offer you that many more points than finishing fourth, but does carry a five second handicap for the following race. Raymond and I would have clearly been more satisfied with a second place, but let’s enjoy our satisfaction as we achieved our third podium in four races. The overall feeling is quite positive and it allows us to move back up the championship standings step by step.”

For the entire IMSA Performance Matmut team, the overall results were satisfying. “This puts us into a better championship position, even if we need to do more to continue reducing the point deficit we incurred at Valencia, but we are heading in the right direction” said team manager Franck Rava. “And even if this third place involves a five second handicap penalty which we will have to observe at Imola, it does offer important points, which is obviously satisfying for the team. The weekend started well with free practice before it became complicated in qualifying. The team then analysed why we were not at the level of others. Their positive collective attitude was very successful as we found the right solutions to improve our pace and move ahead of our rivals. That is what I will remember from this weekend in Germany. I am very proud of the work accomplished by the team as well as Patrick and Raymond. We are heading towards Spa in a very positive mood.” Spa-Francorchamps, round two of the Le Mans Series, is the next stop for IMSA Performance Matmut this coming weekend.