That is the best way of describing the weekend of the second round of the Le Mans Series championship. Valencia was by all accounts the scene of a race and indeed a whole weekend of ups and downs.
The
start of second practice was disrupted by a huge ‘off’ for Jean-Christophe Bouillon
at the end of the start-finish straight. A mechanical problem with the brakes
was responsible for the accident which resulted in damage to the whole rear
of the Pescarolo No 16. Luckily there was no irreparable damage and the
team had it back in good shape for the following day.
Romain
was given the responsibility of qualifying the car the next day. It was not
easy job to pick the right moment to go out on a run and not be held up by other
traffic on the tight Valencia track. But at almost the last minute, Romain went
out for just three laps in order to save tyres, and set a time of 1:25.617,
good enough for fifth on the grid. It was not too bad a result, as there was
still the warm-up on race day to sort the last few problems and make the final
choice of tyres. Romain was also charged with driving the first stints of the race.
As soon as
the flag dropped, he used the power of the LMP1 car to move immediately up to
fourth place before the first corner. He was following the Zytek and conserving
his tyres, when the first signs of engine trouble appeared. The Judd engine
was losing power and the Pescarolo No 16 was caught and overtaken by several
of its competitors. So the team decided to bring forward the first refuelling
stop, in an attempt to identify the cause. But since the problem was only
intermittent, it proved elusive and Romain had to set off for his second stint…
After just a few more laps, the problem had worsened and he was forced
to come back into the pits. This time the team was able to pinpoint the problem
to an injector and it was replaced very quickly. So Romain handed the car over to JC Bouillon for the start of his two stints. Jean-Christophe was able to lap very consistently between 1’28 and 1’30 according to traffic conditions and tyre wear, and brought the car back up to seventh place, before giving the car back to Romain to finish the race.
This
third part of the race however, was to prove to be one of the most difficult
of his entire career. Up to fifth, Romain was even able to unlap himself by
catching and passing the leading Peugeot - the only time of the whole weekend
that the winning car was overtaken! Romain now put in a series of very fast
laps. It was just as he caught up with the Charouz Lola that things became complicated.
Not wanting to be lapped, the Lola driver zigzagged wildly around the circuit,
several times pushing Romain onto the grass going 
down
the straight in front of the pits at very high speed. Eventually Romain managed
to get by but the Charouz team driver refused to admit he had been beaten and
hit the left rear corner of Romain’s Pescarolo in a completely pointless and
hopeless manoeuvre. This meant that there was no further hope of moving up the
field for Romain and he had to pit to change the tyres damaged in the incident.After all these goings-on, the No 16 Pescarolo crossed the finish line in fifth place, scoring a few precious points in the championship for the team. As well as the result itself, which in the circumstances was probably the best he could hope for, Romain had also been able to get in some much needed mileage in preparation for the Le Mans 24 Hours, where it will be essential for the whole team that no mistakes are made.
At the end of the week Romain is off to the Nürburgring again to compete in a round of the VLN championship. Again, the aim is to get more miles under his belt, ready for the other 24 hour race on his calendar, that on the famous Nürburgring Nordschleiffe long circuit.
romaindumas.com