Le Mans Series – Spa preview

Audi’s Allan McNish contests the final race before the highlight of his year’s racing with the Scotsman praying his poor fortune will quickly turnaround.

The Dumfries-born ace competes in a 620-mile endurance race at Spa in Belgium on Sunday (11 May) just over a month ahead of the prestigious Le Mans 24 Hours – the blue riband event on the sportscar calendar.

McNish, aged 38, fervently hopes that the excellent form shown by his Audi “factory” team-mates who lead both the European-based Le Mans Series and American Le Mans Series in their similar Audi R10 TDI sports-prototypes rubs off on the Scotsman – and quickly.

While McNish and co-driver Dindo Capello (I) have been restricted to a third (Sebring, ALMS), fifth (Barcelona, LMS) and sixth placings (Monza, LMS) after small, niggling time delaying problems, two runners-up positions for fellow Audi Sport Team Joest drivers Alexandre Prémat (F) and Mike Rockenfeller (D) put them at the head of the LMS standings going into round 3 at Spa.

In the ALMS (USA), the championship that McNish and Capello have won for the past two years in their diesel-powered Audi, Lucas Luhr (D) and Marco Werner (D) have won two out of the opening three races.

“I’m going to Spa determined to recover some of the ground we’ve lost and to register the first LMS win for the Audi R10 TDI,” confirmed Monaco-based McNish. “In each of my races for Audi this year, it’s been a case of fighting back from a delay so I’m out to change matters.

“At Sebring we had some brake issues we’d never previously encountered. In Barcelona an alternator belt broke – again unheard of within Audi Sport. In our last race, Dindo was unfortunate to get tangled up with a slower car which caused substantial damage.

“In each of the cases pit-stops, although superbly executed by the Audi team in terms of getting the car fully repaired in a remarkably short amount of time, nevertheless caused us to then fight back through the field when we’d been in contention for race wins prior to our little niggles.

“I don’t believe in luck, good or bad, but I’m certainly hoping there’s a change in our fortune especially as the ‘big one’ comes up after Spa and it would be nice to head for France with a victory under our belts.”

The Spa-Francorchamps track is held in high esteem with drivers past and present due to its ultra-fast, challenging nature.

McNish added: “Spa is another great, historic circuit – like many of the LMS venues – and in most drivers’ top-three favourite tracks in the world. Because it’s close, normally a large British contingent attend which is also nice.

“As with the races in Barcelona and Monza, I expect the Peugeots to be very quick so the Audi team will need to be cute again in terms of our race strategy. Meanwhile the weather could play a major role – it is totally unpredictable, even the best forecasters get it wrong in that region.”

McNish started the final race of the 2004 LMS season leading the championship in his Audi UK R8 only to see his title hopes go up in smoke.

“Pierre Kaffer and I had a lead of 30seconds in my last Spa appearance but unfortunately had a collision with a backmarker which resulted in an Audi R8 fireball and I certainly don’t want to see that sight again coming down the pit lane towards me,”