For more information:
Linda Mansfield, Restart Communications
E-mail: LindaKMansfield@cs.com
Cell: 317-201-0729
 
 
 
 
 
Horag Racing Gets LMP2 Podium Finish
In Sunday's 1,000 Km of Monza
 
MONZA, Italy, April 27 - Switzerland's Horag Racing completed a LMP2 podium 
sweep for the Porsche RS Spyder by finishing third in class in the 1,000 
Kilometers of Monza Sunday with its Lista Office and Lista, Making Workspace Work 
No. 27. 
 
Horag Racing's Jan Lammers of Katwyk, the Netherlands held off Tommy Erdos's 
RML Lola MG by 24 seconds after more than five hours of torrid competition to 
seal the deal for Porsche in the Le Mans Series race. 
 
Team Essex won the class and Van Merksteijn Motorsport finished second.  The 
top seven finishers in the 15-car LMP2 class finished in a row on the 
scoreboard in eighth through 14th place overall.  In addition to the class podium 
position, Horag Racing finished tenth overall, completing 164 laps of the 
historic, 10-turn road course. 
 
It was a wild event for the team, the defending class winner of this race, 
and its drivers.  In addition to Lammers, they include Didier Theys of 
Scottsdale, Ariz., and Fredy Lienhard of Niederteufen, Switzerland.
 
Lammers qualified second, drove at the beginning and the end of the race, and 
set the team's fastest two laps in both of his sessions.  Lammers qualified 
with a 1:37.845, which was just off Jos Verstappen's new track record of 
1:36.842 in the Van Merksteijn Motorsport Porsche RS Spyder.  Lammers' fastest race 
lap was a 1:38.805 at the end of the day, the third-fastest lap recorded in 
the race by any LMP2 driver. 
 
At the beginning of the race Lammers ran between second and fifth in class.  
He was third when he turned the car over to Lienhard for his stint.  When the 
Quifel-ASM Lola pitted Lienhard moved up to second, and he was still in that 
spot, albeit one lap down, when he turned the car over to Theys. 
 
The pit stop dropped the car to third but Theys got the lap back and charged 
back into second with about 2 hours and 50 minutes gone.  The top six LMP2 
drivers were running in eighth through 13th overall at that point and Theys was 
fastest of all of them as he tried to run down the leader, Team Essex's John 
Nielsen, who was about 8 seconds ahead, while holding off Pierre Ragues in the 
Saulnier Pescarolo Judd.
 
About six minutes later Nielsen got called into the pits to serve a penalty.  
Theys was just about to take the class lead, but unfortunately he spun in the 
Lesmo Turn and ended up in a gravel trap.  He got the car going again, but at 
the three-hour mark the No. 27 had dropped to seventh in class, two laps 
down, and was now playing catch-up.
 
The good news was that the third, fourth and fifth-place LMP2 cars were on 
the same lap as the Horag car at the end of the four-hour mark, so a podium was 
still a possibility. Theys was in fifth, about six seconds behind the 
fourth-place driver, Erdos, at that point. He was faster than Erdos and the driver of 
the second-place Saulnier car, but not quite as fast as the class leader or 
the third-place Van Merksteijn car driven by Verstappen. 
 
Theys was still in fifth when he pitted at the four-hour and 13-minute mark 
for Lammers to take over.  The entry dropped one more spot due to the pitstop. 
Five minutes later a full-course caution waved for a spectacular crash in the 
first chicane by Stephane Oretelli in the Oreca-Matmut Courage Judd LMP1 car, 
which barrel-rolled numerous times and even flipped over Alan McNish's car 
before coming to a rest, according to radio reports.  The broadcasters said 
Oretelli was moving in the car before the emergency crews assisted him from the 
wreckage.
 
Some of the LMP2 cars ahead of Lammers pitted under that extended yellow, but 
since Lammers had just gotten in team owner Markus Hotz had him sit tight.  
That moved the entry up to third place for the restart with about 20 minutes 
remaining.
 
Lammers' remaining drive was a defensive one, as the top two LMP2 cars were 
one lap ahead of him but he had to hold off Erdos to maintain the podium 
position.  He did just that, giving the team its best finish to date with its 
brand-new Porsche RS Spyder, and that car's first podium in only its third race 
ever. 
 
There were 47 cars in total in the race, which was broadcast on Eurosport and 
Motors TV.
 
The next race is coming right up on May 9-11 at Spa, Belgium.  Horag Racing 
is now fourth in the LMP2 point standings following the race at Monza.
 
More information is available on horag-racing.com and lemans-series.com. 
 
Post-race quotes follow:
 
Didier Theys: "I feel really bad because I locked up the rear wheels under 
braking in the Lesmo Turn and hit the curb. I almost saved it, but I spun off 
into a gravel trap.  The tractor driver pulled me out right away.  Then he 
unhooked me, but he had to rehook me up and pull me out a little further before I 
could get going again.
 
"There was gravel all through the car, but it was fine.  Afterwards the pace 
was back to normal.  But the damage was done; we couldn't make up the time in 
this very competitive field.  I think the class winner was stronger than we 
were today, but without the spin we might have gotten second.
 
"Everything was perfect with the car. The engine was perfect, as were our 
Michelin tires; no punctures today. We had a trouble-free weekend with the car."
 
Fredy Lienhard:  "I had a very good race; one of the best ever for me 
personally; I had no problems and my lap times were good.  We could have gotten 
second or maybe won this one, but Didier had an incident, which can happen to 
anyone in any race. 
 
"It was very competitive; there were 15 LMP2 cars on the starting grid. The 
team did an excellent job, and I'm happy with the outcome.  When I got out of 
the car it was second, so I think it's not time to retire yet!"
 
Jan Lammers: "We weren't quite happy with the balance of the car on Friday, 
but every session we improved.  We're happy with the third place we got today 
because a lot of Lista Office people were here to see us get on the podium. 
 
"Yes, I had to keep Tommy [Erdos] behind me at the end.  He is obviously a 
very good driver, but I think I had a better car than he had.
 
"We are learning more and more the longer we have our new car, and we're 
pleased with the podium."