Dunlop teams sweep World Endurance Championship LMP2 class at Fuji

Unusually for endurance racing, the latest round of the World Endurance Championship at Fuji saw qualifying become more important than any of the teams could have estimated. However, as rain and fog compromised race day, there was virtually no scope for changes in the order, Dunlop reports. The tyre manufacturer supplied tyres to the top five qualifiers, and as a result the #35 OAK Racing Morgan of Baguette, Plowman and Gonzalez leads the LMP2 Championship with two more stints of six hours to go.

Matt Rees, Dunlop service engineer, said: “The organisers did the best they could in very difficult conditions and driver safety is the most important factor. We know from winning the open tyre competition Nürburgring 24 Hours in heavy rain that our drivers get great confidence from our wet tyre performance but the conditions here were extreme with visibility a big issue in addition to the water on the track.

“We are pleased that the qualifying performance was good with the top five, all on Dunlop, finishing with averages separated by less than three-tenths of a second.”

Saturday saw the #35 OAK Racing Morgan take pole position on the average best two laps from two drivers with the #26 G-Drive Racing Oreca behind by less than a tenth of a second, despite being the only LMP2 car to break into the 1:31s individual times. The Gainer Racing squad followed in third in the Zytek giving three different manufacturers on Dunlop tyres taking the top three grid places.

Race day began wet and the rain and fog persisted. The organisers did well to try to run a race but after starting under the safety car the race was red-flagged for over an hour in the hope that conditions would improve. A restart under the safety car was in vain and a second red flag was shown. A final restart was short-lived as heavy rain fell as the field got underway and the race director ended the race after sixteen laps, all under the safety car. While other classes had shown position changes with driver changes and mechanical issues necessitating pit-stops, the LMP2 runners were largely unaffected and so the race result was essentially the same as the starting order, with Dunlop runners filling the podium once more. Half points were awarded, leaving OAK Racing with a slender lead in the Championship.