Panoz Motor Sports - Jarama Race Report
ROUND TWO, JARAMA, SPAIN - Sunday, 20th May 2001
It was a day of mixed fortunes for Panoz Motor Sports at today's Repsol-sponsored 2 hour, 45 minute race. Despite a broken rear suspension rocker which lost Car #51 18 laps in the pits, the car finished the race 4th in class and 14th overall. The second car was, however, retired at one third distance due to steering failure.
The day was incident packed for the US team, currently in Europe prior to the Le Mans 24 Hour race in June. Starting from 4th and 5th places on the grid, Magnussen made a storming start to take second position after the first corner. Having been re-passed by the fleeter Audis, the two Panoz LMP 07s maintained a steady pace together for the first thirty minutes of the race before stop/go penalties were awarded to both cars and the #2 Audi for passing under yellow flags.
It was shortly after this that Jan Magnussen, at the wheel of #50, reported into the pits that he was experiencing a steering problem. The team brought the car into the pits twice and changed the nose and front splitter in case this was a contributory factor. Jan brought the car into the pits on lap 36 and it was retired due to the severity of the steering problem. David Brabham did not therefore drive this afternoon.
Jan Magnussen (Car 50): "The start was fun! Capello didn't make such a great one so I got the chance to get ahead of both he and Johansson. I almost got past Pirro too and that was when my car got the aero strakes knocked off the front. When I started I thought that was perhaps what was wrong with the car but it was the steering. I had a good fight on the track with Klaus earlier on and it's a shame we weren't able to carry that on for longer."
Just after car 50's withdrawal, Klaus Graf radioed into the pits to report that something had broken and that he had gone off into a gravel trap. His car was recovered and he limped back into the pits for repairs to a broken rear suspension component.
Klaus Graf (Car 51): "I had no warning of what was to happen, nothing seemed different on the car which felt good at the time. As I came down the hill though I felt something collapse in the rear of the car and no front grip at all. I think I was lucky there was a gravel trap to go into otherwise it could have been a big accident."
Franck Lagorce (Car 51): "For my first stint in the car, I am happy that it all went okay. My laps times were consistent, the balance of the car was good and the brakes were good, but the traffic has been bad here. It is very hard to pass the slower cars even in the long curves."
For further information contact Fiona Miller at Panoz Motor Sports on +44 7770 371 332 or email to fiona@panozmotorsports.com. Further team details and photographs are available on our website www.panozmotorsports.com