Auto racing
Add news
News

There’s Getting Bad Luck Out Of The Way Before A Season – And Then There’s This!

0 9

Those watching proceedings at Barcelona’s ELMS test may have noticed that two cars entered did not turn a single lap over the two days – There was a good reason from that – they only arrived here with less than two hours of running left!

The cars in question are the #25 G-Drive Racing Aurus 01 and the #24 Algarve Pro Racing Oreca 07, and the story of the delay take a while – so strap yourselves in and read on!

It’s been a stressful few weeks for the Algarve Pro Racing husband and wife duo of Sam and Stewart Cox.

2021 started very well indeed with another overall Asian Le Mans Series title (their third in total, and their second consecutive win with G-Drive Racing). 

The title win this year came courtesy of a season that saw two race wins in Dubai for the #26 car and a further four podium finishes across both G-Drive cars. Algarve Pro Racing also fielded the Racing Team India effort with their third car.

The team stayed on to prep their three cars ahead of shipping them, and their equipment, back to Europe ahead of the ELMS season, delivering them to the docks in the UAE – which is where things started to go awry!

The team’s two containers were lined up on the dock together but unaccountably, whilst one (containing the #26 car and some of the team’s pit equipment) went on the intended ship back to Europe, which arrived over two weeks ago, the other, containing two of the team’s three ORECAs and an array of additional equipment (including ORECA’s remaining stock of Asian Le Mans Series spares, all of APR’s set-up kit, wheel skates and, crucially, the coffee machine!!), were despatched on a vessel departing somewhat later.

Even that would not have been a problem had the master of the now infamous Ever Given mega container ship not managed managed to turn hard right in the arrow straight Suez Canal!

Of course the vessel carrying the team’s second container (plus a further container containing the Ligier LMP2 and the pit equipment of EuroInternational) was stuck in a rapidly lengthening queue as the Egyptian authorities and associated salvage experts attempted to get the 220,000 tonne cork out of their sandy sided bottle.

That cost the passage of the cars a further six days delay, but even worse was to come.

Knowing that the ship, once clear of the canal, had several ports of call scheduled in the Mediterranean, Stewart Cox attempted to have the container offloaded at the earliest possible port, and to arrange onward transport by road.

First port of call was in Greece, and, whilst the email reached shippers Hapag Lloyd in good time, it seems the email wasn’t opened until some days later, after the ship had again departed for the rather less useful next port of call in Malta!

An initial predicted delivery date of 23 March went to 31 March, then in rapid succession to the 6, 8 and finally the 10th of April the day before the ELMS Pre-season tests!

There was little in the meantime that the team could do other than to prep what few spares they had for the two cars that were missing, and to rearrange a running schedule to give at some of the other drivers seat time in the #26 during the test – Indeed Pietro Fittipaldi set the fastest time in the Monday afternoon session, John Falb too go some seat time, with the remaining drivers from the #24 and #25 having tested here last week.

With the arrival of the ship in Marseille there was finally an opportunity to intervene to short-cut the process and, for a substantial additional fee, the container was off-loaded ahead of the queue and then trailered to Barcelona Airport as bonded goods to receive EU customs clearance there.

Or at least that’s what should have happened!

As the truck actually passed the circuit en route to the airport on Monday night- within sight of the top of the grandstand, it hit trouble, in the shape of another truck and the central divide!

The vehicle – including the (apparently undamaged) container – impounded by the Spanish Police, the driver reportedly unhurt but badly shaken.

Then, a rare bit of good fortune in this saga as the Police and Customs authorities combined to ensure that seals were undisturbed and the container was customs cleared in the Police pound.

The saga was not over though – a replacement truck brought the container to the circuit, but because the driver had not had the required PCR test he could not drive in, and his company would not permit any of the three qualified APR ‘truckies’ to drive the vehicle the c.400 metres into the track!

By now any hope of taking part in the pre-season test was long gone but the team were still keen, nay desperate, to complete their preparations for the race weekend!

Finally – with a little common sense, some sensible isolation of the unloading process and in front of an anxious band of Algarve Pro staff, the container was on the ground – seals were cut and……… all looked  fine inside the container!

The Algarve Pro crews (with the assistance of driver Ferdinand Habsburg and others), immediately set to work to shuttle the contents from the unloading area to the team garages to set-up for the c.8 hours apiece of preparation required to get the cars on track for the weekend.

“It’s been more than bit stressful when we want to come into this season all guns blazing – some of the things that have happened have been beyond anyone’s control whilst others really might have been avoided if people had been a bit more helpful along the way,” said a mightily relieved Sam Cox.

“I have to say that our team, and our customers, have been amazingly supportive, despite the fact that I’m sure it’s not been the easiest time for them either, and I’d like to say a thank you in particular too to our shipping agent Ian Barnwell at Racing Logistics and to Asian Le Mans Series boss Cyrille Taesch Wahlen who has been doing everything he could to help with the shipping company and other information.

“We might have come in to the European season in a bit of a flurry, but we are here now and here to win!”

The post There’s Getting Bad Luck Out Of The Way Before A Season – And Then There’s This! first appeared on dailysportscar.com.
Загрузка...

Comments

Комментарии для сайта Cackle
Загрузка...

More news:

Read on Sportsweek.org:

Other sports

Sponsored