Jamie Finishes Another 24 Heures du Mans
18th June 2007
The result in this years 24 Heures du Mans didn’t end up on the podium
for Jamie Davies but it was still a good result considering the initial condition.
Jamie Davies and his team BMS Scuderia Italia finished 6th in the GT1 class
and 11th overall in the 24 Heures du Mans.
The small private Italian team finished behind the 3 works Aston Martin, the
works Corvette and a Saleen. Car no. 100 is also the first car home with Pirelli
tyres.
The whole week in Le Mans was affected by the changing weather conditions.
One minute it was sunny and warm and the next minute it was windy and raining
really hard. The start of the race was dry and Jamie started the race from
8th position after his team mate Matteo Malucelli did the qualifying on Thursday.
The race went very good for car no. 100 and after 12 hours in the race Jamie
was in 4th position.
Unluckily in the night the mechanics had to change the front left damper after
it broke which cost the team 10 minutes and on the out lap after the repair
the car had a puncture on the front right and had to finish the lap very slow
being careful not to damage the car too much on the way back to the pits. These
two misfortune laps cost the team in total around 22 minutes which cost them
the 4th place. Since then the Aston with no. 100 stayed in 6th place until
the end of the race.
Jamie was back in the car to finish the race and the weather changed again
like it had done the whole week. It started to rain really hard for Jamie’s
last stint, so hard that the safety car had to lead the race for 50 minutes
which cost Jamie the chance to catch the Saleen in 5th position.
It is an achievement in itself to finish the 24 Heures du Mans after only
29 cars out of 54 saw the chequered flag.
Jamie: ”It was nice to be back in Le Mans after finishing 2nd overall
in 2004. The team worked really hard and did a good job over the week. I would
like to thank Pirelli; they did a great job with the tyres for such a hard
race. My stints were good, the car was fast and we were competitive but we
were unfortunate in the night and lost a lot of time. It is always an achievement
to finish the 24 hours. It’s not always possible to finish on the podium
especially with the competition of the works teams. I am looking forward to
the next 24 hours at the end of July in Spa (Belgium) but before that we have
a few more FIA GT races to do. The next race will be on the 24th June in Monza
(Italy).”
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