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The organisation decided earlier to skip the official test weekend and changed the two two-hour Wednesday qualifying sessions into a single six-hour free practice session. Spyker Squadron used their first hour on the French non-permanent track to run-in their gearbox. After an hour with a maximum of sixty percent throttle Jarek did five laps on race speed. Although it had been raining the whole day Jarek had a small window of dryer conditions as was able to set the third quickest time in GT2. When Tom went out it started raining again. He tested the intermediate- and wet tires and completed his laps.

The Dutch team continued its quest for a better time and tried to re-find top speed which is lower compared to recent years due a change in the regulations. Jeroen got in the car and tested a variation of splitters, wings and ducts to reclaim overall speed. Later in the six hour session the team stopped the car to analyse the data and wait for the 22:00 signal. After ten o'clock the drivers all completed their mandatory night laps to be eligible to compete in the race. After 43 laps and having set the 4th quickest time in the 'night' practice the team decided to stop earlier than planned because of the rain - the weather forecast for the race is dry, warm and sunny.

The night before qualifying was used to swap the engine for the race engine. The first two hours of the Thursday qualifying session were used to let Tom and Jarek qualify for the race. The handling of the car was great but the team decided to call in the car to change the gearbox ratio's to again see if more top-speed could be found.

When Jeroen went out on fresh tires, 15 minutes before the end of the first two-hour qualifying session, to find a quicker time he had to return to the box with a problem with his right front tire. After a 45 minute break the second session started. Jeroen completed three laps on soft tires and three on mediums and set the eleventh quickest time in a field of 17 GT2 cars.

Peter van Erp: "We are expecting good weather this weekend for the race and in these conditions our drivers  can all do a 4:09 easily without pushing the car to its limits. We decided to stop earlier in qualifying - We can go a lot quicker but there was so much traffic and the track was very dirty that we decided to call it the day and save the car for the race".

Jeroen Bleekemolen will start the race for SNORAS Spyker Squadron tomorrow.

Eurosport will broadcast the race live one of their channels. For more Spyker Squadron updates do not forget to drop by our VIMEO and TWITTER pages which we will be updating regularly.

 

Qualifying results (LMGT2 class) - 24H Le Mans, FRA, 11/06/2009

Pos.	Crew	Car		Time
1.	Bergmeister/Neiman/Law	Porsche 997		4:03.202 min
2.	Lieb/Lietz/Henzler	Porsche 997		4:03.232 min
3.	Melo/Kaffer/Salo	Ferrari F430		4:04.056 min
11.	Janiš/Bleekemolen/Coronel	Spyker C8Laviolette		4:08.348 min

Complete results of qualifying practice to find HERE

 

PHOTOGALLERY
Photo: BPA/Petr Frýba

 

DRIVER´S LINE-UP SNORAS SPYKER SQUADRON FOR 24H LE MANS 2009:

85

SNORAS Spyker Squadron

Jarek Janis (CZE) Jeroen Bleekemolen (NED) Tom Coronel (NED)

Entry list to find HERE

 

WEEK OF 77th 24 HEURES LE MANS 2009:

WEDNESDAY 10 JUNE
18:00 - 24:00	Free practice
THURSDAY 11 JUNE
19:00 - 21:00	Qualifying practice 1
22:00 - 24:00	Qualifying practice 2
FRIDAY 12 JUNE
10:00 - 20:00	Pit Walk
18:00 - 19:00	Driver´s parade
SATURDAY 13 JUNE
08:30 - 09:15	Warm-Up
15:00	Start
SUNDAY 14 JUNE
15:00	Finish

 

LINKS

Official website of Spyker Squadron	www.spykersquadron.com
Official website of Jarek Janis	www.jarek-janis.cz
Official website of Tom Coronel	www.tomcoronel.nl
Official website of Jeroen Bleekemolen	www.jeroen-bleekemolen.nl
Official website of 24h Le Mans	www.lemans.org
Spyker Squadron on Twitter	twitter.com/spykersquadron
Spyker Squadron on Vimeo	www.vimeo.com/spykersquadron