IRON LYNX BACK TO ELMS DUTIES FOR 4 HOURS OF SPA

Straight from its successful sortie in the Italian GT Championship at Imola, Iron Lynx will be back in the European Le Mans Series this weekend, returning to mighty Spa-Francorchamps with the #63 Mercedes-AMG LMGT3 and the trio of Martin Berry, Lorcan Hanafin, and Fabian Schiller.

Coming from an early exit in round 3 at Imola, and generally from an up-and-down season that handed them two pole positions and one podium, the #63 team is looking to put together a solid all-race run in the 4-hour event and secure as many points as possible for the championship.

While the Iron Lynx crew have remarkable experience at the venue, and competed in the 6 Hours of Spa earlier this season, there will be some adaptation required as the car races for the first time there in ELMS configuration, which is slighly different compared to what is used in FIA WEC. Valuable work has been carried out in testing, and preparation will continue throughout the free practice sessions.

Driver-wise, Berry has some steam coming in, having made it not only to two ELMS poles, but also to the FIA WEC Hyperpole sessions twice in the last two events. Hanafin, on the other hand, is looking for a smooth run, reversing some tough fortunes of late with some hiccups impacting his running in both series. On the other hand, Experienced Mercedes-AMG Performance Driver Fabian Schiller is leading the effort, providing his insight and guidance in addition to his outstanding driver skills.

Having found consistency in addition to positive pace at Imola, the #9 Oreca 07 LMP2, fielded in collaboration with Proton Competition, will try to challenge for its first podium of the year in the hands of Jonas Ried, Maceo Capietto and Matteo Cairoli. The Italian was a star performer so far in qualifying, and his teammates were always a match on Race Day. With good reliability they achieved a fourth place back in Italy, but the potential to go for more is quite clear.

Weather is expected to grace teams and drivers with sunny skies throughout the weekend, although temperatures have dropped compared to earlier this month and are expected to be around 20 degrees Celsius as the maximum. However, Spa-Francorchamps is still a remarkable challenge for drivers and teams alike, and there are plenty of variables other than the weather that might come into play come Race Day. Managing them might make the key difference in the final outcome.

The team will also be fielding the #60 JS P4 in the Ligier European Series. The pairing of Matteo Pianezzola and Gregorio Bertocco has four points finishes to their credit so far, including a debut podium at Barcelona. With two one-hour races, Spa-Francorchamps will be all about putting preparation into practice and preparing for the last part of the year.

We have shown good speed in the first part of the year in both LMGT3 and LMP2, and we are definitely looking forward to putting that on track again. On the other hand, we need to get a clean race together to get some points and start the second part of the season on the right foot. We know Spa is one of the most challenging tracks but all our drivers have good experience there between the Spa 24 Hours and FIA WEC. We feel prepared and we’re looking forward to putting all the steps in practice, performing in qualifying, and moving on to execute from there.

Andrea Piccini – Team Principal & CEO: