It’s not often that Britain’s biggest sportscar constructor, Radical Motorsport, has the opportunity to make a direct comparison of its highly developed Radical SR3 XXR production sports prototype with a Le Mans Prototype, the LMP3. This weekend, they were on the 5,282m Grand Prix circuit of the billion-dollar Yas Marina circuit!
This weekend, Round 5 of the UAE’s Gulf Radical Cup, one of Radical’s 14 endurance racing Cup series that run in four continents, was supporting the last round of the Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS) in Abu Dhabi. So we had LMP3s, LMP2s, and Radical SR3s testing, qualifying, and racing on the exact same circuit and under the same conditions.
The comparison was absolutely fascinating and perhaps explains why many ambitious racers are using Radical Cup events to gain relevant experience prior to taking the path to Le Mans 24H (e.g. former Gulf Radical Cup Champion Alex Bukhantsov, who was driving the LMP3 of team ‘Inter Europol Competition’, with his team mate Jimmy Choo, also en ex GRC race winner).:
Radical SR3
Pole Lap Time: 1:56.192
Price: Euros 130k plus VAT (includes engine)
LMP3
Pole Lap Time: 1:51.450
Price: Euros 388k plus VAT (includes engine)
The weekend got off to a start with 5.5 hours of testing over Thursday and Friday. A good grid of 16 cars saw the return of reigning champion Alim Geshev and last-minute entry of Lenny Ried and Lucas Fluza, both fast drivers currently racing single seaters and LMP3 in Europe and Asia.
As expected, Hannam showed pace in practice along with Geshev while he got to grips with his new SR3 XXR.
Saturday Morning at the end of the 20-minute sprint qualifying session, it was Hannam on the pole with a 1:56.962, with the pairing of Lucas and Lenny on P2 with a 1:57.381, and a great lap for Vasily Vladykin on a 1:57.765, only to have it removed owing to a technical infringement, promoting Geshev to 3rd.
Making his debut this weekend as Aussie Ty Menzies, taking part in his first ever race event.
Sprint Race 1 got underway in an orderly fashion with Hannam taking the lead from Geshev and Lucas Fluxa. As the race came to an end, Fluxa was right on the tailpipe of Geshev and in the dying laps made his move for second, which he kept to the flag.
Sprint Race 2 saw Lenny Ried on the pole, having just beaten Hannam by 0.3 of a second. But making a great start, Hannam took the lead and opened up a decent gap to Ried and the rest of the pack. But on lap 6, Ried suffered a technical problem with the car and pulled up on the exit of turn 1, thus bringing out the safety car. Allowing Novichkov to catch back up to the rear of Hannam. Vladykin, who had a pit lane start (owing to his DQ from Qualy), was doing well and was already up to 7th.
Safety car came in on lap 8 and again Hannam got the drop on Novichkov and Geshev. But on lap 10 safety car came out again for the stranded Klebanov on the exit of turn 9, closing the gaps back down and diminishing any advantages taken up.
However, at the re-start Hannam kept his lead to take the win.
Sunday got underway with the Enduro Qualifying and again Hannam topped the timesheets, but with an impressively close field this weekend it was going to be tough for him to overcome the 20-second pit stop penalty he was carrying from the last win a few weeks earlier.
As the race got underway Hannam again took the lead, but an incident between Jahid Karim and Ibby Hadeed left both cars stranded in debris in the middle of the track at turn 12 entering the YAS Hotel section, bringing out the red flag. Both drivers were ok, but it took a little time to clear the cars off the track.
As it happened in the first lap the whole grid was reset and a full re-start took place. Again Hannam got the holeshot and got to work building up the gap he needed to try and defend his winning streak. But on lap 9 Vladykin found himself stranded at turn 6, nose to the wall, and unable to move. Bringing out the safety car just ahead of the pit window opening, but a quick recovery by the marshal team saw the safety car come in the next lap. Hannam decided to pit straight away, but with the pairing of Fluxa/Ried and Geshev staying out.
As the pit window came to a close, the impact of the extra time in the pits for Hannam was clear to see, with him down in 11th, with Novichkov also down to 9 (carrying 15 seconds). The two of them set off working their way up through the field, moving at a similar pace.
Geshev had pretty much sped off into the sunset, along with Fluxa/Ried, but there was a chance at 3rd. And on the last lap Hannam (who had passed Novichkov the lap before), ran side by side with Feyzulin into turn 6, snatching 3rd as they crossed the line. But a very convincing win for Geshev!
Next race takes place at the Dubai Autodrome at the end of February.
