TOUGH GIG FOR STELLAR PRO PRIVATEERS
The last-ever GTE Pro battle at Le Mans featured a lone privateer entry going up against the might of Porsche,
Ferrari and Corvette but, sadly, the Riley Motorsports
Ferrari and its all-star driver line-up never quite lived up to the promise it had on paper.
Ex-factory man Sam Bird, DTM racer Felipe Fraga and Supercars champion Shane van Gisbergen were recruited to share the purple-and-yellow 488 GTE Evo that featured the distinctive colours of Beesafe Racing – an offshoot of a storage company owned by Roy Carroll, an American Ferrari Challenge racer with links to the Riley organisation.
Unfortunately, from the off it was clear that the Riley car would be up against it, not helped by the Ferrari’s pre-race Balance of Performance change. The team had only just taken delivery of the car prior to the test day, not giving it much of a chance to overcome its lack of experience with the 488.
Amid a relatively smooth run through the 24 hours, the
#74 crew never did much beyond pick up places when the two Corvettes and the #92 Porsche suffered their dramas.
The Riley car ran as high as fourth before dropping back behind the #92 Porsche, finally taking fifth in class and three laps down. But Fraga, who races the GT3 version of the 488 in the DTM for Red Bull, believes that the team can still be proud of a valiant effort.
“In the beginning when it was hot, we were really slow, I had no pace,” admitted Fraga. “All the Ferraris struggled but us even more, so we cannot just complain about the BOP. In the night we were still off, but at certain points we were faster than both [factory] Ferraris.
“It always takes time, you can’t arrive here first time and win, the other guys have been here forever. I had a lot of fun and I pushed 110% as if I was fighting for the win.”