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Le Mans / ALMS
LE MANS: Airplanes, Boats & Crates
John Dagys delves inside the logistics behind Starworks Motorsport and Krohn Racing, the only two American squads competing in the FIA World Endurance Championship...
INTERNATIONAL VIEWERS: Click Here to view the video.
After kicking off the season on home turf, both Starworks Motorsport and Krohn Racing begin their globe-trotting tour this weekend in Spa, Belgium for the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
With the majority of the series competitors are based in Europe, Saturday’s Six Hour of Spa-Francorchamps comes as the first of seven consecutive “flyaway” races for the two teams flying the Stars and Stripes in the first FIA World Championship for endurance racing in 20 years.
While the Braselton, Ga.-based Krohn outfit embarks on its second year of international travel, having contested the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup in 2011, it’s an all new game for the Peter Baron-led Starworks bunch, which built its WEC program off a successful foundation in GRAND-AM.
“We've managed to set up a completely separate team because there's no way to base it out of the U.S. or use the same guys to do it,” Baron explained to SPEED.com. “It was helpful at Sebring to have our Daytona Prototype group helping out.
“As we got the car late and were thrashing, we had about seven or eight extra guys [at Sebring]. Here, the car is already together and it's the European group. They're completely separate now.”
Following its LMP2 class victory and overall podium at the Twelve Hours of Sebring, the No. 44 HPD ARX-03b was flown across the Atlantic to the team’s newly established European base in Cardiff, Wales, where the team’s European operation will work out of for the next three and a half months.
Met by its spares package from HPD and Wirth Research, Starworks made the 450-mile journey over land and water to Spa-Francorchamps with its core WEC crew, with team owner Baron and engineer Steve Challis flying to Belgium from last weekend’s GRAND-AM race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“Logistically, it isn't as bad over here as you might think it is, because we structured it to be sort of an European team even though we're American from the beginning,” explained team manager Brian Colangelo.
“Sebring was a bit more difficult for us than anything because most of our staff is European. We knew the bulk of the races would be flyaways and with three in Europe being the most in one continent, it's easier here than anything else.
“The challenges will be the [Asian and South American] flyaway races, trying to get all of our equipment in the little bit of space we have and trying to stay within a budget and not spend too much money flying things around the world because it's quite expensive.”
Like Starworks, Krohn has also set up a European base for the next three-race stretch, utilizing shop space near Silverstone. A 40-foot long sea freight container arrived at the Port of Felixstone, England on April 16 carrying the team’s pit and garage equipment and all spare parts, while its GTE-Am class Ferrari F458 Italia made a quicker journey by flight shortly after Sebring.
With 2012 FIA regulations limiting team transporters to 19 meters (62 ft) in length, Krohn was unable to take its 23 meter (75 ft)-long U.S. rig across the Atlantic as it did for last year’s ILMC campaign. They’ve instead rented two Euro-sized haulers, which left Silverstone for the short trek across English Channel on Monday.
According to Krohn’s Motorsport Manager, Jeff Hazell, getting the equipment to Spa for the start of the European season hasn’t been the challenge, but rather having all the pieces in place for the remainder of the year. The team’s Ferrari, for instance, will not return to U.S. soil until weeks after the season finale in Shanghai in November.
“The challenge has been that we have shipped the car and equipment out of Atlanta, not just for the next three European rounds, but for all the seven remaining events over 6 months,” he says. “It is not difficult to do this with experience, sufficient resources and timely planning. It becomes a matter of making sure that the multitude of tasks all get completed in good time.”
Following the series’ fourth round of the season at Silverstone on Aug. 26, both Starworks’ and Krohn’s adopted European “home” race, the schedule swings into an extremely busy stretch, with races in Brazil, Bahrain, Japan and China all over a seven-week period.
After kicking off the season on home turf, both Starworks Motorsport and Krohn Racing begin their globe-trotting tour this weekend in Spa, Belgium for the second round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
With the majority of the series competitors are based in Europe, Saturday’s Six Hour of Spa-Francorchamps comes as the first of seven consecutive “flyaway” races for the two teams flying the Stars and Stripes in the first FIA World Championship for endurance racing in 20 years.
While the Braselton, Ga.-based Krohn outfit embarks on its second year of international travel, having contested the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup in 2011, it’s an all new game for the Peter Baron-led Starworks bunch, which built its WEC program off a successful foundation in GRAND-AM.
“We've managed to set up a completely separate team because there's no way to base it out of the U.S. or use the same guys to do it,” Baron explained to SPEED.com. “It was helpful at Sebring to have our Daytona Prototype group helping out.
“As we got the car late and were thrashing, we had about seven or eight extra guys [at Sebring]. Here, the car is already together and it's the European group. They're completely separate now.”
Following its LMP2 class victory and overall podium at the Twelve Hours of Sebring, the No. 44 HPD ARX-03b was flown across the Atlantic to the team’s newly established European base in Cardiff, Wales, where the team’s European operation will work out of for the next three and a half months.
Met by its spares package from HPD and Wirth Research, Starworks made the 450-mile journey over land and water to Spa-Francorchamps with its core WEC crew, with team owner Baron and engineer Steve Challis flying to Belgium from last weekend’s GRAND-AM race at Homestead-Miami Speedway.
“Logistically, it isn't as bad over here as you might think it is, because we structured it to be sort of an European team even though we're American from the beginning,” explained team manager Brian Colangelo.
“Sebring was a bit more difficult for us than anything because most of our staff is European. We knew the bulk of the races would be flyaways and with three in Europe being the most in one continent, it's easier here than anything else.
“The challenges will be the [Asian and South American] flyaway races, trying to get all of our equipment in the little bit of space we have and trying to stay within a budget and not spend too much money flying things around the world because it's quite expensive.”
Like Starworks, Krohn has also set up a European base for the next three-race stretch, utilizing shop space near Silverstone. A 40-foot long sea freight container arrived at the Port of Felixstone, England on April 16 carrying the team’s pit and garage equipment and all spare parts, while its GTE-Am class Ferrari F458 Italia made a quicker journey by flight shortly after Sebring.
With 2012 FIA regulations limiting team transporters to 19 meters (62 ft) in length, Krohn was unable to take its 23 meter (75 ft)-long U.S. rig across the Atlantic as it did for last year’s ILMC campaign. They’ve instead rented two Euro-sized haulers, which left Silverstone for the short trek across English Channel on Monday.
According to Krohn’s Motorsport Manager, Jeff Hazell, getting the equipment to Spa for the start of the European season hasn’t been the challenge, but rather having all the pieces in place for the remainder of the year. The team’s Ferrari, for instance, will not return to U.S. soil until weeks after the season finale in Shanghai in November.
“The challenge has been that we have shipped the car and equipment out of Atlanta, not just for the next three European rounds, but for all the seven remaining events over 6 months,” he says. “It is not difficult to do this with experience, sufficient resources and timely planning. It becomes a matter of making sure that the multitude of tasks all get completed in good time.”
Following the series’ fourth round of the season at Silverstone on Aug. 26, both Starworks’ and Krohn’s adopted European “home” race, the schedule swings into an extremely busy stretch, with races in Brazil, Bahrain, Japan and China all over a seven-week period.
Monterey
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