23.08.08 Further progress for the Lavaggi LMP1

This past Sunday, Wolfgang Kaufmann was again behind the wheel of the Lavaggi LMP1 sports prototype in the Le Mans Series.

Wolfgang Kaufmann

Lavaggi LMP1

At the 1000km race on the Nürburgring, the sportscar professional from Molsberg once again supported team owner/driver/designer Giovanni Lavaggi: "We are certainly not operating among the top teams yet, but it is the enthusiasts such as Giovanni that have supported sportscar racing in times without factory involvement", Kaufmann explains his motivation for joining this team.

After a roll-out in southern France, the team travelled to the historic Nürburgring, only to see its progress hampered on Friday by the failure of a penny part. A cracked cable put the paddle shift device on the blink. Tracing the problem proved to be time-consuming, so Scuderia Lavaggi had to opt out of both Friday practice sessions.

For Saturday, all problems were remedied, and the third practice session was used to work out a suitable set-up: "First we had understeer which we had sorted out in time for Qualifying, at the cost of rear-end grip. This led to a slight oversteer."

The race saw Giovanni Lavaggi & Wolfgang Kaufmann reach their desired goal: the LMP1 got its first chequered flag finish. "We are very pleased with the progress we have made, and the lap times we have achieved. Our tyre partner Dunlop gave us a new tyre construction and compound today which worked perfectly so that we could even double-stint during the race. We cannot afford extensive testing like the works teams, so Scuderia Lavaggi does develop this car the hard way, while racing it. Unfortunately we had to spend some time in our garage to fix two leaky O-rings in the water circuit of the AER V8 engine. I hope that we will keep making progress in future races, and I am looking forward to continuing my work with Giovanni Lavaggi and his highly professional team."