{"id":14830,"date":"2023-01-30T07:55:00","date_gmt":"2023-01-30T10:55:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/?page_id=14830"},"modified":"2023-05-06T10:14:48","modified_gmt":"2023-05-06T13:14:48","slug":"oreca-07-21-spark","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/oreca-07-21-spark\/","title":{"rendered":"ORECA 07 #21 – Spark"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"07<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
2021 ORECA 07 #21<\/strong>\nPilots:  H. Hedman, B. Hanley, J. P. Montoya\nTeam: DragonSpeed<\/em>\nRace: 18th overall (first in LMP2 Pro\/Am class) at Le Mans in 2021<\/strong>\nSpark - S8237 (resin)<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Published 01\/30\/23<\/p>\n\n\n\n
FIA\u2019s rules are absurdly complex, with each racing class having a thorough and specific rule set. That is more than expected, since racing disciplines are very diverse, with very diverse machines. The only thing that is more or less common among all racing classes is pilots\u2019 licenses. You just can\u2019t turn 16, buy a racing car and drive at a FIA race, you have to have a license. And for endurance racing, there are basically four racing licenses: Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze. Over at FIA\u2019s website<\/a> you can see the differences and requirements for each one. The interesting part is that WEC racing classes and pilots’ licenses are intertwined. In fact, FIA in 2020 created a racing class, LMP2 Pro\/Am<\/strong>, just because of pilot\u2019s licenses.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\"07
Resuming: LMP2 Pro\/Am is LMP2 for teams with amateur pilots.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
In the new LMP2 Pro\/Am class, technical specifications for the cars are exactly the same as for \u201cregular\u201d LMP2. What changes is what teams are eligible, and that depends on their pilots\u2019 licenses. For a team to compete in Pro\/Am, they have to have a LMP2 car piloted by at least one Bronze <\/em>pilot. And since a Bronze pilot is essentially an amateur, that makes a huge difference in race results. When there was only LMP2, invariably who won was the team with a professional roster (Gold and Silver pilots). With the new class, teams with amateur pilots have a shot at a trophy. At first glance that can sound silly, yet don\u2019t forget that many Bronze pilots are older drivers who pay <\/em>to race. In the past these were the so-called \u201cgentlemen drivers\u201d, that were sometimes the principal funding of a team. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
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The GK428 is a contender to beat Cosworth\u2019s DFV 13 Le Mans starts record.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
For FIA\u2019s WEC 2021 season, LMP2 teams used either an ORECA or a Ligier chassis. Powering the LMP2 cars was Gibson\u2019s GK428<\/a> engine, a 4.2 liter V8 capable of 600 hp. While teams could choose their chassis, ORECA was the most popular by far. At La Sarthe, for instance, 25 cars were ORECA 07 and only one was a Ligier P217. DragonSpeed<\/a>, with their ORECA 07 #21, was a LMP2 team. However, they had a Bronze pilot in the team, so they were eligible for Pro\/Am. While Ben Hanley had a Gold license and Juan Pablo Montoya had a Platinum license, Henrik Hedman (53, at the time) was a Bronze pilot. ORECA  07 #21 finished in 18th place overall, however they were first in the Pro\/Am class. At the end of the season, DragonSpeed secured a third place in the FIA LMP2 Pro\/Am Endurance Trophy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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Spark at it\u2019s finest. Yet, the 07 at La Sarthe is almost more common than Porsches.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
For LMP2, the Pro\/Am class is basically what the GTE-Am was to the GTE-Pro class – a sort of \u201cjunior\u201d LMP2. Bronze pilots all appreciated the new class, since now there are more chances of taking a trophy home. Unfortunately though, with the revolution that was the new LMH class, there are rumors that WEC may abolish LMP2 for 2024\u2026 A shame, because LMP2 and LMP2 Pro\/Am would be two more race winners for the Le Mans collector \ud83d\ude01. Joking aside, in scale, as expected, this ORECA 07 #21 is a beauty. What I call a regular \u201cfantastic Spark\u201d. Just like my two other 07s, the 2017<\/a> and 2020<\/a> winners. However, since the ORECA 07 is more common than the Porsche GT3 in the early 2000\u2019s, maybe the 07 #21 won\u2019t be a very popular buy amongst collectors.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
2021 ORECA 07 #21 Pilots: H. Hedman, B. Hanley, J. P. Montoya Team: DragonSpeed Race: 18th overall (first in LMP2 Pro\/Am class) at Le Mans in 2021 Spark – S8237 (resin) Published 01\/30\/23 FIA\u2019s rules are absurdly complex, with each racing class having a thorough and specific rule set. That is more than expected, since … Continue reading “ORECA 07 #21 – Spark”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14830","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14830","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14830"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14830\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15063,"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/14830\/revisions\/15063"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.w-143.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14830"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}