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Fischer Motorsport runners-up in iRacing 24 Hours of Le Mans

by Fischer Motorsport PR

July 13, 2021 11:59 PM CET 702 Views

In a dramatic photo finish, the Fischer Motorsport No. 84 Porsche earned second place in the 2021 iRacing 24 Hours of Le Mans. Competing in the LMP2 class, the No. 14 Dallara P217 Team brings home P5 after a turbulent race. Last year’s winning No. 85 Porsche team experienced a race full of adversity and ends up in ninth place.

Pilots Niclas Pedersen, Benjamin Fischer, Marton Tihanyi and Stephen Nobes could not believe their eyes: After an extremely exciting closing part of the race – including a pit stop with only twelve minutes remaining - and a truly fantastic chase by Marton Tihanyi in the final laps, it wasn’t until the very final meters before the finish line, the race was decided.

Photo finish: The No. 84 Porsche takes second place just before the finish line, on the final lap of the 2021 iRacing 24 Hours of Le Mans

On the final lap of the race, Tihanyi closed to within 1.8 seconds of the Chevrolet Corvette of Rabbit Racing. Leading up to that moment, Tihanyi kept posting fast lap after fast lap, to put the pressure on the competitor and to move closer to striking distance.

In the final corner of the final lap, the driver in the competitor’s car made a decisive error. Caving to the pressure put on by Tihanyi, he cut the curbs too much and was immediately given a slow-down penalty by race control, that allowed the Fischer Motorsport driver to pass and take over P2 a mere twenty meters before the finish line.

“We kept telling Marton on the radio, to keep pushing. We knew that all kinds of stuff has happened here before in the final laps, especially after such a long race.”, said Benjamin Fischer.

“When it happened and we went past them just before the line, we couldn’t believe it, really. Somewhere, I feel sorry for the guys over at Rabbit Racing. But I also believe we deserve this second place, because we fought hard all race long and showed a good performance.”, Fischer added.

“Marton is awesome, man! The dude gets it. I have to make him a huge compliment. What he did on those final three stints was absolutely incredible.”, said a visibly happy Niclas Pedersen after the race finished and he was on his way to the podium ceremony.

For Benjamin Fischer as a driver and for the No. 84 Porsche team, this was the second consecutive year of taking second place in the iRacing 24 Hours of Le Mans.

LMP2 team endures roller coaster race with happy end

The 2021 edition of the iRacing 24 Hours of Le Mans was historical for Fischer Motorsport for another reason as well. For the first time, the team entered a car in the LMP2 class. The No. 14 Dallara P217 with drivers Kyle Birnie, Jason Birnie, Andrew Smith and David Koopmans put forth a convincing run by earning fifth place in the event.

It didn’t come easy, as the race had its highs and lows in store for the team. Starting from P11 starting driver put on an excellent opening stint to take the team into the top ten and then even sixth position.

The No. 14 Dallara P217 LMP2 team made history for Fischer Motorsport, by earning fifth place in the team's first ever LMP2 start in the iRacing 24 Hours of Le Mans

After a consequential driver error early in the second stint, the team dropped to P13 as the pit crew had to do repairs to the car that cost the team an additional 46 seconds.

Over the course of the race, the team showed a strong and cohesive team effort and good consistency to get back into the top ten, only to fall back again thanks to a few more unlucky incidents.

In the closing part of the race, everything led up to a strategy and fuel mileage battle with the No. 112 LMP2 of Team Rusty Spatulas. The team with the better strategy would take P5.

With some luck, the race ended up not needing an extra lap, after the overall leader took the white flag already. And thus the Fischer Motorsport LMP2 prototype had just enough fuel on board and Kyle Birnie brought home a consoling fifth-place finish.

“My mistake in the second stint cost us a lot of time. In the end it’s always difficult to say afterwards, but without that damage, we probably could have finished on the podium today.”, said Kyle Birnie.

The Californian was visibly struggling with his mistake early in the race.

“We had real good pace, even after the repair stop. Our pace wasn’t the problem, I think. But after that repair stop early on, we just couldn’t completely make up the time lost unfortunately. In order to do that, it had required some major problems from the top-four.”, explained Birnie.

“Sure, after that damage and repair stop early on we knew it was going to be difficult to get a top-finish out of this race. But I have to say, I am very proud of the performance of the team as a whole, the teamwork was fantastic. The guys have done a phenomenal job and gosh, the car was so much fun to drive, too. The race was pretty intense.”, shared Jason Birnie after the race.

Last year’s winner No. 85 Porsche with problems

The overall worst race among the three cars was cast for the No. 85 Porsche GT team with Pascal Theis, Victor Brill, Tobias Abel and Evan Wood.

After a good start to the race, the team completed its first driver change on lap 36. On the out lap, disaster struck as the car crashed into the barriers at Indianapolis. The car was able to continue, but the incident left the car damaged on the right front and from then on suffered from a lack of top speed for the rest of the race, giving the team a significant disadvantage on the long straights of the track.

Still, the team kept pushing and showed a strong performance as the race entered the night hours. It almost seemed as if a top-five result may still be possible, when things got worse.

Last year's race-winning No. 85 Porsche team struggled with a race full of adversity, starting with a crash into the barriers at Indianapolis on lap 36

Just two laps after another driver change during the night, the Porsche 911 RSR GTE made hard contact with the blue wall at the Porsche curves, breaking the rear axle of the car in the process.

After a lengthy repair stop that cost the team two laps, the No. 85 Porsche was able to continue the race, but failed to gain any positions until the end of the race and eventually finished P9, three laps down from the leaders.

“Yeah, obviuosly we’re disappointed with this result. We came here with high expectations and would have loved to defend the win from last year. But that’s how it goes. That’s racing, as they say.”, said Pascal Theis.

“All in all we had pretty good consistency and our pace was not too bad either. But bottom line, you can do any mistakes like we did. When the axle broke after that hit, the race was pretty much over for us.”, explained Tobias Abel.

Fischer Motorsport affirms strong Le Mans performances of recent years

With two cars finishing in the top-five of their respective class and yet again taking second place honors in Le Mans, a very successful trend of recent years continues for Fischer Motorsport.

After the historical one-two finish last year, the organization just barely missed out on winning the GTE class for the second consecutive year.

The Dallara P217 LMP2 prototype team set a new team record for race distance, at 393 completed laps.

But both Porsche GT teams also set new race distance records in the team’s history, by completing 367 and 364 laps each, respectively.

Together, all three cars completed a distance of 15,318 kilometers / 9,573 miles in the 24-hour race.

Evan Wood, who was signed by the team for Le Mans just a few days before the race, gave insight into his emotions after the race:

“This weekend was an incredible experience for me, really. This team is a great group of guys. The racetrack... unreal man. Everybody says Le Mans is special, but it’s so much more intense when you’re actually part of a 24-hour race here.”, said the 35-year old American.

“I’m not happy with our result, but we gave it everything we had. I had a small spin on Sunday morning and my pace wasn’t quite where I wanted it to be, but other than that I’m happy to have avoided any big mistakes. It was a lot of fun. Hopefully next time we can get a better result.”, said Tobias Abel.

A busy summer continues for Fischer Motorsport this weekend, with Round 4 of the iRacing Nürburgring Endurance Championship. Only one week after that, the team will compete in the iRacing 24 Hours of Spa.

Photo Gallery: 2021 iRacing 24 Hours of Le Mans

Official Race Results - 2021 iRacing 24 Hours of Le Mans, LMP2

Official Race Results - 2021 iRacing 24 Hours of Le Mans, GTE