Hideki Noda News

1000 KM Monza, Italy
Monday, May 19, 2008
Having had a difficult couple of days leading into the race the warm up session driven by Hideki’s team mate Jean de Pourtales gave the impression that the car was working a lot better than yesterday and the lap times seemed very stable, maybe not showing the absolute speed the team would like to see from the Lola-Mazda package but very stable and consistent lap times to start a 1000 Km. long endurance race.

When the car went on to the track to do the pre grid warm up it was once again driven by Hideki’s team mate Jean who notified the team via the onboard radio that there was some problem with the gearbox after which the teams Data Engineer together with the Mazda Engineer did a diagnosis on the engine and car data provided by the Motec telemetry system and found that the gearbox was fine but that there was a sensor of the onboard  acquisition system which was malfunctioning leading to miss-shifting of the electronically guided gearbox. The car came into the pit lane and the team’s mechanics started to swap the sensors on the car, this cost the team a little bit more time than desired causing a pit lane start for the Kruse Schiller Motorsport Lola-Mazda car.

Jean did a double stint in which he had the difficult job to get back ahead of the numerous GT cars. After this he gave the steering wheel to Hideki who was to do a triple stint. Of course the high speed Monza circuit where the lap times of the LMP cars are much faster than the GT’s meant that they had to be passed very often which is always a moment of being careful. Hideki drove a triple stint with very little mistakes and the car handled very reliably which in the end brought the first points for Hideki, Jean and the KSM team. 3 points for a well deserved 6th place in LMP-2 class.

Looking back on the start of the season, the various test sessions, the Barcelona race etc. in all of which the team encountered numerous problems of all kinds and after having had several engine related problems  sorted out by the  Mazda engineers by checking out the complete engine installation and installing a new swirl bottle before the Monza event. This seems to have the job and the engine has run like clockwork for the entire duration of the race. Achieving this result is a very big satisfaction for the team.

Everybody on the team has given 110% and therefore feels that this result is well deserved, not to mention the moral boost to the whole team that has finally been rewarded for their hard work.

Hideki feels very confident that the team will further improve and that the new engineer Johannes Gruber will be able to learn a lot from the data gathered in this event and will be able to translate this into knowledge of the chassis. Looks like KSM and Hideki are ready to do “serious business” in another 2 weeks during the Spa Francorchamps Le Mans Series round 3.

Monza Qualifying
Friday, May 09, 2008
After the qualifying session of the second race in the 2008 Le Mans Series season being held at the famous Monza circuit in Italy Hideki Noda looks back at a very difficult start of the season. Having had a DNF in the Barcelona event 3 weeks ago due to a technical failure after which the team decided to run an extra test at the Lausatzring in Germany, where once again the team was haunted by engine problems.

The Mazda engine engineers have found a solution for the engine problems and the car now has an engine which provides lots of power and seems to work reliable.

In the week prior to Monza the team and their engineer had decided to no longer work together and he made place for a new engineer Johannes Gruber who was on the wish list of team manager Kai Kruse since 2005. Johannes has a massive experience in racing and is well known for his achievements in FIA-GT and DTM. Having made only little previous experience with the Lola B05/40 during his career in combination with the fact that the previous engineer could leave very little setup information on the car due to limited track time caused him to face a very difficult but brave start in the Kruse Schiller Motorsport team.

In the 3 Free Practice sessions the team could only do a very limited number of laps which was caused mainly by some electronical hiccups and in the end led to missing out on valuable time to try various setups.
Based on the very small amount of data gathered the teams new engineer decided to make various setup changes for the car to go into the qualifying session.

Hideki’s last race at Monza was in 1994 in a Formula 3000 with Italian based team Forti Corse so he had never run the new layout, the team however decided to have Hideki run the Qualifying session in which he tried to do the very best he could to get the maximum out of the car. It needs to be said that the team made very big improvements compared to yesterday and that even though he did not achieve the results desired the team and drivers made good progress and everybody did the best they could under these very difficult circumstances.

Hideki is surely not satisfied, but realizes that he needs to look at the bright side and recognize the improvements made and the problems solved by the entire team since the arrival at Monza, so he is happy that they are working in the right direction to made the car work well for tomorrow’s race.

Catalunya Race Report
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Hideki ran the qualifying session on Saturday and managed to get the car on a solid 8th place in the LMP-2 class, a very good result considering the little testing that has been done with the car. In the Sunday race Hideki started as first driver but had to make an irregular pitstop after about 30 minutes for various check-ups on the car. After having lost about 15 laps he went back out, He managed to put in some very decent lap times but after the driver change the team decided to lower the max RPM on the engine to preserve the engine as the “problem”  that occurred was not identified yet. On the 2nd time Hideki went out he had to come back to the pitlane as he experienced a problem with the gearbox. The KSM team will completely rebuild the car for Monza after which all the small problems should be fixed. Hideki is looking forward to a strong season together with the KSM team that has proven to be very capable.

Catalunya Qualifying
Saturday, April 12, 2008
The first qualifying session of the 2008 season brought good signs for Hideki and the KSM team.
Hideki, managed to bring the car to the 8th place in LMP-2 class,
a very good results looking at the fact that there is not a big difference between the teams,
secondly Hideki was hindered on his Hot Lap and right after this a red flag situation stopped the session.
The team is preparing the car for the first 1000 Km. long race of the 2008 season with the outmost care and eye for reliabilty.
Hideki will do the first stint in tomorrows race. More news tomorrow.

1000 Km Catalunya
Saturday, April 12, 2008
Looking back after the first official day of the Le Mans Series 2008;
Hideki and his team have driven 2 free practice runs,
his conclusion is that given the fact that he and the team have had little time to test the new package the achieved results are good and show great potential.

New Sponsor
Friday, April 04, 2008
We are happy to announce that Hideki has reached an agreement for sponsorship with the Japanese real-estate and development company "Global" who have recently gone public on the Tokyo stock exchange (Jasdaq) For more info: http://www.global-j.co.jp/

Interview Endurance Info
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
The famous French website www.endurance-info.com has done an interview with hideki and published it on their website (click on title for link) The interview is in French language,

Magny Course Test
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Hideki and the Kruse Schiller Motorsport team went to magny Course, France to shake down the Lola Mazda to get ready for the first race in Barcelona.

Hideki signs 2008 Driver contract
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Hideki has signed a contract with german based Kruse Schiller Motorsport to race
their Mazda powered Lola LMP-2 in the Le Mans Series and LM24 Hrs.

Visiting Europe
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Hideki visits the European continent to secure a drive in the Le Mans Series and the Le Mans 24 Hrs. race, he will also meet his new manager in Italy.

New Manager
Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Hideki has teamed up with the Milano, Italy based but dutch Driver Manager "Frank van Nunen" to get his assistence in all media, pr and sponsor relations.