Le
Mans Series 2009
Round 2. Spa-Francorchamps 1000 Kilometres. May 8th-10th
2009
Race Press Release. Issued May12th 2009
Déjà
vu for RML AD Group in Spa
A month
after retiring from Round 1 of the 2009 Le Mans Series in
Barcelona with engine problems, Mike Newton and Thomas Erdos
in the RML AD Group Lola Mazda pulled out of Round 2 at
Spa when a second engine failed to go the distance. Just
as he had in Barcelona, Thomas Erdos drove a faultless first
stint, and worked through to be running third in class from
a pitlane start in under half an hour. There appeared to
be every chance of challenging for a podium finish until,
eight minutes into Mike Newton’s mid-race stint, the
engine died.
The
retirement came at the end of an arduous three days for
Wellingborough-based RML. Fastest in class by the end of
Friday free practice, the prospects had looked excellent,
but a first-lap accident for Mike Newton on Saturday morning
left the team with extensive repairs to complete and no
chance of participating in qualifying.
This
meant starting the race from the pitlane, but having been
penalised ten positions on the grid for replacing the blown
engine after Barcelona, starting the race from the back
of the field hardly mattered. However, when thick fog forced
the abandonment of official warm-up on Sunday morning, the
drivers faced a six-hour race in a car that hadn’t
turned a wheel since a ground-up rebuild. It was testament
to the skill and meticulous work of the RML mechanics that
the car was on the button from the moment the lights turned
green.
One
car spinning off on the warm-up lap, followed by a first-corner
incident, brought out the safety car and allowed Tommy to
catch up on the tail-enders before the restart. He then
sliced through the 50-car field, taking half of them inside
five laps and reaching third in LMP2 within half an hour.
“The car was just such a delight to drive,”
said Erdos. “It was handling perfectly, and even though
I didn’t have the top-end speed of some of the others,
it felt strong, and I could challenge. It’s just amazing
what the team did, rebuilding the car completely in an afternoon,
and then to have it perform so well without any time to
test it was remarkable.”
Early
in his second stint Tommy caught a patch of oil at Rivage
and took to the gravel, but he and the team recovered well
from that, and the Brazilian went on to set the car’s
fastest lap just before handing over to Mike Newton. The
CEO of AD Group would manage a mere four laps before the
engine let go on the run up towards Les Combes. “We’re
so disappointed for the guys that our race ended this way,”
said a disconsolate Thomas Erdos. “After all their
efforts, they deserved so much better than this.”
The
depth of RML’s disappointment and frustration is emphasised
by the undeniable potential of the team’s Lola Mazda
Coupé. Setting fastest lap in free practice on Friday
and battling through to third in class from the back of
the field confirms that the car has the pace, but so far
the engine reliability that brought two class wins at Le
Mans in 2005 and 2006 eludes RML in 2009.
The
team plans to introduce a series of additional track tests
before heading for the Le Mans 24 Hours in June, and has
little over four weeks to seek a way through the problem.
Click
the image above (Credit David Lord / Dailysportscar) for
a high-resolution enlargement, or visit the Spa
Gallery for other views
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