Le
Mans Series 2006
Le Mans Series. Donington Park.
Issued by RML. August 27th 2006
RML
takes lead in Le Mans Series LMP2 after superb win
RML
today took the lead in the Le Mans Series LMP2 class after
a superb win in the fourth round at Donington Park, England.
A mixture of fortunes during the 1000km/six hour race saw
the No. 25 MG Lola EX264, driven by Tommy Erdos and Mike
Newton, battle to make up lost ground after an early puncture
lost them the class lead and eventually take the chequered
flag victorious when good luck came their way in the closing
stages of the race.
Ray
Mallock, RML’s Chief Executive, was very pleased with
the result. “Superb team work has once again brought
us this win today. We had our fair share of bad luck early
on in the race due to a puncture and losing out during the
safety car and we thought we couldn’t catch the Rollcentre
Radical but their starter motor problems in the final pit
stop handed us the win. We commiserate with them, but that’s
racing.”
Tommy
took the start of the race from the 4th row of the grid
and LMP2 pole. He had a clean opening 30mins but then an
incident with the No.24 Lola of Sam Hancock forced him to
pick up gravel which resulted in a puncture and he was forced
to pit early. He lost the class lead but set about taking
it back as soon as he was back on track. He overtook the
No.22 Rollcentre Radical with Joao Barbosa at the wheel
and the No. 40 ASM Lola to take the class lead just before
pitting to hand the car over to Mike.
As
the team completed a faultless driver change pit stop the
safety car was deployed. Mike rejoined just behind the safety
car but the No.22 Rollcentre Radical had managed one more
racing lap and was in front of the safety car before it
made a similar pitstop, and thereby regained the lead. With
the No.40 ASM Lola retiring in the pits with piston failure
the No.22 Radical now had an advantage of more than one
lap in the LMP2 class lead. Mike drove a strong consistent
double stint, running as high as 7th place overall and 2nd
in class; the position he handed back to Tommy at 4.15pm.
Tommy
rejoined the race and immediately took up the challenge
of closing the gap to the class leader, which was 1 lap
50 seconds. He consistently lapped quicker than the Radical,
sometimes taking up to 3 seconds a lap off the deficit,
and gradually closed the gap. He was running in 6th place
overall when he pitted for his final scheduled stop.
In
the closing minutes of the race the No.22 Radical also completed
its final pit stop but would not restart once fuelled. Tommy
kept up a steady pace and watched the Radical’s lead
slip away as the car sat in the pits. With only seven minutes
of the race remaining Tommy took the LMP2 class lead and
drove conservatively to the flag to give the team a well
deserved win, and 4th place overall.
After
the podium celebrations Tommy Erdos praised the team; “I
am delighted with the win. The team really deserve this
as they have been working so hard for it all season, it’s
especially sweet when it’s your home race! We are
now leading the championship and our main rival hasn’t
had a good result here today so that gives us a further
push for the final round.
Mike
Newton was equally pleased with the result. He commented
“It was a tough race and the competition was strong.
We have all had our ups and downs and it’s terrific
to come out on top. I feel sorry for Martin Short (Rollcentre
Racing) and his team but am pleased that we had the good
luck this time and that things have gone the right way.”
The
team are now leading the LMP2 class standings. The final
round of the championship takes place at Jarama, Spain on
24th September.
Championship
Standings after Round 4
1.
RML MG Lola EX264 26
2.
Barazi – Epsilon Courage C65 AER 23
3.
Binnie Motorsports Lola 05/42 Zytek 20
4.
Pierre Bruneau Pilbeam Judd 18
More
information on RML is available at www.rmlmallock.co.uk.