11/09/09
IT’S COMING HOME…..LOLA AT SILVERSTONE THIS WEEKEND
This weekend's final round of the 2009 Le Mans Series takes place at Silverstone, the home of British motorsport and the home race too for Lola Cars who are based just an hour east in Huntingdon, Cambridgeshire.
With a massive crowd expected to attend Britain’s biggest sports car race of the year, the Autosport Silverstone 1000kms event will see six Lola sports cars challenge for more wins and podiums in what so far has been an exceptional season.
LMP1
Speedy Racing Team Sebah will be striving for a top result on home turf this weekend as their Aston Martin powered Lola LMP1 car has shown outstanding pace in the last two Le Mans Series races.Andrea Belicchi, Nicolas Prost and Marcel Fassler have suffered their fair share of misfortune in the races themselves this year but the Anglo/Swiss concern are among the very quickest of the front-runners in the LMP1 class.
“We will be in great shape at Silverstone for sure,” said Nicolas Prost who visited the Lola factory ahead of the Silverstone race weekend. “It has been tough to take with the results so far but if we get that little bit of luck we can be in contention for a really good result. The Lola will really suit the fast layout at Silverstone and I am relishing taking the car through the great corners like Becketts and Stowe corner.”
Aston Martin Racing will once again field a trio of Lola chassis this weekend with the familiar 007, 008 and 009 Huntingdon built sports cars. After a fantastic 1-2-3 podium clean sweep at Nurburgring last month the V12 powered Lola B09/60’s will be aiming for another perfect result at Silverstone.
Stefan Mucke, Tomas Enge and Jan Charouz have a seven-point advantage over the Pescarolo pairing of JC Boullion and Christophe Tinseau going in to the Silverstone race after wins at Barcelona and Nurburgring.
Once again there is a strong British driving contingent with Stuart Hall, Darren Turner and Chris Buncombe in the AMR squad.
LMP2
RML will make the short trip from Wellingborough, Northants for their home event and the popular team of Tommy Erdos and Mike Newton will be desperate to score a strong result after a season of frustration so far.Despite competitive pace in each of the four rounds so far, engine problems have brought poor reliability to the famous red, white and blue Lola-Mazda. However, a successful shakedown test at Rockingham earlier this week has put the resilient team in a positive frame of mind for the final race of the 2009 season which they aim to use as a springboard for a renewed campaign in 2010.
Speedy Sebah will be fielding their usual Lola-Judd LMP2 combination in conjunction with their LMP1 effort again this weekend. The team were in line to win last years LMP2 crash until an incident with a GT1 Lamborghini ended iIts race in dramatic circumstances at Woodcote Corner.
Xavier Pompidou, Benjamin Leuenberger and Jonny Kane have scored two podium places so far this year and currently lie in 3rd place in the driver’s points standings. With Racing Box sitting out Silverstone this weekend the Speedy Sebah trio could grab the runner-up position in LMP2 if they were to take the class victory.
All pictures Lola Heritage.
There will be three Gulf-liveried Lola Aston Martins at Silverstone this weekend.
Speedy Racing Team Sebah should be quick as usual.
RML will be looking for a change of fortune. (Photo courtesy of mg-lola.com)