There'll be celebratory ice-cream sundaes all round for the
Beechdean Mansell team
today, as they return to Buckinghamshire from the Hungaroring with an LMP1 winners trophy tucked under their arm.
A welcome win after trials of Le Mans...
The 1000km six hour Le Mans Series race was a war of attrition for the LMP1 category, as many of Beechdean Mansell's privateer rivals fell off or crashed out. It wasn't plain sailing for our guys either, as they faced enforced stops for tyre problems and to repair body damage inflicted by another car. In fact, the race itself was pretty unusual, as cars from the secondary LMP2 class filled the top six spots - and outright victory for the first time in the history of the series.
Our favourite team was six laps ahead of the nearest LMP1 car at the chequered flag, at which point jubilation ensued. And while we're not ones to brag, we can't help feeling the teensiest bit proud that PH's very own 'Smiley' now has an LMP1 win under his belt, too. (Woo-hoo, go Smiley!!!)
... now looking forward to Silverstone
The team's Ginetta Zytec was driven to victory by Greg and Leo Mansell, who - with the rest of the team - are now well and truly fired up for
Silverstone on September 11/12th
when Nigel will be back on the driving roster and the works LMP1 crowd will be back in action too.
"This is fantastic; to win in only our third race is an excellent achievement for such a young team at this level. Greg and Leo did a brilliant job in very difficult conditions and the car ran almost faultlessly for the entire six hour race, which is a testament to all the hard work put in by everyone in the team. Of course this puts us in a great position for our home race at Silverstone next month and we are going to enjoy ourselves," says Andrew Howard, Team Principal.
You can bet We'll be there to cheer them on!
Team RLR made a confident debut
As we're on the topic of 'plucky Brits', we should also give a mention to LMP2 debutants Team RLR, who steered their MG Lola EX265 from the back of the field of 37 to finish 18th overall.
The team actually started from 13th on the grid after a good qualifying run, but a spin in the opening laps saw them back in the pits for 20 minutes with a lot of catching up to do.
Drivers Barry Gates, Rob Garofall and Warren Hughes clawed back places to finish 8th in LMP2 - a perfect confidence booster for a team also looking forward to Silverstone in a few weeks. Well done chaps!
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