Monday 13th September 2010

Beechdean Mansell - 7th At Silverstone

'Smiley' rides to a strong LMP1 finish at Le Mans Series finale

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The Beechdean Mansell Motorsport team finished 7th overall at the Autosport 1000km of Silverstone yesterday, where they (with a little 'moral support' from the PH Smiley) were pitted against some of the best sports car teams in the world.

The Audi and Peugeot works diesels headed the field as expected, with the promise of a thrilling battle between Brit stars Allan McNish (Audi) and Anthony Davidson (Peugeot) cut short when Nishy's car succumbed to diff failure and he was forced to retire in the first half hour.

Davidson and co-driver Nicolas Minassian went on to claim victory, and there's a full race report here.

PHers supporting the Beechdean Mansell campaign had a good day out too. From 11th overall on the grid, and 10th in the LMP1 class, Greg Mansell made a good start to move up a place on the opening lap but a puncture in the first 20 minutes forced the younger Mansell to pit earlier than planned. The second part of his stint was very strong and by lap 35 Greg Mansell had regained the lost ground and was challenging the number 008 Lola Aston Martin before coming in for fuel, tyres and to hand over the car to brother Leo.

Leo Mansell rejoined in 10th place, 20 seconds behind the Drayson Racing Lola and started to close the gap. He maintained his pace until the first stop for tyres and fuel before rejoining behind two LMP2 class cars, which he quickly passed to move into 8th place. Once again he started to close on the Drayson car and passed a few laps later to move into 7th where they ultimately finished.

From our point of view here at PH towers, it's been a genuine privilege to see our logo on the wing end plates of the team's Ginetta Zytek, racing at Le Mans with the legendary 'Red 5' at the wheel, and again at the weekend with the Mansell boys at Silverstone.

Yes it's been a roller-coaster ride for the team, with the excitement and expectation of a Le Mans campaign cruelly curtailed by Nigel Mansell's puncture and spectacular accident, the thrill of a subsequent LMP1 class win at the Hungaroring and now a strong LMS season finale at Silverstone. But along the way, in spite of all the trials and tribulations, the team has found time to look after a number of lucky PHers who've been invited on fab garage tours, treated to hot laps of Silverstone and - of course - all those delicious free ice creams.

So on behalf of PHers everywhere - thanks very much for the ride guys, it's been a real blast and you've been great!

[tr7v8]

Yup many thanks for the tours to all. PH for organising the tickets & getting them to us. Beechdean for the ice creams & to Liz for the pit tour. Nice to meet up with the rest of the guys.

[anonymous-user]

Well done, cracking result!

[geeeman]

why is there never any refernce to the fact the car is a Ginetta-Zytec?

i find this strange

[Curry Burns]

'From our point of view here at PH towers, it's been a genuine privilege to see our logo on the wing end plates of the team's Ginetta Zytek'

There you go....

[Turbobanana]

I was there watching: great day. One question though - is it me or are driving stints getting shorter? 35 laps doesn't seem much. The other teams were doing similar but as this is an endurance race, isn't 35x3.5(roughly)= 123miles getting off a bit light?
I remember watching the Willhire 24 hours many years back (RIP) where drivers were quadruple stinting, ie 4 hours, which I believe is the FIA maximum.

[Graham]

Turbobanana said:

I remember watching the Willhire 24 hours many years back (RIP) where drivers were quadruple stinting, ie 4 hours, which I believe is the FIA maximum.

If you want to see longer stints you can always watch the Britcar 24 at silverstone in september. THis is the successor to the will hire..

from memory the max Britcar stint is 3 hours in any 5 hours.

[ArtVandelay]

geeeman said:

why is there never any refernce to the fact the car is a Ginetta-Zytec?

i find this strange

From the article

PistonHeads said:

From our point of view here at PH towers, it's been a genuine privilege to see our logo on the wing end plates of the team's Ginetta Zytek, racing at Le Mans with the legendary 'Red 5' at the wheel, and again at the weekend with the Mansell boys at Silverstone.

[legaleagleboy]

I think the regs for this LMS race allow 80 ltr max fuel stops -- so that tends to define how often the cars come in. IMO some double stinting was going on from where I was watching.

NB The B24 this year has 75 ltr max fuel stops, so unless you have a very frugal engine re-fuelling will take place well before the max stint lgth.

[Woza]

Was at silverstone yesterday for the first time at this event having been to Le Mans for the past 5 years.

Had an absolutely fab day and will be back next year, well done to all the British teams/ drivers!

[dandarez]

Where are those PHs who had the gall to say in posts last year, words to the effect that Nigel's sons were living on 'his' name?

I said at the time that Greg is one hell of a driver, he's in the mold of his father.

Well bloody done lads! Might even have been better had Nige not been sidelined and had been able to drive too.

And, of course, to Ginetta - marque of the moment!

[geeeman]

ooops..

[RedexR]

any idea if it's being shown on TV sometime ? Motors or Eurosport ?

[106 gti]

I was there on the Peugeot stand , im uploading my picture;s now so will post the link up shortly , with a few picture's .....

[106 gti]

My album can be found here .....


http://silverstonelemansseries.fotopic.net/c189602...

[Arnold The Bat]

Curry Burns said:

'From our point of view here at PH towers, it's been a genuine privilege to see our logo on the wing end plates of the team's Ginetta Zytek'

There you go....

Just for you.

[tr7v8]

RedexR said:

any idea if it's being shown on TV sometime ? Motors or Eurosport ?

I believe that Eurosport show it, if you go to the Le Mans Series website it does say.

[Accelebrate]

Was a great day.

[Chris-R]

Arnold The Bat said:

Curry Burns said:

'From our point of view here at PH towers, it's been a genuine privilege to see our logo on the wing end plates of the team's Ginetta Zytek'

There you go....

Just for you.

Fever!

[Arnold The Bat]

A few more.

[Dangermouse78]

At least the Astons 007 & 009 were in Gulf colours... the Lambo in Gulf colours looked wrong. However ALL congrats to The Mansell-Beechdean team.. lets hope for a stronger season next year