Lola LMP cars rounded out the 2011 season successfully in China lastweekend.The Rebellion Lola-Toyota of Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost finished afine 4th overall, once again being the first petrol powered LMP car to takethe chequered flag.In finishing the six hour event in 4th place, Rebellion Racing sealed 3rdposition in the inaugural Intercontinental Le Mans Cup and were positionedas the highest placed privateer team. The team have enjoyed a fruitfulseason racing in both the ILMC and the Le Mans Series where they werecrowned team champions.Lola and Toyota also took the LMS manufacturers'crown.
Lola Managing Director, Robin Brundle, paid tribute to all of Lola'scustomers' performances in 2011 stating: "It has been a tremendouslysuccessful season for Lola with some truly stellar performances by ourexcellent customer teams in the ILMC, ALMS and the LMS.Their professionalismand attention to detail perfectly reflects the Lola ethos and we very lookforward to challenging for race wins, class wins and more silverware in2012."Neel Jani drove the first portion of the Zhuhai race, quickly emerging asthe quickest of the petrol powered LMP cars. Just after the hour mark thoughthe Swiss driver was forced to pit after contact with Allan McNish'srecovering Audi.The Rebellion team showed their renowned efficiency in thepits stop, utilising the quick release rear-end of the Lola design rearbodywork to save valuable time and rejoin the race, albeit just over twolaps behind the petrol powered opposition.With some scintillating laps, first Jani then Prost brought the Huntingdondesigned and built LMP1 back in-to contention and in the final hour it wasJani who overtook Olivier Pla's Oak Pescarolo and quickly pulled away toseal 4th place." I am delighted with this result that rewards our hard work this year,"said a happy Nicolas Prost after the race. "The Lola-Toyota was great todrive today and I was able to push very hard to recover during my stints.Once again it was not a trouble-free race, but at the end the result we haveachieved with Neel and the team is even more valuable."The Aston Martin Racing entered Lola finished a solid 6th after atrouble-free run for Stefan Mucke and in the Aston Martin V12 powered LolaLMP1.The Banbury based team followed up their excellent win at the LagunaSeca ALMS race in September to finish off the season with another strongshowing.
Although the 2011 season has come to a close, Lola engineers have long sincebeen busy in the technical centre at Huntingdon developing new upgrades andproducts for the 2012 season. New customers will be joining existing teamsto further enhance Lola's reputation as the number one customer LMP choicenext year when the action begins at the Sebring 12 Hours in March.
