The RML MG-Lola team overcame the challenge of six locally built Courage C65 LMP2 entries at Le Mans to win the second prototype category. Mike Newton, Tommy Erdos and Warren Hughes raced in torrid, 34 degree temperatures to claim their places on the podium, along with team owner and mastermind Ray Mallock, who says he hopes that winning the category will be a stepping-stone to achieving his great ambition, to win the race outright.
Their run was certainly not without incident. Erdos called at the pits with only one lap completed to report that the temperature of the Judd V8 engine was too high – the system had formed a vapour lock while the car sat in the blazing sun for two hours – and soon after the team lost 15 minutes having a control unit replaced to fix a paddle gearshift problem.
By this time the Courages had long gone, but Erdos, Newton and Hughes were turning in a string of fastest laps, eventually setting a new record at 3 minutes 47.601 seconds (215.904 km/h), only 1.4 seconds slower than they had qualified, and by morning they had closed up to third position in the LMP2 category, within striking distance of the leaders.
The Chamberlain Synergy Lola B05/40 AER, rebuilt after a heavy crash on Wednesday night, ran nicely for two and a half hours but then ground to a halt at the Indianapolis Curve with a broken gearbox, coating the track with oil and bringing out the safety cars. Bob Berridge, Peter Owen and Gareth Evans were the drivers of this Lola, and it was Owen who had the make the journey back to the pits from the far end of the circuit.
There was drama for the RML team when the gearbox output bearing failed while Mike Newton was at the wheel. “I saw a huge cloud of smoke in my mirrors and smelt oil, so I drove slowly to the pits keeping off the line” said the car owner. The bearing had punched its way out of the gearbox casing, and the whole unit was rebuilt in the space of 45 minutes.
The Intersport Lola B05/40 AER showed real pace for the first nine hours in the hands of Sam Hancock, Gregor Fisken and Liz Halliday, and was up to 15th position, three laps clear of the Courages, when Fisken headed for the Intersport pit to report a problem with the engine, which was misfiring. Changing the plugs and coil did not cure the problem which was traced to faulty injectors, and the car was retired.
Despite the disappointment, Sam Hancock was still keen to bring awareness to a very special charity that he was raising money for over the Le Mans week, saying. “I would like to dedicate this race to Joe Twyman, who is a very good friend of mine. Joe is 18 and has been diagnosed with Leukaemia. He has been having treatment for the last 18 months and is responding very well. We have been raising money for the charity ‘Teenage Cancer Trust’ this weekend and so far, have achieved £8000. We are very pleased with that and hope to raise more by the end of the race.”
With two of the Lola B05/40 cars now out of the running, the hopes of Huntingdon now rested on the RML Lola MG, EX264, which was recovering well from earlier delays and was three laps behind Paul Belmondo’s Courage. Soon though, the son of France’s favourite actor was in the pits for a lengthy stop promoting the RML Lola MG to the class lead, though only by a single lap from Belmondo.
The British and French teams duelled for class honours into the afternoon, until Belmondo’s Courage lapsed onto three cylinders and limped round, just to claim a finishing position.
“We overcame a number of problems this weekend, and hopefully we’ve had all the problems due in the next five years! We dealt with them all and while luck wasn’t with us, we got the result we wanted,” said Ray Mallock. “I have the ambition to win this race outright, and winning the class hopefully is the first stepping-stone.”
