Round 7 - Road America / Elkhart Lake,
Liz Halliday was comfortably leading the LMP2 class of the seventh round of the American Le Mans Series (ALMS) in Road America when the 26-year old was forced to retire from the race on lap 13 after the rear end of her Lola B05/40 AER caught fire. Another win was on the cards; her team mate Clint Field had once again put the Intersport Racing car on pole position of the LMP2 class and Liz made a great start to the race and was controlling the Miracle Motorsport Courage which was trailing her by more than 45 seconds. Unfortunately, the Infineon win was not to be repeated and only half an hour into the race, Liz was forced to a halt.
Back in the pits, Liz Halliday said: “Everything was going really well until suddenly on lap 13, as I was coming out of the Canada corner, I could smell fuel in the cockpit and then I started to lose gears. As I was trying to get the car back to the pit lane I lost all the gears, and then I saw some smoke coming out of the cockpit and the back of the car. I didn’t realise at the time, but the team radioed that I was on fire! The race was over for us, which is a real shame after such a strong start. I did my best to stay away from the racing line and make sure we were not in the way of the other cars.”
“As I was driving into the pit lane, I had to jump out of the car as the flames intensified. Then it became quite scary as the entry to the pitlane is up a hill and the car, on fire, was rolling back towards the track. I managed to stop the car, I don’t know how, and avoid a car pile-up before the marshals arrived with fire extinguishers!”
“The mechanics have now checked the car and it looks like the fire started when the fuel filter split,” Halliday continued. “It is a real shame because the car was running extremely well; we were in the lead of the LMP2 class after starting from pole position and I made a very good rolling start and kept the lead. When the fire started we were more than 45 seconds ahead of the second LMP2 car which I am very proud of. I was pushing but I was sensible as we were comfortably in the lead and I didn’t want to make any mistakes and loose the lead. We were on our way to another win but it was not meant to be.”
“Clint proved again in qualifying that we have a fantastic chassis-engine combination and I look forward to the next ALMS round at Mosport during the first weekend of September. Clint and I will be back for a win,” Liz concluded.
Despite retiring from the race, Liz enjoyed driving at Road America: “I always wanted to race on this circuit and I was looking forward to driving an LMP2 car there. The circuit is just fantastic, this is the best track I have ever driven in America – it’s really fast and it has great character. The Lola AER was superb to drive there and I enjoyed every lap. Sunday was a great race day with 40,000 spectators, which is quite impressive.”
American sportswoman Liz Halliday will now fly back to the UK where she will take a couple of days off before heading to Germany for the 7th Round of the FIA GT Championship in Oschersleben.
Thinking ahead, Liz Halliday said: “I am looking forward to Oschersleben this coming weekend and I hope that we can score a strong result for the Lister team. Laurence and the boys have been working so hard this season, it is time we bring home some silverware for them! We finished seventh in Brno and in Spa Justin Keen showed how fast the Lister can go, recording an impressive series of fastest laps at the beginning of the race.
“I have never been to Oschersleben before,” continued Liz. “Again it will be a completely new experience for me. I think the layout is quite technical which should suit the Lister and this is the first time I’ve raced in Germany so I’m looking forward to it.”
On the three-day eventing side of Liz’s sporting competition, the Californian scored a strong result at the Heart Pury International on 14th August with her horse ‘Foxy’. Liz finished an excellent 18th overall out of 75 starters and she was 14th overall after the dressage and the cross country; knocking down two rails during the show jumping, Liz and Foxy finished 18th.
Halliday said: “This is a better result than we were hoping for before the event. Although ‘Foxy’ struggled in the dressage, he did a great job in the next two events and I am delighted that he has now qualified for 3-star events.” Liz continued: “This horse does not have a lot of experience but he showed that he has potential and he is getting better and better. I am now seriously thinking of taking him to his first 3-star event at Boekelo in Holland during the second weekend of October. We will make a decision on this soon with my trainer.”
