Having made his debut with the Binnie Motorsports squad and helped them to their strongest showing of the season, 25 year-old British sportscar driver, Sam Hancock, has officially been retained for the next round of the Le Mans Endurance Series – the Nurburgring 1000kms.

The race will take place this weekend at the famous German track, and Sam for one hopes that it will be held in dryer conditions than those he faced at Silverstone.

“Silverstone was just unbelievable – by far the worst conditions I have ever raced in. It was a shame to have a wet race really because the team did a great job to get the car working nicely in practice (which was dry) when we were quite effortlessly in the top 2 or 3.”

Having qualified his Lola 2nd in the LMP2 category, Sam decided to keep his head down at the start and just try to keep the car on the track in the torrential conditions. Despite a ‘dry’ set-up on the car which was far too stiff and too low to the ground for the amount of standing water on the circuit he maintained a good pace and at times was even 3rd fastest overall. Eventually the rain took its toll causing electrical problems, a spin, and possibly even contributed to the blown engine which eventually retired the team from the race with just 20 minutes remaining.

Sam however, was definitely encouraged by the potential…

“I’ve said all along that that these guys at Binnie Motorsports have got some serious intentions, and having now raced with them, I’m cartain they are more than capable of achieving them. Sure we had problems at Silverstone, but that was largely due to the weather. The team though was impressive – everything was immaculate, the car very well prepared and all the guys were professional and really enthusiastic – as a driver I found it very motivating and it was a real pleasure to try to help them unlock some performance. We have some work to do now with our suppliers to get each element of the package working to its maximum, but I was thrilled for example with the amount of support provided by Nicholson McLaren Engines and the Pirelli tyre guys – we’re gonna work hard with them to improve, and with the foundation we’ve got in having the brilliant Lola chassis, I’d like to think that a podium – if not a win – is not out of the question in Germany.”