Lola sportscar racers finished off the 2005 American Le Mans Series in style at Laguna Seca in California over the weekend as Clint Field driving a Intersport Lola B05/40-AER took the LMP2 drivers title.
Despite losing time in the early running, Clint along with his father Jon Field and Liz Halliday, finished 5th in the LMP2 class to register the necessary points and finish 16 ahead of their nearest rivals. With five victories from the ten rounds, Clint Field was happy with his year, a year which saw the Lola B05/40 make its race debut and score class win after class win.
“This is the end of a good racing year for us to say the least,” said Clint Field after taking the LMP2 crown. “For the race we really just did what we planned which was to run the laps. I think this is the best fifth place we’ve ever had!”
It was Jon Field who took the start for Intersport, albeit from the back of the grid after an off-track excursion in qualifying at turn 5. Making amends, Field drove a remarkable opening stint, scything his way through the pack to reach 7th overall by lap 4. He pitted after just 31 minutes, taking advantage of a full course yellow.
Halliday had another superb stint, consolidating the teams hard won progress in the LMP2 class before handing over to Clint Field just after the hour mark. Unfortunately for the team, some technical problems ensured that they lost time in the third hour but through the resilience and determination of the team and Lola’s on-site engineers, they were back on track to clinch the title.
Completing the necessary 70% of the class winner, Field took the vital points to scoop the title and spark some well deserved celebrations for the Ohio based team.
Dyson Racing completed their season with a typically aggressive race that saw Butch Leitzinger and James Weaver lead for a large portion of the four hour ‘light in to dark’ event. However, a puncture compromised their clever three stop strategy and saw them eventually finish in 6th place.
Butch Leitzinger had taken the lead at the start and opened up a useful advantage on the pole sitting Zytek of Tom Chilton. With Chris Dyson driving an excellent race to hold third position the Dyson team were in good shape, holding off the might of both Audi and Porsche.
Chris Dyson and Andy Wallace eventually finished in 3rd position, splitting the Audi’s in what has been a season long battle with the Champion Racing team. Chris Dyson cemented a deserved runners up position in the final drivers points standings and his father and team owner Rob Dyson was delighted with the way their season had gone, saying:
“It was a very hard fought race for us just like the season as a whole. The champion team is very tough and to split the two cars and take 2nd place in the championship for Chris is very rewarding indeed for the team.”
Laguna Seca was the final race for the Dyson team in the present Lola B01/60-AER chassis as next March will see the race debut of the all-new and eagerly anticipated Lola B06/10 LMP1 model. The car is currently being readied for intensive winter testing at Lola’s Huntingdon base with the first of two Dyson chassis scheduled to hit the track in the early New Year.
Van Der Steur Racing finished in 4th place in LMP2 at Laguna Seca with Gunnar Van Der Steur and Ben Devlin again impressing in their AER powered LMP2 car.
Next seasons American Le Mans series begins with the famous Sebring 12 Hours in Florida on March 18.
