Lola sportscars scored more impressive results in Houston, Texas over the weekend with an LMP2 class win for Intersport Racing and a pole position and 2nd place in LMP1 for Dyson Racing with the Lola B06/10. Intersport celebrated their second consecutive win in the 2006 ALMS series with Clint Field and Liz Halliday in the AER powered Lola. The pair now lead the series standings by 16 points and Lola lead the manufacturers championship from Courage and Porsche.
Field was delighted to score maximum points for the second race in succession to take a healthy points lead in the series standings.
"When I passed the yellow Porsche, I thought this is too good to be true!," stated Field. "At the end of the race, power-wise it was a quarter of the power, I could go flat out in most of the corners that I shouldn't have been able to. We seem to have a knack for holding the car together and Porsche is developing the art of losing the car with half and hour to go."
Liz Halliday drove impressively once again and was delighted to have won her second LMP2 race of the year, saying: "This race has been brilliant for me. I was very proud to qualify the Lola for the team for the first time. It was not the easiest circuit for a first but I think I did a pretty good job and third in class
behind the two Porsches was not too bad! In the race, I was a bit cautious at the start as I did not want to be in the wrong place in the wrong time on a circuit with no run off. I then drove a solid one hour stint and then handed the car to Clint as planned. This new win feels really good and I hope that we can score a hat trick next weekend."
Next weekend the team travel to their home track of Mid Ohio to try and make it a hat-trick of class wins.
Dyson Racing showed the pace of the new LMP1 car in qualifying by taking pole position ahead of the Champion Audi R8 and the two Penske Porsche Spyders. James Weaver set a fierce pace in the AER twin turbo powered Lola B06/10 and was overjoyed to notch up the cars first pole position.
From the start the spirited Weaver led from the start holding off the Penske Porsche in the early stages. Sadly for the team the loss of 5th and 6th hears after Butch Leitzinger took over the car meant that 2nd place in class was the best result achievable. However, the new Lola had already created a paddock buzz with its pace in qualifying and the start of the race in what was its second race ever!
For the sister B06/10 AER of Chris Dyson and Guy Smith there was frustration as they were unable to take part in the qualifying session due to an electrical problem. Starting from the back Chris Dyson started making rapid progress up the field to 5th place after just 15 laps.
However, misfortune struck on lap 17 when the young American spun off on dropped oil from another car. After Dyson handed over to Smith, the car started to make even more progress but a lengthy pit stop to replace a rear push rod. The pair eventually finished in 3rd position in LMP1 claiming more useful points in the process.
Guy Smith was optimistic for the forthcoming race at Mid Ohio next weekend, saying: "It is encouraging, as the car was fast and the engine went well with no problems. I started to enjoy the track after awhile and am looking forward to Mid Ohio next weekend."
The Van Der Steur Lola B2K/40 finished 4th in LMP2 with Briton's Ben Devlin adding to his glowing reputation by setting some very impressive times.
Next weekend sees another challenge for the ALMS circus as they head to one of America's most challenging circuits - Mid Ohio.
RACE RESULTS
Pos Drivers Car Class Laps 1. McNish/Capello Audi R8 P1 143 2. Gavin/Beretta Chevrolet Corvette C6-R GT1 138 3. Fellows/O'Connell Chevrolet Corvette C6-R GT1 138 4. Enge/Turner Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 137 5. Lamy/Sarrazin Aston Martin DBR9 GT1 137 6. Weaver/Leitzinger Lola B06/10 AER P1 134 7. Rockenfeller/Graf Porsche 911 GT3 RSR GT2 134 8. Van Overbeek/Henzler Porsche 911 GT3 RSR GT2 133 9. Melo/Salo Ferrari 430 GT Berlinetta GT2 132 10. Bergmeister/Petersen/Long Porsche 911 GT3 RSR GT2 131 11. C.Field/Halliday Lola B05/40 AER P2 128 12. Bach/Cosmo Courage C65 Mazda P2 127 13. Dyson/G.Smith Lola B06/10 AER P1 127 14. Maassen/Luhr Porsche RS Spyder P2 123 15. Neiman/Pechnik Porsche 911 GT3 RSR GT2 123 16. van der Steur/Devlin Lola B2K/40 AER P2 122 17. Bernhard/Dumas Porsche RS Spyder P2 119 18. Maxwell/Brabham Panoz Esperante GT-LM GT2 115 19. Auberlen/Hand BMW M3 E36 GT2 50 20. Marks/Jensen BMW M3 E36 GT2 26 21. Ruberti/Weickardt/Konrad Saleen S7R GT1 16 22. McMurry/Willman Lola EX257 AER P1 15 23. Jeannette/Milner Panoz Esperante GT-LM GT2 6
