1000 KM OF SILVERSTONE – 2010 Le Mans Series.

REBELLION Racing finished 3rd in the 2010 Le Mans Series LMP1 Teamschampionship.

After an eventful race at the 1000 km of Silverstone, REBELLION Racing finished 3rdin the 2010 Le Mans Series LMP1 Teams Championship thanks to a fifth place finishin the race by the Lola-Rebellion #12 driven by Nico Prost and Neel Jani. This fifthplace finish also helped Lola-Rebellion to become vice-champion in the Le MansSeries LMP1 Manufacturers’ classification, behind Peugeot but in front of AstonMartin and Audi.

The 1000 km of Silverstone ended a good season for REBELLION Racing whoachieved three podium finishes from the races at Paul Ricard, Algarve andHungaroring.

Neel Jani in the Lola-Rebellion # 12 had a good start to the 100km of Silverstone thatkept him in the lead group of petrol powered cars. After a trouble free stint, hehanded over the wheel to Nicolas Prost. At just before the one hour mark in the race,the Drayson Racing Lola touched the rear of #12 Lola-Rebellion forcing Nicolas intoa spin, costing the French driver at least twenty seconds in the incident. Later in therace, the #12 Lola-Rebellion was involved in contact with a couple of GT2 cars whichnecessitated a stop in the pits for repairs that cost nearly two laps. Nicolas Prost andNeel Jani were able to recover to finish in fifth place, but two laps behind the firstpetrol powered LMP.

The race for the Lola-Rebellion #13 car was even more difficult. After a strong start,Andrea Belicchi led the group of petrol powered LMP1 cars in the early stages of therace. However, the #13 Lola-Rebellion was hit at the rear by the Drayson RacingLola which damaged the left hand bodywork legality panel. The damaged bodyworkhad to be changed during the scheduled first pit stop when Jean-Christophe Boulliontook over behind the wheel, but one minute was lost with this incident. At the end ofJean-Christophe’s double stint a problem with the clutch delayed the car in the pitsand meant that Andrea had to wait whilst the mechanics bled the clutch hydraulics.At the next stop the clutch gave problems again and more time was lost.

At the final pitstop the clutch slave cylinder had to be replaced and this required thegearbox / bellhousing assembly to be split away from the engine. The new slavecylinder was fitted and the gearbox/bellhousing reaffixed to the car just in time forJean-Christophe to get back out on track to take the chequered flag. It was a sterlingeffort by the Rebellion Racing mechanics who all performed at the highest levelduring the race.

Bart Hayden, REBELLION Racing Team Manager commented :« We didn’t really get the reward from this race that we deserved. Both cars sufferedfrom incidents with traffic that had a negative impact on their races. With a thirdplace in the Teams’ Championship, a second place in the Manufacturers’classification and three podiums this year we shouldn’t be disappointed, but we werehopeful of even more. As a team we have grown stronger through the year and, ifyou look at the pace of our cars in the last two races, we were right at the front of thepetrol engined cars. Over the past three seasons we have grown from having one carin the LMP2 class to two cars in the LMP1 class. Over this winter we will be workingeven harder to raise our performance so that we can target great results nextseason. »