First petrol car in LMP1;
Another podium for Level 5
Lola were celebrating a 1-2 finish in the Le Mans Series round held at Imolalast weekend.
The Rebellion Racing team took maximum points in the thirdround of the five race championship. The result ensures that the RebellionLola-Toyota team are now joint leaders of the Championship with two roundsremaining at Silverstone and Estoril.
Also a round of the Intercontinental Le Mans Cup, the brace of Lola-ToyotaLMP1's placed 5th and 6th in the overall classification, once again beingthe first petrol powered cars to take the chequered flag. Jean Christophe Boullion and Andrea Belicchi both had impressive stints atthe wheel of the Lola which has shown consistent improvements in overallresults since substantial aerodynamic upgrades were revealed at the Le Manstest in April. "We have to be proud of the team and the work we have done," said #13 Loladriver, Jean Christophe Boullion. "From the beginning of the season, thecars are better and better.
This result is very good for us." Lola Managing Director, Robin Brundle added: "Our engineers in Huntingdonhave been working tirelessly in all of Lola's on-site technical R&Dcapabilities honing new and innovative aerodynamic and mechanical designsfor our sports prototype products to ensure we provide performance in adifferent class. "As a company we are determined to prove that our customer sportscars arethe fastest and most reliable cars on the grid," continued Brundle. "It isgratifying for each and every member of the Lola team to see that come tofruition with results like this."
The #12 Rebellion Lola-Toyota of Neel Jani and Nico Prost finished 2nd inLMS and 6th in ILMC to round off another impressive race for the LMP1 Lolaentries, consolidating the speed and reliability that has made them theleading customer package so far this season.
As well as success in the Le Mans Series LMP1 division, the LMP2 Lola ofLevel 5 Motorsports scored their fourth podium position of the year in theiropen cockpit Lola B11/43 with an excellent 3rd place. The American team hada fine race and led in the closing stages only for two precautionary pitstops for a mechanical problem demote them to 3rd position.
Scott Tucker, who started the race in the HPD powered Lola was joined onceagain by Joao Barbosa and Christophe Bouchut on the podium to consolidatetheir 2nd place in the LMP2 ILMC points standings. Pecom Racing scored more points at their home race with Luis Perez Companc,Matias Russo and Pierre Kaffer finishing in 4th place, just behind thesimilar Level 5 Lola entry. Companc suffered a spin early in the race butafter recovering the Judd BMW powered Lola ran cleanly to register anotherworthy finish.
Team RLR were able to take positives after a tough weekend at Imola for thewell drilled Lancastrian team. Despite an early set back with a steeringproblem, all three drivers fought back well with some encouraging lap timesfor the MG-Lola LMP2 car. Sadly, a late race technical problem ensured their100% finishing record in the LMS came to an end but the tenacious team willbe looking to fight back strongly at their home race at Silverstone inSeptember.
Lola will be using the summer break to make some exciting announcementsabout future projects in endurance racing. About Lola Group:In its 53rd year of business, Lola is one of the longest established andmost successful designers and constructors of racing cars in the world,keeping itself at the forefront of design and technology by investing instate of the art facilities including Computational Fluid Dynamics, FiniteElement Analysis, a 50% scale wind tunnel and a 7 post aerodynamicsuspension and chassis set up rig.
The company is equipped and has theskills to carry out any major motorsport programmes for a manufacturer fromF1 through every category of motorsport. Having built more customer racing cars than any other constructor in thehistory of motorsport, Lola now also services the Aerospace, Marine,Automotive, Defence and Communications industries with a complete design andbuild capability in advanced carbon composites.
