Ray Mallock saw his team achieve its best finish of the year when Tommy Erdos, Mike Newton and Miguel Ramos drove their Lola B160 to seventh position overall in the opening round of the Le Mans Endurance Series at Monza. The team was delighted with the finish, which saw a virtually untroubled 1000km covered by the car, and is now looking forward to a full day testing at Snetterton next week in preparation for the Le Mans 24-hours next month.
“We had an almost trouble-free run, our only issue was struggling to start the car at the final set of pit stops in the wet,” confirmed team boss Ray Mallock. “We put the car in the garage and attached a slave battery to get it going, but otherwise we are absolutely delighted with the performance and reliability of the car. We will go to Snetterton next week without touching the car and put more miles on it in preparation for Le Mans.”
Lola’s other teams were not so fortunate, with the Intersport Lola B2K/40 Judd having been hit from behind by a Porsche, pitching William Binnie into a high-speed spin on the approach to the first chicane. The American emerged shaken but otherwise unhurt from the accident, which occurred in the second hour of the race. The team had already worked hard to repair a broken header, which was discovered after the morning warm-up.
Team Taurus continued its learning curve with the diesel-powered Lola B2K/10. The team battled against a recurring mechanical issue, which it expects to resolve before resuming a test programme in a couple of weeks. The car was pulled off the grid when the team realised that the problem was still apparent and the car did not start.
“We know that the car has massive potential and can be very quick,” said team manager Ian Dawson. “We have learned a lot by coming here to race rather than testing behind closed doors, and we will take some time to address the issues before testing again in preparation for Le Mans.”
The second Lola had a gearbox issue that restricted running over the practice and qualifying days while the team waited for spares to arrive from England. A further issue prevented the car from making the grid, but the team will test during the week.
The race was won by Audi, which filled the top three podium positions. Johnny Herbert and Jamie Davies took the win, just 0.6s ahead of their team-mates Allan McNish and Pierre Kaffer. The Team Goh Audi of Tom Kristensen, Seiji Ara and Dindo Capello was third, a lap down on the winning Audi Sport Veloqx team cars.
Results, Le Mans Endurance Series
Round 1, Monza 1000kms
Jamie Davies/Johnny Herbert, Audi Sport UK, Team Veloqx, Audi R8, 173 laps in five hours, 05 minutes, 52.043s
Pierre Kaffer/Allan McNish, Audi Sport UK, Team Veloqx, Audi R8, at 0.663s
Tom Kristensen/Rinaldo Capello/Seiji Ara, Team Goh, Audi R8, at 1 lap
Soheil Ayari/Emmanuel Collard, Team Pescarolo, Courage Judd, at 4 laps
Martin Short/Joao Barbosa/Rob Barff, Rollcentre Dallara Judd, at 5 laps
Andy Wallace/David Brabham/Stefan Johansson, Zytek Engineering, Zytek, at 8 laps
Tommy Erdos/Mike Newton/Miguel Ramos, RML, MG Lola, at 12 laps Werner Lupberger/Robbie Stirling, Team Nasamax, DM139 Judd, at 15 laps
Pedro Lamy, Christophe Bouchut/Steve Zacchia, Larbre Competition, Ferrari 550 Maranello, at 19 laps
Thomas Biagi/Danny Sullivan/John Bosch, Barron Connor Racing, Ferrari 575, at 22 laps
