Lola take class honours at Le Mans
The American trio of William Binnie, Clint Field and Rick Sutherland took their Intersport Racing Judd-powered Lola B2K/40 to an LMP2 class win at Le Mans, a full 18 laps clear of the rest of the field after a reliable and determind run at the worlds toughest sportscar race. The three were delighted with their victory and it mirrored the 2000 race when the B2K/40 run by Multimatic took the LMP675 honours in its first year of competition.
"The team did a fantastic job all week," said an ecstatic Clint Field after the race. "It is so tough out there especially at night but we did it and I am so pleased for my team mates Rick and Bill who were just superb."
Intersport Racing's second car, a B2K/60 driven by Jon Field, Duncan Dayton and Larry Conner, crashed out in the third hour with Jon Field driving.
Ian Dawson’s Taurus Motorsport had a day of mixed fortunes when Didier Andre, Benjamin Leuenberger and Christian Vann were heading for a top 10 finish overall before a clutch problem intervened and caused them to pit for more than 20 minutes on Sunday afternoon. They brought their car home in 20th position but were delighted to have reached the flag.
The sister V10 Caterpillar diesel car of Phil Andrews, Calum Lockie and Anthony Kumpen was one of the first retirements just under three hours into the race, also with a clutch problem. The car had its most cohesive run to date, completing 17 laps between fuel stops, more than any other competitor, and with fuel to spare. The innovative car was one of the weekends biggest attractions and proved to be a firm favourite with the crowd which was thought to be around the 200,000 mark.
"We had a carbon clutch but we wore that out on Thursday night," said team manager Ian Dawson. "It was a one-off, so we fitted a conventional clutch for the rest of the weekend. Though we turned down the power a bit, it was still too much for it."
Mike Newton, Tommy Erdos and Nathan Kinch were also on course for a finish in their Ray Mallock-run Lola B01/60, but they stopped just short of the 20th hour when their car started to lose power. They had already been delayed when they cracked a manifold, which was replaced.
LE MANS 24 HOURS - RACE RESULT
Pos - # - Class - Drivers - Team - Car - Gap
1. 5 LM P1 Ara, Capello, Kristensen Audi Sport Japan Team Goh Audi R8 379 laps 2. 88 LM P1 Davies, Herbert, G.Smith Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx Audi R8 41.354 3. 2 LM P1 Lehto, Pirro, Werner Champion Racing Audi R8 11 laps 4. 18 LM P1 Ayari, Comas, Treluyer Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo Judd 18 laps 5. 8 LM P1 Biela, Kaffer, McNish Audi Sport UK Team Veloqx Audi R8 29 laps 6. 64 LM GTS Gavin, Beretta, Magnussen Corvette Racing Corvette C5-R 34 laps 7. 15 LM P1 Lammers, Dyson, Kaneishi Racing for Holland Dome Judd 38 laps 8. 63 LM GTS Fellows, O'Connell, Papis Corvette Racing Corvette C5-R 45 laps 9. 65 LM GTS McRae, Rydell, Turner Prodrive Racing Ferrari 550 Maranello 50 laps 10. 90 LM GT Maassen, Bergmeister, Long White Lightning Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 52 laps 11. 66 LM GTS Menu, Kox, Enge Prodrive Racing Ferrari 550 Maranello 54 laps 12. 77 LM GT Nishizawa, Kurosawa, Orido Choroq Racing Team Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 57 laps 13. 85 LM GT Ortelli, Kelleners, Dumas Freisinger Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 58 laps 14. 69 LM GTS Bouchut, Goueslard, Dupard Larbre Competition Ferrari 550 Maranello 62 laps 15. 84 LM GT Burgess, Collin, Bagnall Seikel Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 RS 1:14.094 16. 72 LM GT Alphand, Lavieille, Almeras Luc Alphand Aventures Porsche 911 GT3 RS 63 laps 17. 14 LM P1 Stirling, Lupberger, McGarrity Team NASAMAX Nasamax Judd 3:11.173 18. 81 LM GT Donaldson, Fisken, L.Nielsen The Racer's Group Porsche 911 GT3 RSR 65 laps 19. 92 LM GT Wilson, Mountain, Hugenholtz Cirtek Motorsport Ferrari 360 Modena 68 laps 20. 4 LM P1 Andre, Leuenberger, Vann Taurus Sports Racing Lola Judd 79 laps 21. 89 LM GT Berridge, Stockton, Caine Synergy Motorsport TVR 400R 24.856 22. 96 LM GT Tomlinson, Greensall, Evans Synergy Motorsport TVR 400R 88 laps 23. 75 LM GT Khan, N.Smith, Sugden Thierry Perrier Porsche 911 GT3 RS 96 laps 24. 20 LM P1 J.Nielsen, Elgaard, Moller Lister Racing Lister Storm 100 laps 25. 32 LM P2 C.Field, Binnie, Sutherland Intersport Racing Lola Judd 101 laps 26. 24 LM P2 Terada, Roussel, Porta Rachel Welter WR 109 laps 27. 80 LM GT Sharpe, Hyde, Cunningham Morgan Works Race Team Morgan Aero8 n/c 28. 16 LM P1 Coronel, Wilson, Firman Racing for Holland Dome Judd n/c 29. 17 LM P1 Collard, S.Bourdais, Minassian Pescarolo Sport Pescarolo Judd out 30. 25 LM P1 Newton, Erdos, Kinch RML Lola MG out 31. 6 LM P1 Short, Barbosa, Barff Rollcentre Racing Dallara Judd out 32. 87 LM GT Hindery, Lieb, Rockenfeller Orbit Racing Porsche 911 GT3 RSR out 33. 9 LM P1 Fukuda, Katoh, Michigami Kondo Racing Dome Mugen out 34. 62 LM GTS Hezemans, Deletraz, Barde Barron Connor Racing Ferrari 575 Maranello out 35. 22 LM P1 Wallace, Brabham, Shimoda Zytek Engineering Zytek O4S out 36. 61 LM GTS Biagi, Sullivan, Bosch Barron Connor Racing Ferrari 575 Maranello out 37. 83 LM GT Rosa, Merksteijn, Caffi Seikel Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 RS out 38. 36 LM P2 Bouvet, Gommendy, Briere Gerard Welter WR out 39. 70 LM GT Melo, de Fournoux, Daoudi JMB Racing Ferrari 360 Modena out 40. 31 LM P2 Frei, Gounon, Hancock Courage Competition Courage AER out 41. 35 LM P2 Jeannette, Pickering, Derlot Epsilon Sport Courage Willman out 42. 29 LM P1 Maury-Laribiere, Boulay, Besso Noel del Bello Reynard Lehmann out 43. 37 LM P2 Belmondo, Gosselin, Saviozzi Paul Belmondo Racing Courage AER out 44. 86 LM GT Vasiliev, Fomenko, Nearn Freisinger Motorsport Porsche 911 GT3 RSR out 45. 11 LM P1 P.Bourdais, Blanchemain, Bervi Panoz Motor Sports Panoz Elan out 46. 10 LM P1 Andrews, Kumpen, Lockie Taurus Sports Racing Lola Caterpillar out 47. 27 LM P1 J.Field, Dayton, Connor Intersport Racing Lola Judd out 48. 78 LM GT Warnock, Matthews, Daniels PK Sport Porsche 911 GT3 RS out
