Lola Cars International clinched 1st and 2nd places in the LMP2 category at the Petit Le Mans 1,000m mile race at Road Atlanta over the weekend. The class win for Robin Liddell/Clint Field and Venezuelan female driver Milka Duno in their Intersport Lola B2K/40 keeps their Championship title hopes alive for the final round of the series in Laguna Seca on 16th October.
The Intersport Lola battled fiercely with the Miracle Motorsport Courage of John Macaluso/James Gue and Ian James but got the better of the French chassis which eventually retired on lap 128. It was another fine win in a stellar season for Intersport who also took the LMP2 win at Le Mans back in June.
"We had a reliable car, it's the strong point," said Clint Field. "Robin and Milka did great jobs, but reliability was on our sides. We were pushed in the beginning. The car keeps running and running."
Robin Liddell too could not conceal his pleasure at the class win, saying. “It makes up for Road America where we got disqualified, and it’s a great result for the team and everybody. The car ran faultlessly apart from one small area which was a throttle cable stretch which meant we didn’t have full throttle for the last part of the race. Other than that it never missed a beat.”
Liddell, who is fast emerging as a real LMP talent of the future, also talked of the inherent dangers of keeping the car intact through the traffic. “I was using the car's ability to get through traffic while driving conservatively. I had a close call near the finish, there was a Porsche who didn't see me, it was close, but he didn't touch me. Sometimes its difficult to be too careful."
Andy Lally, Ryan Eversley and Spencer Pumpelly finished second in the LMP2 class in the Marshall Cooke Racing Lola B2K/40-Millington, the only other P2 car running at the finish.
Lola’s also starred in LMP1 with the Dyson B01/60 of James Weaver/Butch Leitzinger and Andy Wallace claiming an excellent pole position ahead of the Zytek and both Champion Audi R8’s. Despite showing a remarkable turn of speed during the first hour, Weaver was delayed when the steering-wheel mounted paddle-shift system malfunctioned resulting in the car sticking in 5th gear. After spending 6 laps in the pits to change to a manual system, Butch Leitzinger went back out but was soon back in after being assaulted by one of the Lamborghini GTS cars. The car lost more time with radiator damage and eventually finished in 9th position overall.
The sister car of Jan Lammers and Chris Dyson took a superb 3rd place overall with Dyson saying; ““I think, all things considered, we couldn’t have done better. I’m really happy for the guys and it’s great to be back up on the podium at a long endurance race. Jan [Lammers] did a phenomenal job as always and it’s a credit to Lola, they built a wonderful car. Obviously if a few things had gone differently, the result might have ended better, but I think that was probably the best we were going to do today.”
Other Lola cars did not fare so well in a race, which featured seven safety car periods. The Intersport Racing Lola B162 of Jon Field, Duncan Dayton and Mike Durand retired at two thirds distance with clutch failure. Earlier John Field had made his customery charge up to 3rd place overall before sustaining damage after an altercation with a GT car. The Lola B2K/40’s of Van der Steur Racing and Miracle Motorsports retired with engine failures.
RACE RESULTS
1. Marco Werner/JJ Lehto Champion Audi R8 394 laps
2. Pierre Kaffer/Johnny Herbert Champion Audi R8 391 laps
3. Jan Lammers/Chris Dyson Dyson Lola B01/60-AER 383 laps
4. Oliver Gavin/Jan Magnussen/Olivier Beretta Chevrolet Corvette C5-R 376 laps
5. Ron Fellows/Johnny O'Connell/Max Papis Chevrolet Corvette C5-R 375 laps
6. Clint Field/Robin Liddell/Milka Duno Intersport Lola B2K/40/Judd 369 laps
7. Timo Bernhard/Sascha Maassen/Jorg Bergmeister Porsche 911 GT3 360 laps
8. Romain Dumas/Wolf Henzler/Marc Lieb Porsche 911 GT3 360 laps
9. James Weaver/Andy Wallace/Butch Leitzinger Dyson Lola B01/60 357 laps
10. David Murry/Craig Stanton Porsche 911 GT3 357 laps
18. Andy Lally/Ryan Eversley/Spencer Pumpelly Marshall Cooke Lola B2K40/Millington 339 laps
25. Chris McMurry/Bryan Willman/Jeff Bucknum Miracle Lola B2K/40 AER
Retired – Engine 209 laps
30. Jon Field/Duncan Dayton Intersport Lola B01/60-Judd 120 laps - clutch
31.Gunnar Van der Steur/ Eric Van der Steur/ Ben Devlin VDS Lola B2K/40/Nissan 107, Engine.
35. Ben Devlin/Rich Grupp/Jason Workman Marshall Cooke Lola B2K40/Millington did not start. - accident
Race statistics
Winning time: 9 hours, 35 minutes, 41.562 seconds
Margin of Victory: 3 laps
Average Speed: 104.301 mph
Caution flags: 7 for 52 laps
Lead changes: 8 among 4 cars
