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Lola at Le Mans: After 8 Hours

Hours four to eight at this years Le Mans 24 Hours were action packed for the Lola LMP1 and LMP2 runners. As darkness fell on the classic 8.72 mile circuit eight of the ten Lola’s that started the event were still racing hard.

As the clocked ticked to 11pm marking 1/3 distance covered, the Lola Aston Martin pair of 007 and 009 were placed in 6th and 8th places respectively. Stefan Mucke was halfway through his second stint at the wheel of the V12 powered Lola B09/60 after team mates Harold Primat and Adrian Fernandez had consolidated the rapid Germans earlier work.

The 009 entry had a trouble free 4 hours with Sam Hancock and Juan Barazi lapping consistently before Darren Turner took over the wheel just before 10pm.

The Rebellion Racing team had a busy four hours with the #13 entry of Jean Christophe Boullion/Guy Smith and Andrea Belicchi is positioned in 11th place overall. This was after some stirling work by the Bart and Hugh Hayden led team after Andrea Belicchi had an excursion at the 1st Mulsanne Chicane. The car came in to the pits shortly after for checks and some replacement rear bodywork.

The #12 Lola Rebellion lost significant time in the pits in the 5th hour with technical problems related to a gearbox temperature sensor. The Prost/Jani and Andretti entry slipped to 22nd overall but was lapping well and aiming to climb up the leader board during the night.

Signature Plus resided in 12th place, just behind the Rebellion Lola. Pierre Ragues was finishing a triple stint after team mate Frank Mailleux completed a marathon quadruple opening stint.

Drayson Racing experienced several issues throughout the last four hours. The relatively new to LMP racing Drayson team dealt efficiently with the challenges and after several precautionary pit stops for suspension and an oil leak, were back in the fray with Jonny Cocker at the wheel in 30th position.

RML continued to have an impressive run with Mike Newton and Andy Wallace completing trouble free stints. Just a precautionary pit stop to remove rubber pick up from the HPD powered Lola LMP2 Coupe was all that troubled the well drilled and experienced Wellingborough based team. At 11pm, Tommy Erdos was in the middle of another lengthy stint and eating up the gap to 3rd placed LMP2 runner, the #35 Oak Racing Pescarolo.

Kruse Schiller overcame an alternator problem in the 5th hour to hold 8th place in LMP2. Their open cockpit Lola Judd was lapping well at 11pm with Hideki Noda at the wheel of the Dunlop shod car. Earlier Jonathan Kennard had completed his first racing stints at Le Mans, setting the cars fastest lap of 3m49.130, as he continued his impressive debut.

Sadly, Racing Box retired their Lola Judd in the fifth hour, being forced to stop after a terminal fuel pump problem. Autocon retired earlier in the race with a gearbox failure.

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Standings after 8 Hours

1. Montagny/Sarrazin/Minassian P1 Peugeot 908  129laps
2. Panis/Lapierre/Duval P1 ORECA Peugeot 908 
3. Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer P1 Audi R15
4. Bernhard/Dumas/Rockenfeller P1 Audi R15
5. Kristensen/McNish/Capello P1 Audi R15
6. Mucke/Fernandez/Primat P1 AMR Lola-Aston Martin
7. Wurz/Davidson/Gene P1 Peugeot 908
8. Turner/Hancock/Barazi P1 AMR Lola-Aston Martin
9. Jarvis/Albers/Bakkerud P1 Kolles Audi R10
10. Ayari/Andre/Meyrick P1 ORECA 01-AIM
11. Boullion/Belicchi/Smith P1 Lola-Rebellion
12. Mailleux/Ragues/Ickx P1 Signature Lola-Aston
13. Watts/Kane/Leventis P2 Strakka HPD ARX-01  120laps
14. Brabham/Franchitti/Werner P2 Highcroft HPD ARX-01
15. Charouz/Lahaye/Moreau P2 Oak Pescarolo
16. Erdos/Newton/Wallace P2 RML Lola HPD
17. Pla/Amaral/Hughes P2 Quifel ASM Ginetta
18. Bouchut/Tucker/Rodrigues P1 Kolles Audi R10
19. Hein/Yvon/Nicolet P2 Oak Pescarolo
20. Ojeih/Greaves/Chalandon P2 Bruich Ginetta
21. Prost/Andretti/Jani P1 Lola-Rebellion
23. Noda/Pourtales/Kennard P2 KSM Lola-Judd
30. Pirro/Cocker/Drayson P1 Drayson Lola
R. Pirri/Cioci/Perrazzini P2 Racing Box Lola
R. Lewis/Burgess/Willman P1 Autocon Lola-AER

44 cars still running