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Lola at Le Mans: After 16 Hours

The remaining six Lola sports cars raced in to dawn at Le Mans this morning after a busy night for the teams and drivers as they reached 16 hours of flat out racing.

The AMR Lola’s continued to run smoothly with the #007 car of Stefan Mucke/Harold Primat and Adrian Fernandez continuing in 7th place after a faultless run. At 07.00 Fernandez was at the wheel of the famous Gulf liveried Lola designed and built LMP1 car and just a lap behind the diesel powered ORECA Peugeot.

The sister 009 Lola Aston Martin had a similarly trouble free run with Darren Turner handing over to Sam Hancock in the 15th hour. Hancock, who had only 30 laps experience of the Lola before he arrived at Le Mans, drove excellently to ensure that the team’s advantage over the Kolles Audi was maintained and indeed expanded by daybreak.

The ex AMR Lola B09/60 now run by Signature Plus was still running well in 10th place after Vanina Ickx had completed a fine night time stint. A 6-lap buffer to the 11th placed car gave the French team breathing space with 8 hours remaining

Drayson Racing’s Lola Judd LMP1 Coupe spent much of the 3am-7am period in the pits receiving repairs to a fuel cell. However, epitomising the spirit of Le Mans, the team readied the car for Paul Drayson to go back in to the race at 04.45. Sadly, further work had to be carried out on the fuel system and it was a further 50 mins before the car ran again.

Jonny Cocker took over the driving duties in the Michelin shod LMP1 Coupe but suffered a spin at Indianapolis and was stranded in the gravel trap. Once again the plucky Drayson team faced another pit visit but Cocker was soon on his way once again with the determination to register a classified finish for the team in its first LMP attack on the 24 Hours.

Rebellion Racing’s 2010 Le Mans came to a cruel end in the 12th hour when Neel Jani was forced to stop the Lola Rebellion LMP1 Coupe just before the Ford Chicane. A transmission problem encountered by the Swiss/Indian driver meant the team were forced to pack away their equipment and plan for the remainder of the 2010 Le Mans Series.

In LMP2, RML made real progress after smooth early morning running by Mike Newton and Andy Wallace. Their 5th position soon became 4th after the Quifel ASM team encountered problems. When Tommy Erdos took over from Wallace in the 14th hour for another triple stint, it was evident that the objective of a podium finish was very much on for the HPD 3.4 litre powered Lola Coupe.

Sure enough, by 06.15, Erdos was in to 3rd position and lapping as fast as he had earlier in the race with regular low 3m40s laps. An intense battle with the #35 Oak Racing Pescarolo is set to follow as at 06.00 the gap was just 35 seconds.

Kruse Schiller continued their excellent showing and held 8th place in their familiar orange and white Lola LMP2. Hideki Noda briefly gave the team a scare in the 15th hour when he ran wide in to the gravel at Indianapolis but no damage was caused by the excursion. With clean stints by Jean De Pourtales and Jonathan Kennard completed earlier, it was Noda who was still in the car at 07.00.

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Standings after 12 Hours

1. Montagny/Sarrazin/Minassian P1 Peugeot 908 263laps
2. Bernhard/Dumas/Rockenfeller P1 Audi R15 262laps
3. Fassler/Lotterer/Treluyer P1 Audi R15 262laps
4. Wurz/Davidson/Gene P1 Peugeot 908 262laps
5. Kristensen/McNish/Capello P1 Audi R15 261laps
6 Panis/Lapierre/Duval P1 ORECA Peugeot 908 260laps
7. Mucke/Fernandez/Primat P1 AMR Lola-Aston Martin 259laps
8. Turner/Hancock/Barazi P1 AMR Lola-Aston Martin 256laps
9. Jarvis/Albers/Bakkerud P1 Kolles Audi R10 253laps
10. Mailleux/Ragues/Ickx P1 Signature Lola-Aston Martin 251 laps
11. Watts/Kane/Leventis P2 Strakka HPD ARX-01 245laps
12. Ayari/Andre/Meyrick P1 ORECA 01-AIM 244 laps
13. Brabham/Franchitti/Werner P2 Highcroft HPD ARX-01 243l laps
14. Charouz/Lahaye/Moreau P2 Oak Pescarolo 239 laps
15. Erdos/Newton/Wallace P2 RML Lola HPD 238 laps
16. Pla/Amaral/Hughes P2 Quifel ASM Ginetta 230 laps
28. Noda/Pourtales/Kennard P2 KSM Lola-Judd 220 laps
41. Pirro/Cocker/Drayson P1 Drayson Lola
R. Prost/Andretti/Jani P1 Lola-Rebellion
R. Boullion/Belicchi/Smith P1 Lola-Rebellion
R. Pirri/Cioci/Perrazzini P2 Racing Box Lola
R. Lewis/Burgess/Willman P1 Autocon Lola-AER

After 16 Hours there were 38 cars still running