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A landmark occasion for Lola Cars at the Le Mans 24 Hours Charouz Racing System Lola-Aston Martin finishes 9th overall Lola LMP2 Quifel-ASM Team finish class in 4th position
During the build up to this year’s race, Lola Cars landmark achievement was honoured when company owner and Executive Chairman, Martin Birrane received the prestigious ‘Spirit of Le Mans’ trophy. Off track tributes to Lola’s golden anniversary also saw Great Britain’s longest- serving manufacturer of racing cars featured as the central theme of the official parade, which took place in the town centre of Le Mans on the Friday before the race. On track, a grand total of seven entries; three in the LMP1 class and four entries in the LMP2 entries took the start of the world’s toughest endurance race. This was the marque’s largest entry since 1979. All eyes were on the Charouz Racing System Lola-Aston Martin (pictured above), which finished Thursday’s qualifying session in 6th position to claim the highest place for a petrol powered entry and in so doing beating one of the Audi R10 diesel sportscars. The sleek Lola Coupe design took its impressive qualifying performance in to the race with Stefan Mucke lapping quickly in the opening hour. Holding 6th place in the early stages, the German handed over to Jan Charouz who suffered the misfortune of an accident early in his first stint at the Dunlop chicane. The young Czech Republic driver managed to get the badly damaged Lola B08/60 Coupe to the pits where it lost significant time during repairs. Some terrific work by the Charouz team ensured that a tenacious fight back took place and by the chequered flag the blue and white Lola LMP1 Coupe finished a fighting 9th overall, in what was its first ever appearance at the 24 Heures Du Mans. Also taking the chequered flag at 15.00 hrs on Sunday afternoon was the Quifel-ASM Lola of Guy Smith, Miguel Amaral and Olivier Pla. The AER engined Lola encountered paddle shift problems during the race but the well drilled ASM squad reverted to a manual shift system. This meant that the car fell back to 4th in the LMP2 class but the experience of former winner Smith paid off and the team demonstrated their resilience to hold on to the position for their first Le Mans 24 Hours finish in three attempts. Undoubtedly the only challenger to the Porsche LMP2 Spyder on pace throughout the weekend was the all-new Lola B08/80 LMP2 Coupe of Speedy Racing Team Sebah. The Judd powered car was in a comfortable 3rd place in LMP2 after a relatively trouble free first half of the race, with only a puncture and some electrical issues hindering its rapid progress. At 04:30 hrs the rain was making the track conditions very tricky. With the greasy surface, Xavier Pompidou lost control of the Lola Coupe and crashed at Indianapolis corner. The 33 year-old managed to limp back to the pits but the car stopped just where the pit-lane leaves the main circuit. Just after this the Corvette Racing C6.R driven by Johnny O'Connell tried to come into the pits, but failed to avoid the Speedy Racing Team Sebah. The Anglo-Swiss team finally made it to the pits, but the LMP2 Coupe’s courageous assault of the Le Mans 24 Hours was over after the engine was damaged in the attempts to get the car back to the pit lane, having completed a thrilling 194 laps around the 8.72 miles circuit. Additional Lola runners who encountered race ending problems included the Kruse Schiller Mazda Lola (lap 147 -transmission problem), Charouz Racing (Cytosport) Lola-Judd (lap 146 - engine failure), RML entered Lola-MG (lap 100 –accident damage), and Chamberlain Synergy (lap 87 - engine). The Audi Sport team with drivers Allan McNish, Tom Kristensen and Rinaldo Capello were the overall winner’s of the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours. Lola sportscars will next be in action in Europe at the Nurburgring 1000kms on August 17.In the US, the next American Le Mans Series event takes place at Lime Rock on July 12th ALL-NEW LOLA COUPES STUN SPORTSCAR WORLD AT BARCELONA LOLA COUPE POWER
The Charouz Racing System Lola B08/60, powered by Aston Martin, rocked the sportscar world with its pace during both qualifying and the race where it competed with the Audi and Peugeot diesel powered cars. Qualifying in fourth place, Stefan Mucke (pictured) soon surged through to third position overall in the early exchanges after overtaking Minassian’s Peugeot. The German driver then proceeded to hold on to the leading pair of Pedro Lamy’s Peugeot and the Audi R10 of Allan McNish. The Michelin shod Lola then drove a trouble free and impressively quick six hour race with Mucke’s team mate, Jan Charouz, also doing a superb job at the wheel to clinch third place overall. The only incident during the event for the Charouz team was when Mucke made brief contact with the GT Ferrari of Rob Bell at the quick final right hand corner on to the pit straight. However, the Lola showed it was strong as well as fast and continued untroubled, eventually setting its fastest lap of the race at 1m35.531s. This time was just over two tenths of a second slower than the second placed Audi R10 diesel. “Simply fantastic, I do not think that other words are needed,” said Stefan Mucke. “It is unbelievable how everything worked. Our team was good even during our debut season but we have moved forward. I did not have any single problem during the race, the Lola was working faultlessly. I can not wait for the next race at Monza!” The Speedy Racing Team Sebah squad were just as impressive in LMP2 with Xavier Pompidou starting their first ever LMP2 event from second on the grid. The Judd engined Lola, which comfortably double stinted its Michelin tyres throughout the race, led the class at the midway stage. However a small delay after an incident with the Team Modena Aston Martin GT1 car and a separate brief clash with the Lamy/Sarrazin Peugeot meant that the Van Merksteijn Porsche eventually took the spoils. With a fastest race lap identical to the Porsche driven by former Grand Prix star Jos Verstappen the Lola B08/80 LMP2 showed some searing pace despite having just two days of serious testing under its belt. Andrea Belicchi and Steve Zacchia joined Pompidou on the driving strength and the latter of this trio was enthused by his new Lola mount, saying: “Compared to cars I have driven recently this is fantastic, the levels of grip, and the speed through the corners, are wonderful. I’m just now beginning to explore the real limits.” Speaking of the success in the race, Lola Executive Chairman, Martin Birrane said: “My sincere congratulations to Charouz Racing System and Speedy Racing team Sebah on their excellent debut performances at Barcelona yesterday. By happy co-incidence the Charouz Lola Coupe was the 50th sportscar to be sold during my ownership, so that is a nice story for us as we celebrate our 50th year as a constructor. The results were a testament to our long-term vision in global sportscar racing and to the top class technical capabilities at our base in Huntingdon, UK.” “It was an enormous boost to find the V12 Aston Martin engine mated so well to the Lola B08/60 Coupe chassis. To be mixing it among the manufacturer cars already bodes very well for the rest of the season. Looking further ahead the effects of a potential diesel engined Lola Coupe on the sportscar grid can be imagined and we sincerely hope that this can become a reality sooner rather than later.”
REIGNING CHAMPIONS SCORE POINTS FOR TITLE DEFENCE
powerplant over the winter and the team expects continued improvements at the next race in Monza on April 27th. Chamberlain Synergy returned to the LMS for their fourth consecutive season in a Lola with Bob Berridge and Gareth Evans finishing 9th in the LMP1 class. Driving the AER powered Lola, the team were forced to pit to repair a legalising panel but managed to do this in just under a minute. The Hugh Chamberlain led team took the chequered flag despite driver Evans battling illness during the race as well as further delays caused by gear selection problems. Quifel-ASM showed their pace all weekend with former GP2 front runner Olivier Pla making an impact in his first sportscar race. The Portuguese team started the race well but lost time due to accident damage to their rear tie- rod which necessitated a replacement. However, Pla and team mate Miguel Amaral completed the race and finished 9th in class. Kruse-Schiller Motorsport arrived at Barcelona with very little testing time achieved in their ex Fernandez Racing Lola B07/40-Mazda. Hideki Noda started the race for the popular German team but persistent water leaks ensured that he and his team mate Jean De Pourtales were forced to retire from the race in the fourth hour of the six hour enduro. All of Lola’s sportscar entrants will be back in action at Monza in three weeks time. With more running time gained from the opening race of the season the new Lola Coupes expect to be quicker on the flat out sweeps of the famous Italian Grand Prix venue.
RACE RESULT
NOTES • The Charouz Lola B08/60 LMP1 Coupe and the Speedy Racing Team Sebah Lola B08/80 LMP2 Coupe were the 50th and 51st sportscars to leave the Lola factory since Martin Birrane took over the company in 1997. • Lola will have more entries at Le Mans this year than any other current constructor. The Huntingdon marque will also have its largest entry at La Sarthe since 1979 when Lola’s competed in the 24 Hours. • While the Barcelona event was on at the weekend, Lola engineers were running a windtunnel programme at Lola’s state-of-the-art windtunnel in Huntingdon. The sessions are centred around the Coupe model and will carry on until the end of the week. • While the Lola name is synonymous with motor sport throughout the world, it is a well kept secret that the company’s winning technology stretches across the Defence and Aviation industries. The secret of the multi-faceted Lola is a reflection of sensitive nature of these territories. • From developing state-of-the-art technology for winning Le Mans cars to building the entire shell for military Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, how do the contrasting industries of motor sport, defence and aerospace find a common denominator in Lola? The highest level of security, cutting-edge technology, managing multi million pound budgets and working to pressurised lead times all work hand-in-hand within these specialist industries.
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The
76
The
new Lola LMP Coupes made stunning debuts at the Barcelona Le Mans Series
race on Sunday with each of the Huntingdon built LMP cars securing
podium positions.
The
reigning champions in LMP2, RML scored points with a 4th place in class
as Mike Newton and Tommy Erdos recovered from a problematic practice
session. The MG powered Lola has had significant updates added to its