Lola sportscars ended the 2008 Le Mans Series in fine style at Silverstone with the Huntingdon-based constructor celebrating its best ever finish when the CharouzLola-Aston Martin came home in 2nd place.
Silverstone saw the climax to a stunning debut season with the Lola B08/60 LMP1 Coupe for the Charouz Racing System team. Following a podium place at Barcelona in April and a superb 8th overall at the Le Mans 24 Hours in March, the V12 powered Lola fought with the newly crowned diesel powered Audi’s during the Silverstone 1000kms, eventually finishing a creditable runner up in the 195 lap race, that was attended by over 50,000 people during the weekend.
German driver Stefan Mucke, started the race and ran a close 4th in the early stages. The Lola-Aston Martin stayed in touch with the leading runners who soon fell away after hitting trouble due to various accidents. After the team cleverly took the opportunity to fill up with fuel during a safety car period, Jan Charouz took over and led the race for a time before losing out to one of the Audi R10’s at thenext pit stop, again conducted under a caution period.
However, Charouz lapped competitively and remained right behind the title contender, showing the eye catching pace of the Lola that has consistently proved to be the only true challenger to the works Audi and Peugeot teams this season. Jan Charouz, who at just 21 has proved to be one of the upand coming young talents of the LMS, even survived some contact with a GT car.
“We not only confirmed the fact that we are fastest petrol car today but we also beat three turbodiesels as they made various mistakes,” said a delighted Jan Charouz at the end of the race. “We putin consistent lap times and it was a very important result for us. One slower car damaged thebodywork when I was overtaking him but fortunately it was not a serious problem. It was one of thebiggest races for me and I am very happy. “
Lola also celebrated a podium position in the LMP2 class with the Quifel-ASM Lola B05/40-AERtaking third position. Olivier Pla showed some searing pace in the Portuguese run Lola, starting therace and completing a memorable triple stint, running in contention with the podium positioned cars inthe early stages.
Miguel Amaral took over the driver responsibilities in the middle portion of the race and despite acollision with the Embassy run LMP2 car of IRL driver Darren Manning, he handed back over toOlivier Pla.
The Frenchman came home in 4thplace in class but the impressive Quifel-ASM team were elevatedto 3rdplace when the other Embassy car of Jonny Kane and Warren Hughes was penalised for exitingthe pit lane on a red light. The podium marked another excellent result for Antonio Simoes team whonow will look forward to the 2009 season and a fresh challenge in sportscars.
A highly creditable 4thplace in LMP2 was the all-new RML MG-Lola LMP2 Coupe of Tommy Erdos and Mike Newton. After just a few hours of testing at Snetterton last week the familiar red, white andblue liveried sportscar used the race weekend as an extended test but were very happy with the waythe car ran on its way to more points, ensuring that the reigning LMS champions finished equal 4thinthe LMP2 points standings.
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