Le Mans Series

Third position in heavy rain for Creation

Creation Autosportif led today’s fifth and final round of the Le Mans Endurance Series for the first third of the race, but the victory the team has been chasing all season remained elusive. Nicolas Minassian, Jamie Campbell-Walter and Jean-Denis Deletraz finished in 3rd place today, and the team took 4th place in the LMP1 Teams Championship.

For new team sponsor, Canadian water company, Canaqua, a wet race was perhaps appropriate. For everyone else, the damp to extremely wet track conditions made life difficult throughout the entire six hours and ultimately determined the end result.

After a great start by Minassian, the DBA-Judd took the lead just three laps before the first and only safety car period. The Frenchman held onto this for over two hours, in appalling conditions, until his tyres, which had been triple stinted, began to affect his lap times and the car’s performance. He made an earlier-than-scheduled stop for new tyres and the Swiss Deletraz took the wheel, driving steadily to make up some of the time lost and into a podium position. Jamie Campbell-Walter then drove some of the best laps of the race, trying to claw back as much of the lost time as possible. Unfortunately it was not enough to affect the final result.

Ian Bickerton, Team Principal: “It was a tough race, and very difficult for us. We held a healthy lead but there was a bit of a bad call and we lost it. We should have won, but that’s the Creation luck, I think. We’ll just have to come back fighting next year.”

Michael Jankowski, Team Owner: “This year, generally speaking, we expected more in the way of results. In terms of performance we were right there, we had a lot of niggles and little problems which is unfortunate. I think we probably led more laps than anyone else over the course of the season but we haven’t won anything yet. A win will come next year but it will be in a different car - an evolution of what we’ve got, a hybrid form, and we should do well.”

Nicolas Minassian: “We had a good start and I managed to keep a good pace with the car, in spite of the very wet conditions, even with a little spin. Unfortunately we just had a bit of a misunderstanding at the end of a double stint with the tyres and ended up losing our advantage.”

Jean-Denis Deletraz: “I am very happy to be part of the Creation team for this race and want to thank the team and my team mates who trusted me with their car, especially in these difficult conditions.”

Jamie Campbell-Walter: “I had a pretty uneventful time in the car, apart from at the end [when conditions deteriorated severely]. Third is a good result but unfortunately with all that happened earlier we were too far behind to be able to change the result. It was a good race and it’s been a good season; we just didn’t get the win we were looking for.”

Results:
1 17 Collard/Bouillon Pescarolo C60 173 laps
2 4 McNish/Ortelli Audi R8 -1:09.875
3 7 Minassian/C’bell-Walter/Deletraz DBA-Judd -2 laps
4 15 Shimoda/Chilton/Elgaard Zytek 04S -2 laps
5 9 Fisken/Hancock/Tahincioglu Zytek 04S -4 laps
6 25 Newton/Erdos MG Lola EX 264 -9 laps (LMP2)

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