Le Mans Series

1000 KM Hungaroring: Strakka Racing wins overall

© DPPI

Danny Watts, Jonny Kane and Nick Leventis secured an historic victory with their Strakka Racing HPD ARX-01c today at the Hungaroring. The British LMP2 team won the 1000 KM of the Hungaroring, a first in the history of the Le Mans Series. After six hours of racing in Hungary the entire overall podium was made up from LMP2 teams.

Full race report to follow…After a heavy crash in the warm up session the number 48 Hope PoleVision Racing FLM09 did not take the start and the 008 Signature Plus Lola Aston Martin started from the back at the grid after changing tires prior to the race.

Right at the start of the 1000 KM of the Hungaroring it was clear that Danny Watts would not interfere with the LMP1 battle and let the Oreca Peugeot and the two Rebellion Lola’s go by.

Other than a few position changes and a coming together between the ProSpeed Porsche and the RLR msport MG Lola not much happened in the opening hour. Near the end of the first hour the Rebellions came in and that allowed the Oreca Peugeot to take the lead. In the FLM field the Applewood number 49 came to a halt in the grass, just two corners shy of the pit.

The Rebellion cars hit trouble when Boullion and Federico Leo (Racing Box) had a coming together and Neel Jani spun his Lola Rebellion. It took a few moments before he got the car back in the right direction and into the pit for a long repair, which killed its chances of winning this race.

Two hours and twenty minutes into the race the first safety car came out when Carlo van Dam’s Atlas eFX Team FS Saleen S7R suffered a brake failure and the number 66 car ploughed into the wall at the end of the straight. While Van Dam emerged from the car without any injuries the car was heavily damaged and was, as Van Dam said, “ready to go into a large bin.”

The safety car procedure didn’t really go as planned and some cars took advantage of the regulations not being followed; some teams did not get a red light at the pit exit.
Fortunately for the teams the safety car pulled in after fifteen minutes and the race was restarted. At the front the Oreca Peugeot had taken a lap over the Rebellion cars and looked to be on its way to yet another easy victory.

As the Peugeot cruised away the other LMP1 and FLM teams hit trouble. Most of the FLM teams were either out, had been in the pits for a while or were involved in incidents with GT cars – Delhez twice – and after two hours the LMP2 cars had slowly but steadily moved further up the ranks. The OAK Racing cars had their problems, the Rebellion cars came in for more unscheduled stops and even the 008 Lola Aston Martin which had made its way up the field faced a long pit stop with an alternator problem.

At 19.42 the Oreca Peugeot came in to the pit and was pushed back into the box. Out on the track Belicchi the number 13 Rebellion Racing went straight with locked tires, indications of a gear box issue. The safety car was deployed again when it was deemed impossible to get the Rebellion car to safety in an easy way. Oreca’s Peugeot briefly returned to the track, but its lap was so slow it soon returned to the pit and was wheeled into the box again.

Ten minutes after the safety car had come onto the track it went in again and this left the Strakka Racing in the overall lead of the race. Not only that, the entire top four consisted of LMP2 cars. But Leventis pitted the first lap under green and Strakka lost its place to Quifel-ASM Team and a lap on the Portuguese team.

A stop and go for the penalty and another pit stop for the Beechdean Mansell Motorsport Ginetta-Zytek meant it dropped down the order but they were still first in the LMP1 category.

Strakka Racing was handed back the race lead when the Quifel-ASM Team car came in for a stop. While Pla took over from Amaral the team checked the front bodywork that was loose and the team was not allowed to rejoin the race before it was repaired. The car eventually returned in third position. Nicolet was now in second in the OAK Racing Pescarolo.

Just before half past eight the Oreca Peugeot rejoined but it only lapped the Hungaroring circuit in lap times way over 2 minutes. But with 70% from the class winner’s laps being the limit for points Oreca had to try everything.

Further down the field the GT2 battle was still on with all cars still in striking distance, but especially Lieb hunting down the CRS Ferrari of Tim Mullen and Andrew Kirkaldy. Behind them the AF Corse Ferrari number 95 and the IMSA Porsche were also still in a battle for third.

Just into the sixth and final hour the Oreca Peugeot pitted again and was again pushed into the box. Out on the track Lietz, who had taken over from Lieb, saw Kirkaldy closing in and with just half an hour left the gap between first and second in the class was just half a second. Unfortunately what seemed to be a fuel related issue caused Kirkaldy to let the Porsche go and to retain second position.

At the front though Jonny Kane cruised around the track and knew he would win. As the Brit went onto his last lap the Oreca Peugeot also rolled out onto the track again in order to take a fourth place LMP1 finish at the Hungaroring.

As the chequered flag came out it was Strakka Racing taking the first ever LMP2 car to an overall victory. Quifel-ASM Team took second overall and class, while OAK Racing’s number 24 took third.

In LMP1 the Mansell brothers take their first class win – daddy Nigel on the podium proud but probably unhappy that he did not race himself – ahead of Neel Jani and Nicolas Prost in second and Pierre Ragues, Franck Mailleux and Vanina Ickx in third place.

The battle in GT2 was eventually won by Team Felbermayr Proton and their number 77 car. But they really had to fight for it and the gap to second placed CRS Racing drivers Kirkaldy and Mullen was just under 10 seconds after six hours of racing. Pilet and Narac made it a Porsche 1-3, finishing 36 seconds behind Lieb and Lietz. Ten GT2 cars finished within four laps of each other.

DAMS had bad luck when Firth and Manning retired early on, but the team did get a victory in the end with Barlesi, Cicognani and Chalandon winning the race. The trio had a 9 lap lead over the JMB Racing car and 31 laps over the Hope PoleVision Racing number 47.

Larbre Competition finished the race and that was enough to secure the GT1 title for them. All other categories will be decided at Silverstone next month.