Zoom End of the line in the pit lane

The 76th edition of the Le Mans 24 Hours saw the first start of a closed prototype in the LMP2 category and the first appearance of Speedy Racing/Team Sebah in the prototype class with its No.33 Lola Judd. The team's target was to finish the race and obtain a podium finish if possible.

The qualifying sessions showed that the car was quick enough to achieve those objectives. Starting from fourth place on the LMP2 grid, Xavier Pompidou moved up to third on the opening lap. An early stop to replace a tyre that had a slow puncture put the car out of sequence with the class leaders, but the team continued in third place for the first third of the race.

Pompidou's co-drivers, Steve Zacchia and Andrea Belicchi, took their turns at the wheel, the team opting to double-stint the drivers in the early stages of the race. As night fell, the team continued in third place and the drivers started to triple-stint. At just over 12 hours, the team was still in third position.

After a scheduled pit stop to change tyres and driver, a problem with the gearbox electronics forced the team to make an extra stop to change an Electronic Control Unit. The time lost during this stop dropped the car down to fifth position, but with Xavier Pompidou back at the wheel and the gearbox electronics fully functioning again, he set about the charge back.

At 4h30am, whilst it was still dark, the rain started to fall on some parts of the circuit. Unfortunately, Xavier Pompidou arrived at the Indianapolis corner where the track was wet: he spun off and hit the tyre wall.

The front of the car was damaged by the impact, but Pompidou managed to get the car back onto the track and started to make his way back to the pits. He made it into the entry of the pit lane, but then the car was hit from behind by a competitor who had not realised that the Lola was limping along at reduced speed.

By the time the car had been recovered to the pit box, the engine had suffered overheating and so the team had to reluctantly abandon the race.

"We're all gutted!" declared Team Manager Bart Hayden. "We'd had a few challenges during the race, but I think we all still felt we could achieve a podium finish. Accidents are unfortunately part of racing. It's such a shame after the effort that has gone in from all the team over the past weeks that we're coming away from Le Mans without a result."

However, Hayden could see the positives coming out of the team's performance at this year's Le Mans event: "Once again we showed that we can challenge the Porsche Spyders in the LMP2 class. We'll just have to dust ourselves down and try to win the remaining races of the Le Mans Series."

"We have learned a lot here at Le Mans, and next year we hope to be back to challenge for class honours," he concluded.

© CAPSIS International