Sunday the 22nd of August signed the first result of the 2010 Le Mans Series for Luca Pirri at the wheel of racing box Lola/Judd.
The very tight schedule, due to the Hungarian National day, meant more than ever that everything had to work perfectly in order to maximize the result, and to be honest it did.
Everything, from Mechanics, drivers, tires and engineers did an excellent job and a better result was not possible only due to the difference of means of the Lola/Judd and the leading cars.
The free practice and Qualifying saw 39 cars, 14 of wich where LMP2 cars give battle in the very thight and tricky track in the outskirts of Budapest.
Luca that was new to the track was immediately very fast and was the first and only driver of the Racing Box line up to do the fast sweeping TURN 3 flat out, with the suprize of his team mates.
Thanks to his good performance and his consistency under pressure the team opted, like for Le Mans 24hr , to let Luca start the race on Sunday under a lovely sun and 33 degrees of heat.
The start went well and Luca managed to gain 3 postions on the first lap, and to keep this advantage for all his 2 Hr first stint, despite the engine had from the first lap a heating problem that made the limiter enter in protection mode forcing him to change at 9000 instead of 9700 Revs for all his stint causing also a major discomfort in the drivability of the car.
But Luca was not discoraged and pushed all the way for his stint passing cars every lap on every available inch of track.
He gave the wheel to his teammate Perazzini who continued the good job of Luca driving a faultless 2hrs before letting the car at Dawn to Marco Cioci, who had to fight some cronic visibility problems in his first hr. of drive and than was able to get well on peace on his second hr. but by than we had lost the 2 positions we gained in the first part of the race.
We all did a great job and this can be proved by the great 6th Overall postion ahead of the 1st LMP1 of the Mansell brothers, this to show the intensity and level of this class and the pace that was held for the whole race.
One other good note came from the Michelin Green Challenge that saw the car N29 score a good 3rd place on the fuel efficiency ratio.
Now next event is due on the 12th of September in Silverstone and this will also be the closing of the 2010 Season, will we be able to score another finish and will we manage to step on this podium that seems to hard to reach this season!? Be sure to be on line and with the TV on that week end and the show will be not to be missed.
Until than,
Pedal to the Metal…
First Finish for CEAM Backed Racing Box car N29
domenica 22 agosto 2010 · Le Mans Series