When life gives you Le Mans

With so many drivers struggling to find team mates for the endurance race last Saturday, we switched the event to a championship race, where solo drivers competed over a sixty minute race with a short fifteen minute qualifying session first. All drivers competed in class.

Harrison Simpson (Gold) secured pole position while Aaron Harris (Gold) took the second spot with Ethan Storey Davidson (Silver) qualifying in third. With only two hot laps during the qualifying session and traffic being a potential issue, the drivers needed to be focused on achieving a good lap quickly.

When the lights went out and the race got underway, Ethan Storey Davidson managed to launch best and took the lead by the first corner, leading the pack up under the Dunlop bridge, through Tetre Rouge an onto the Mulsanne straight. Its was here that Harrison and others benefited from Ethan’s  slipstream. Harrison made his way past Ethan on exit of the first chicane, but Aaron lying in third was sandwiched between Ethan and Daniel Gallagher (Silver) and the three drivers were side-by-side entering the second chicane. Inevitably one of them would suffer and it was Aaron who came out worst off. Despite qualifying in second, Aaron was now running in fifth place having fallen back behind Dave Smith (Silver).

All twelve drivers got away well and a train of LMP2 cars completed the first lap with little between them . There were numerous clean overtakes and for most of the first fifteen minutes battles across all three classes made the race a nail biting viewing experience. 

Having started the race with a mandatory half a tank of fuel, everyone would need to make a pitstop before the halfway mark. Harrison with a twenty second lead by this time chose not to change tyres, opting simply to refuel and head straight back out. This gave him an extra fifteen second advantage over the majority opting for new tyres. With all the cars starting on the medium compound, Harrison felt he could nurture these to the end of the race and set about lifting on entry to Indianapolis in an attempt to preserve his tyres without losing too much lap time. By now Aaron had made his way through the field in to second place but after the pitstop, where he changed tyres was faced with the daunting task of closing a thirty five second gap. While Aaron did make up a few seconds on fresh tyres, Harrison was in control of the race and with great consistency was never really going to be caught, despite Aaron pulling out a significant advantage over Ethan running in third place.

Ethan, the lead silver driver did not have it easy. Dave Smith harassed Ethan for a significant portion of the race, until a small mistake set him back a few seconds and in to the sights of Daniel Gallagher (Silver) running third in class. Daniel would eventually make it past Dave and was able to apply some pressure on Ethan. Ultimately Ethan having made such a great start held on to win his class (Silver) and take third overall. The best I have ever seen him drive.

The race for Bronze, was equally enthralling. Joshua Binnie and Ollie Sergeant had an epic battle. The two drivers enjoyed some extremely close, respectful and fair racing. A joy to watch. Ollie Sergeant came out on top to win Bronze.  Few drivers spent much of the race in comfort. They were often only one small mistake away from losing or gaining a place. This made for an excellent race. Rory Chumbley, Martin Hays Novak, Luke Jackson and Tom Reid all drove well with few mistakes. Not one driver was truly out-classed by another. In two years of racing here at VRROOM this race was the best yet. For those unable to partake, you missed a great race. 

My Thanks to all the drivers for an entertaining, clean and close race. 

Class winners will automatically receive 100 loyalty points.

John Parvin.