Points-winning race for Racing Experience on world’s biggest stage
| Luxembourg-based team Racing Experience kicked off their Road to Le Mans campaign with a points-scoring P8 finish today, in the first of two races taking place at the iconic 13,626km La Sarthe Circuit this weekend. The curtain-raiser event takes place on motorsport’s biggest stage at the beginning of the 24 hours of Le Mans. The full Michelin Le Mans Cup grid is joined by other LMP3 and GT3 cars from around the world for two 55-minute races, to make the largest grid of the season. French driver Nicolas Mélin returned to the Racing Experience outfit for this race. Starting from P18, the Frenchman had a tough challenge ahead to move forward through the pack, with less than half of the race time available of a normal Le Mans Cup event. Mélin had a clean first stint, overtaking a number of cars and handing the car to teammate Gary Hauser in P12, with the possibility of a top ten points-scoring finish now in sight. Hauser raced hard in his second stint, with less than 30 minutes to make his mark on the race. The racer from Luxembourg recorded his best laps of the weekend so far to chase down the pack ahead. With six minutes remaining, Hauser had worked his way into the top ten and gained one final position in the closing laps to finish in P9 – which equates to a P7 Michelin Le Mans Cup finish, when discounting one-off entrants for this race. With points already in the bag for Racing Experience, focus now turns to tomorrow’s second race, where the team will start from P5, and hunt down a further haul of points to take home to Wormeldange. Christian Hauser, team principal Racing Experience, said: “This is a great result for our team, not only to start the biggest race of our season with a strong result, but to do so on the biggest stage in our sport is really special. Nicolas and Gary both had fantastic drives today. We knew that we could be quick, but there are no guarantees at this circuit, and you can be unlucky in any number of ways here. Tomorrow we have a much stronger starting position and a chance for an even better result.” Gary Hauser, Racing Experience driver said:“What a race! These 55-minute races are so intense. We have so few laps and it is important not to miss any opportunity to move forward. I was happy to put in my best laps of the weekend so far in my stint and score some good points. We could have pushed harder, but it was important for us to not take risks and to focus on consolidating a strong position.” Nicolas Mélin, Racing Experience driver said: “We had some fun today. This is one of the most special tracks in the world, and even though we only have 55 minutes in each race here, you get a real sense of the occasion and it means more to have a good result here. I enjoyed some good overtakes and playing my part in moving us forward. Well done to the whole Racing Experience team. I hope that with a P5 start tomorrow, we can do even better.” The second race of the Road to Le Mans event takes place tomorrow at 11:15 local time. Follow it live on Eurosport or on www.lemanscup.com |
