“Hi, folks! I am back from Barcelona and I take my keyboard to give you some news. I unfortunately would have liked better to give you good news. Team Speedy Racing/Team Sebah Lola B08/80 has certainly been competitive again, but we could not push our advantage. We have to be satisfied with taking seventh place overall of this first round of the Le Mans Series.
“Many red flags have disrupted the practice sessions for the weekend. So it has been hard to work properly on the car and above all to set the pace. The three-driver work schedule was indeed tight because of the only two 90-minute sessions. But because of the red-flagged sessions, we could only run about twenty laps each before qualifying. And I even ran only twelve laps if we only take timed laps into account. This point should be enhanced. If the flat-bed truck runs on the track to bring a car in bad shape back, all the competitors are put at a disadvantage. The problem is the same for everybody and we must deal with it. The car balance was quite satisfying. We could have done better, but we didn’t want to take any chance since our driving time has been short.
“The qualifying session also went well. Jonny (Kane) set the third best lap although another competitor held him up. He so lost three tenths: a gap big enough to take the pole and score one point in the championship. The day after, we have counted on a wise start. Jonny stayed indeed in wait behind Olivier Pla’s Ginetta-Zytek and Team Racing Box # 29 Lola. We were very close to those cars when the first safety-car went out. An electrical issue unfortunately loomed up at that time. We lost power and 25 minutes. It is very frustrating because we had not encountered this kind of problems during the winter tests.
“We then had a good race and closed one lap and a half up to the leaders. We could so catch seventh place and score two points. It shows that we were, one more time, able to win. We are so disappointed because we know where we can be. But that is also a relief because we precisely know where we can be! As we aim to win the championship, we’ve got to get it right. If we want to take control of our destiny, we must win all the coming races!
“To achieve our goal, we’ll get support from Benji (Leuenberger), who could not race with us because Spyker asked him unexpectedly to stand in for Jarek. I am disappointed that he could not drive for the race. He will join us at Spa, where we will be intent on getting an excellent result, if you see what I mean… The sun is back in Paris and it helps to keep up our chin up! Now I am going to work out. I am already looking forward to being in the Eau Rouge and I intend to be ready for this new challenge!”
Xavier