It could have been a dream weekend for the Thiriet by TDS Racing team hooked up at the second place of the LM P2 category. But the race of the team was ruined by a competitor which bumped into the car.
The Thiriet by TDS Racing team ran the 24 Hours of Le Mans for the fourth time. On that occasion, the team entered an Oreca 05 with which the team just won the 4 Hours of Imola, signing the first international win of the car in the same time!
After the Test Day (May 31st) when rain disrupted the team’s schedule, the Wednesday session was used to set up the car. On Thursday, Tristan Gommendy set the fastest lap in the second qualifying session. While all the conditions were gathered to set the reference time in the last session, Ludovic Badey was victim of an incident which forced the team to change the bodywork. At the end of the sessions, the Oreca 05 was 6th on the grid.
The team ran against time on Thursday evening to rebuild the car and thanks to mechanics’ expertise, the car was ready after a bit more than 24 hours! At the warm-up session, the team checked everything was fine on the car. Very quickly, the staff was reassured with the 5th time.
On Saturday, Tristan took the wheel for the race start and quickly got the car into the top 3. After a double stint, he even led the category. Ludovic Badey and then Pierre Thiriet took over the car and reinforced their 2nd position because the lead of the race was lost due to two safety cars so the #46 was relegated to more than 3 minutes behind the leader. Throughout the evening and the night, the three men did not suffer any problem and the car maintained P2 in the class.
Just before 5 am, while Tristan Gommendy was at the wheel only one minute behind the leader, he was bumped by a GTE car in distress at the first chicane of Mulsanne straight. Tristan Gommendy : « I don’t know what happened with the Aston Martin. Either he made a mistake or he had a technical issue but he bumped into the car and that cost us the race.” Gommendy managed to bring the car back to the pit where the mechanics began working. After one hour of intense work and despite all efforts, the #46 Oreca was forced to retire at 6.15 am
During this 24 Hours of Le Mans week, the Thiriet by TDS Racing team was perfect and managed to overcome all obstacles without ever giving up. In the end, it is an external element which stopped the race while the car was in ambush to grab the class lead. For its fourth participation, the team showed its capability to run a brand new car and to play the leading role each time on track. With such a level of performance, the Thiriet by TDS Racing team can be considered as a favourite for the next European Le Mans Series round on the Red Bull Ring circuit (Austria) on July, 12th. The team is currently leading the championship !
Pierre Thiriet: “The weekend was not positive because our goal was to finish. Our pace was good and it is a positive aspect because we were competing for the podium or the win. However our race was ruined. It is not our fault because Tristan was bumped by an LM GTE car. Damage was important enough to take the decision to retire for safety reasons. I am disappointed because I wanted to finish the race for the mechanics who did not sleep since Thursday evening. They did a great job in partnership with Oreca. The car was really perfect and for this only reason, I would have wanted to finish. But that’s racing… »
Tristan Gommendy: “It is a shame because with our level of performance was fine. It is mainly thanks to the amazing job of the staff and the unqualified support of Oreca. When we changed the bodywork, the people from Oreca were amazing, we could start the race thanks to their support. I would also like to thank the KCMG team for lending us their spare bodywork. For this particular reason, it is a pity not to finish because the collaboration between Oreca, KCMG and Thiriet by TDS Racing was rare and astounding.
I am obviously disappointed because we were back only 50 seconds behind the leaders, I had just taken the wheel and my pace was good. Everything was in place to battle for victory. It is silly to retire like that. As for me, I enjoyed the first two hours a lot because it was the result of the whole team. We started 6th on the grid because we had problems during qualifying but after 90 minutes of racing, we were the fastest and had the lead! I think it is the best reward I could give to the team.”