Christophe Bouchut won the first two rounds of the American Le Mans Series with Scott Tucker. For the third event at Laguna Seca, Level 5 Motorsport’s Franco-American duo was joined by a new team-mate, Franck Montagny. The arrival of a second French driver, who moreover is a former Peugeot Sport factory driver, was far from leaving the winner of the 1993 edition of the 24 Hours of Le Mans indifferent. During a qualifying session which came down to a duel between Bouchut and Montagny, the response from Christophe Bouchut was crystal clear …Christophe set the 87th pole position of his career – a fine performance ! As for the race, they finished on the third step of the podium after an incident-filled race.
The American Le Mans Monterey Presented by Patrón is a six-hour event on the famous Californian circuit of Laguna Seca. « I always enjoy racing on this circuit, » commented Christophe. « At Laguna Seca, you cannot compromise by giving up on one corner in order to prepare the next. The more you push, the faster you go. You have to be quick into and out of each and every corner in order to get a good lap time. And on top of that, the sand means there is only one racing line, because if you go wide, you either lose time or go off. Laguna Seca is renowned in the United States in terms of driving skills, acting like a judge, rather as Spa-Francorchamps does in Europe.»
Further to the arrival of a Radical-Ford and the Dempsey Racing Lola Coupé, the LMP2 category has risen to five entries. The Conquest Racing Morgan was unable to take part in qualifying due to technical issues, and it was clear that the pole would come down to a battle between the two Level 5 Motorsports Honda Performance Development cars. «Being on pole is not indispensable, but it is always important to show your speed. However, there was no question of taking risks. The most important thing was not to damage the car, which had to leave immediately after the race
for Le Mans. »
The two HPD ARX-03b improved their times lap after lap, but in the end, the nr 55 car driven by Christophe was 89 thousandths of a second ahead of the nr 95 of Franck Montagny. « I was P3 overall, less than five tenths from the Lola LMP1, and 2”2 from the HPD which was doing similar lap times to the factory Audi cars in Sebring. Coming back to the pits, the mechanics applauded me. Scott had some very nice words for me too, talking of a fantastic pole, he even said I was the best in the world ! Franck has been a factory driver, he is considered to be very fast, and I didn’t want to lose the opportunity to show that I was still very competitive and to thank Level 5 Motorsports for the trust they place in me.»
Once the car was ready again, Christophe went back out. « At that point we were fifth, last of the P2 cars, and 22 laps behind the car that was in fourth position. But I still thought we could do it, and I was right, as the Radical had problems, and when I set off for my last stint, I knew I could catch Jonny Cocker in Patrick Dempsey’s car, and finish on the podium. I went flat out, despite the engine mapping being on ‘Map 6′, so with an engine down on power for safety measures. Thirty minutes from the end, Cocker went off, just as I was planning to attack him. So we took third position in the category, and gained more precious points towards the title. »
The next challenge will be Christophe’s 19th entry in the 24 Hours of Le Mans the 16 and 17 June, where he will share driving duties with Scott Tucker and Luis Diaz and try to improve on the 3rd place in the LMP2 category gained last year with Level 5 Motorsports.
Source : Christophe Bouchut