“Second-place, fastest lap and Michelin Green X Challenge winner; a most excellent haul of trophies,” said Drayson Racing co-owner Paul Drayson after a weekend which saw the team take their best ever race result – second – less than 20 seconds behind the race winners
With Drayson himself sidelined as far as driving duties are concerned by a sprained right ankle it as left to Jonny Cocker and Emanuele Pirro to pilot the Lola-Judd at Miller Motorsports Park.
Cocker started the car from second – Drayson's best ever ALMS qualifying – and stayed in contact with leader before moving to the head of the field after half an hour of the two-hour, 45-minute race. For 29-minutes Cocker led the race, a stint only ended when the Briton came into the pits – sacrificing a 34 second advantage. It was the first time the Anglo-American team had led an ALMS race.
“The Drayson Lola-Judd was really good,” Cocker claimed. “No doubt that the car was capable. At the start we just bided our time really and I managed to get by for the lead in turn five. I was able to pull a 20-second gap but we lost our advantage when the safety car came out and we gave back all we were able to manage on that first stint.”
The car now handed to Pirro, the Italian remained in the car for the rest of the race, taking his own turn to lead before bringing the British Racing Green liveried car into the pits for a second fuel stop. Pirro, who was drafted in to substitute for Drayson also set the fastest lap (1:36.291) of the race – another first for Drayson Racing.
“The whole weekend has been a really good weekend for us. We are a young team and we are still learning. This has been a smooth weekend. We had no problems. The race went well and at one stage I thought we could win it,” Pirro said
“It was a really positive, positive result and we all needed it because the team has been working very hard with really late hours in the past races. This proves that when things go smooth you have a good chance that the race will go well also. We have to become a little better to win races but we have time. We have to look at second-place with a big smile on our faces and look at the positives for the rest of the season.”
