It was a dramatic finish to the Silverstone 6 hours for Strakka Racing, as they came within half a second of winning the privateer team’s class in LMP1.
Following twenty-eight qualifying style laps in his final stint, Danny Watts was beaten to the flag by the #13 Rebellion Racing Lola in an exciting finish. The result now moves the Strakka Racing team up into second place in the championship, and will look to make inroads into Rebellion’s advantage at the next race in Interlagos.
The advantage the Rebellion car had following the last round of pit stops was thirty seven seconds, but following a fantastic effort by Watts, the team now moves up in the championship to be the Swiss team’s closest challenger.
Watts’ efforts were backed up by strong performances from Jonny Kane, who started the car, and Nick Leventis who survived heavy traffic in his stint. The HPD finished fifth overall behind the two Audis and single Toyota car as well as the Rebellion Lola.
“It was tough, but a lot of fun. It’s good when you’ve got a carrot like that to chase down and every lap was like a qualifying lap. My final stint was the longest I’ve ever driven any car for at that pace in my life. I felt massively dehydrated when I got out of the car, but the chase kept me going. I could see we were catching the Rebellion and that, together with the guys on the pit wall, spurred me on, and as we crossed the finish line it was just a stone’s throw away. That’s frustrating, because one more lap and we’d have had him,” Watts said afterwards.
“I was ready to get back in the car but we didn’t want to lose any time on an additional driver change so Danny really had to stay in until the end of the race. He did a fantastic job and we crossed the line half a second apart after six hours of really hard racing. It’s been a brilliant effort by all of the team and one of those really enjoyable races where it’s close the whole way through. One tiny thing could have swung the result in either direction and it was a great battle,” said Kane.
“I’m immensely proud of the entire team and the fantastic result we’ve achieved in front of our home fans. To finish second in the Privateers’ category by only half a second after such a charge is a formidable effort by everyone. Jonny and especially Danny drove remarkably well, and whilst we almost won, full credit must go to Rebellion for triple-stinting its tyres towards the end and holding on for victory. Had the race been just one lap longer, the result may have been different!” Leventis concluded.