Team Endurance Challenge heads to Imola for the second round of the European Le Mans Series full of confidence following their LMPC class victory at the season opener at Silverstone.
The #48 Oreca-FLM 09 of Soheil Ayari and Anthony Pons took full advantage of the wet conditions at Silverstone, running in the overall top five for much of the race, dicing with the more powerful LMP2 machines before taking the LMPC class victory, despite Pons suffering from injured ribs.
There was also success for the #49 car of Paul-Loup Chatain and Gary Hirsch, who took second place at the Northamptonshire circuit in the duo’s first experience in endurance racing.
Silverstone was not quite as positive for the #47 car of Alex Loan and Matthieu Lecuyer, who were forced into retirement just minutes in to the opening round of the year.
“After a complicated first meeting, where I was unable to get my chance under race condition, I’ll be arriving at Imola with the bit between my teeth,” said Lecuyer. “Even though, once again, I don’t have the advantage of knowing the race track like my teammates, I’ve trained well in the simulator. Nevertheless, I’ll have to learn the track very quickly in order to focus on performance and car setup with our new engineer. My teammate Alex knows the track well and we’ll be able to share information. Imola is a legendary place with lots of emotions and history. I’m excited to be there and discover it for myself!”
