A well-worked weekend for Tequila Patrón Extreme Speed Motorsports earned the team its best finish of the season having crossed the line fourth in the LMP2 class. The result has come after a trouble-filled season that has seen them struggle to compete with the rest of the field.
It had been British driver Ryan Dalziel who would have the honour of starting and finishing the race for the Honda powered team, as he managed to pass to the #42 Strakka Racing car in the closing minute of the six hour race.
The #30 car, also driven by Scott Sharp, competing in his home race and David Heinemeier Hansen had started third in class and made a good start quickly taking second, before working its way into the lead within the first hour.
After Dalziel had completed a stint and a half on fading tyres, he gave the Ligier to Sharp who had to deal with the machine during the hottest part of the day, a challenge for the American driver on a very demanding circuit. Sharp commented afterwards, saying;
“My stint was rough. We knew going in that my stint was probably going to be the hardest one out there with the temperature. The car was bit of a handful. Once the tires were pretty well shagged by the second stint, the car wasn’t bad compared to the competition. We were turning some good laps. It was good.”
After Heinemeier’s shift, Dalziel worked back up to fourth in the closing stages. However; it was a left fortunate day for the #31 Tequila Patrón ESM Ligier JS Honda, whose race ended prematurely after they crashed in the closing stages.
At the hands of Ed Brown, the cars brakes failed on lap 54 causing the car to go airborne before landing and sliding into the barrier on the exit. The car was taken back to Parc Ferme, but was forced to retire.
“These cars are super safe and built to take a hit like we did there,” commented Brown, who came away with minimal injuries.
“It is unfortunate that it happened. I felt a pop at the apex of Turn 19 and by the time I was in Turn 20, the car was taking off. It seemed like we were having some braking issues the few laps before.”
