Ecurie Ecosse claimed victory today (11 June, 2017) at Spa Francorchamps in the hands of Alasdair McCaig and Colin Noble. The result marks the team’s fourth win from six starts as they cement their lead at the head of the Henderson LMP3 Cup Championship standings.
“Alasdair did a really good job all weekend, handing the car over to me in the lead for both races,” said Noble. “Unfortunately, I got caught up in traffic which cost us the win in race one, but race two was a very good performance all around, winning the race and getting the fastest lap.”
Starting from second on the grid, McCaig had to take avoiding action at the start of the race and so lost a place. Undeterred he soon made up the position and once in clear air, he immediately began making inroads into the leader Tony Wells, lapping a second per lap quicker.
After several laps of nose-to-tail action, McCaig dived down the inside of the leader into La Source, eager to make the move before the pit stop as they approached half-race distance.
On the same lap, McCaig gave it his all to gap Wells before coming into the pits to hand the car over to Noble, who built upon the foundation his teammate had built for the race. He led the car home to the finish line for the win, setting the fastest lap of the race en-route.
“Tony and I had quite a fierce battle for the first 30 minutes,” McCaig said. “The start was quite hectic and I had to take avoiding action when Dean out braked himself. Once the race settled down after lap one, I picked my way back up to first position before the pit stops. We showed great pace this weekend and I am looking forward to the next round.”
Ecurie Ecosse also scored a second place from pole position in the first race of the weekend. McCaig put in a storming last gasp effort to snatch pole by 0.5seconds from Scott Mansell.
McCaig led the field at the start of the race, and was immediately lapping a second quicker than anyone else, but a Safety Car for a multi-car incident put his rivals right back on his tail.
Nonetheless McCaig had the speed to keep his rivals behind him through a second Safety Car period five laps later, just before the pit stop window. Noble took over from McCaig nine laps into what was eventually a 20-lap race, but a spin dropped him down the order.
Noble set about working his way through the field, getting himself inside the top ten in a handful of laps.
A further Safety Car period put a halt to his progression. But with 13 minutes of green flag racing remaining when the safety car pulled in, Noble stormed his way past three cars in one lap to get up to fourth, before taking the final podium place in the closing stages of the race.
Post-race, the second placed car received a penalty for an illegal pit stop, which promoted Noble to second in the final classification. “It was slightly unfortunate,” said McCaig. “We had quite a nice lead but there were a lot of safety cars, so we kept pulling out a lead and then losing it under safety cars.”
The team are next in action at Circuit de la Sarthe for the Road to Le Mans this week, looking to build on the Le Mans Cup momentum that saw Noble and teammate Tony Wells secure victory.