Ecurie Ecosse continued their podium streak in the Michelin Le Mans Cup at Spa Francorchamps at the weekend (22-23 September) as they notched up another second position to all but confirm the runner-up position in the championship.
Tony Wells and Colin Noble teamed up once again in the #79 Ligier LMP3, recording the third fastest time in both of the free practice sessions. With just 15 minutes of qualification, Wells put in a hot lap good enough for a start on the outside of the front row.
Race day saw Wells make a good start, but found himself pushed wide on exit for the La Source hairpin. With wheels on the astroturf on the outside of the corner, Momentum was lost and on the run to Eau Rouge, Wells dropped to sixth position.
Undeterred, Wells pushed on, picking up two positions in his stint before pitting at the end of his 25th lap and handing over to his teammate.
Noble was immediately right on the pace, closing down a significant margin to move third ahead of the #4 Cool Racing Ligier and then up to second passing the RLR MSport entry with 18 laps remaining. With the leading DKR Engineering car leading by a minute by that point, Noble managed the gap to those behind to record yet another podium position for Ecurie Ecosse.
David ‘Sven’ Thompson, Team Manager Nielsen Racing
“In all honesty, we should be really happy with second position. We beat the rest of the field by a minute which is fantastic and credit to the team, but we’re still a minute behind the race winner… Colin and Tony did all they could and we’re on the podium again, so we can take that away from the weekend.”
Colin Noble
“We’ve got second in the championship with that, so it was a good race in what has been a very good season. The pace from both us was very competitive, so we can only be pleased with that. With the gap to the leader after the stop, I knew I didn’t have the two-seconds a lap needed to go for the win, so it was the case a little of a ‘safe second’ by monitoring the gaps.”
Tony Wells
“I made a good start and then it got busy into the first turn and I was squeezed out onto the run-off area. The car was very strong and we I managed to pick up some places to hand over to Colin in P4 and he put in a good run to the chequered flag. We couldn’t beat the Norma today, so we were next best and it was a good result.”