RML's sportscar team are preparing for the 3rd round of the Le Mans Endurance Series this weekend at Silverstone with the MG Lola EX257, and are looking forward to a strong performance on home soil. The team’s regular driver line-up of Mike Newton, Tommy Erdos and Miguel Ramos will contest the 1000km event on the famous Grand Prix circuit.
After a very competitive run in the 2nd round of the Championship at Nurburgring, the team are hopeful of a good race result. That event saw the MG running in a very strong 2nd position and with the leader within their sights the team began to hope for a podium finish. However, a late wheel nut problem forced the car into the pits and time was lost. Despite all three drivers pushing hard to the chequered flag they could only claim 7th position.
The MG Lola EX257 first came to RML in late 2002 where they carried out a development programme on the car. The team’s race debut took them to Le Mans for the 1000km race on the Bugatti circuit last November. A strong performance in the race and subsequent testing has proved the cars potential and a reliable run in the 1st round of the LMES at Monza earlier this year saw the team finish in a credible 7th position.
The MG started this year's Le Mans 24 Hours from the 7th row of the grid and the first 8 hours of the race included the team working tirelessly to rectify an exhaust manifold problem. Back on track and with darkness falling, the MG was running quite a way down the leaderboard before all three drivers put in some superb lap times and climbed their way back up to 10th position in class by Sunday morning.
The race continued and with the car running strongly and over 255 laps of the famous circuit completed, the team were hopeful of a race finish. Shortly after noon on Sunday their hopes were dashed when an engine failure caused the cars retirement. However, the team had recorded the MG's endurance record with over 20 hours of the race completed an impressive achievement.
For further information, please contact:
Tim Compston, RemGuard Visual Management, Tel: 0870 5736 482 Fax: 0870 6030416, email:
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