Mid-race misfortune unfortunately affected an otherwise solid run from the impromptu Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin Racing Vantage LMGT3 crew yesterday as they tried to convert their earlier class pole position into something more meaningful.
Racing in what was the fourth round of the European Le Mans Series from the Spa Francorchamps circuit in Belgium, the #59 Racing Spirit of Le Mans team had already been forced to seek out another capable and adequately funded gentleman driver after the shock news beforehand that Clement Mateu was stepping aside for both family and financial reasons.
The team fortunately found that American racer Anthony McIntosh was again willing to put his money where his mouth was with the team having exercised a similar option last year with the team when their FIA World Endurance Championship driver Derek DeBoer found himself in a similar position. He would bring with him his more usual co-driver of parker Thompson to race the Aston Martin alongside the more established team driver Marius Fossard.
We understand that McIntosh may have been feeling under the weather going into this race weekend and had at a point considered his continuation within the programme but his effective last lap dash in the very damp conditions of qualifying to claim the LMGT3 Class Pole Position would have persuaded him otherwise.
Getting underway for this four-hour race on Sunday, McIntosh secured his position at the head of the pack during the usually chaotic few laps (and as would again prove correct) with many of those in prototypes thinking that they could win the race within the open hour with the first Safety Car intervention called before the end of the opening lap. McIntosh would go onto use his race experience gained within the FIA WEC to maintain his class lead throughout these early cautions, but he would eventually lose the lead thanks to a longer first stop.
Dropping down to fourth in class, all was still looking well within the #59 car as lap times remained competitive to those around him but continued and multiple car incidents on track again forced Race Control to intervene – again destroying the fluidity of the race itself but it was at the restart to the Safety Car period just short of the second hour where the race would all go horribly wrong for the #59 crew.
Having been backed up and tightly together behind the Safety Car for some notable time whilst two cars were extracted from the gravel, unseen events around the #59 car would eventually see the silver machine nosed into the tyre wall at turn nine after the downhill rundown from the tighter hairpin at Bruxelles. Replays would suggest no apparent contact, but the result of the event was never in doubt as they lost track position and then (more importantly) a lap to the pack just as the bronze drivers minimum drive time was coming to an end.
Despite being towed out of the gravel with damage no more visual than two missing door mirrors, the race for the #59 crew was still effectively done as the series does not operate a wave around system when behind the Safety Car, so there was no chance of recouping that lost real estate to the pack.
Whilst the #59 crew would not be finishing last as others either faltered on track or crashed out of the race, they would be the last of the runners as the final two hours of the race passed by and through to the bitter end with the crew eventually being classified as finishing twelfth in class – one lap down to their peers.
Next stop for the series is at Silverstone in about three weeks’ time.
Photo credits – Team / Series / social media
