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Disappointment for British team Strakka Racing at Le Mans

By MJP Media / Formula Photographie | 17 June 2015

Despite faultless drives from Nick Leventis, Jonny Kane and Danny Watts, Strakka Racing was forced into early retirement from the 24 Hours of Le Mans on Sunday morning due to a gear shifting issue.

The Silverstone-based Strakka Racing team headed to Le Mans with its new DOME S103 and made great progress during qualifying. Although a little shy of the outright class pace, the team qualified 27th on the 56-car grid with a time of 3:42.237. Part of the 18-car LMP2 class, driver Jonny Kane started the race and attacked from the off, climbing through the order into 22nd place early on. In the first hour, oil on the track caused the Rebellion to make contact but despite the heavy impact the armoured DOME just needed a rear body section and a cut tyre replacing to get it back out on track and running well.

Kane handed over to fellow Brit Danny Watts with the team in P21 and the car continued to run well with no further issues since the damage at the start, just requiring fuel or tyres at each rapid pit-stop. The new Dunlop rubber was delivering improvements in pace with the tyres providing the confidence to push harder in the braking zones and the car was feeling strong as the team continued to beat their qualifying pace and climb up the order throughout the night.

While running in P7 and with less than six hours until the chequered flag, a gear shifting issue struck, stranding the car just after the Dunlop Bridge. Despite the best efforts of Nick Leventis and the team, they weren't able to get the car back to the pits to replace the necessary parts. "The result is a disappointing and unjustified return for the unstinting effort, pride and passion that each and every Strakka employee has given to bring this car to the grid." said team principal Dan Walmsley.

"Strakka Racing came to Le Mans, with its own car, developed and built in-house to demonstrate its capability and ambition." added Walmsley. "Since the start of this project, these guys have worked round the clock and at each stage when we've faced a problem, they have worked through it in a professional way and it is heart-breaking we could not get this car to the finish. We need to and will come back here to get the result that they all deserve."

"Obviously we are extremely disappointed to have got so far and not made it to the end of the race." added Leventis. "I did what I could trackside to try to see if the manual gearshift procedure would get the car running but unfortunately we just couldn't do enough to get the car back on track. It's terribly disappointing for the team after all the hard work, but the car was running well and we were making good progress that reflected their efforts."

Before returning to racing in the World Endurance Championship at the Nürburgring in August, Strakka Racing will test at the German track, continuing the development of the DOME S103 on Dunlop tyres. "We're still finding time in the car and making good progress, and we will be doing our best to make sure that we're back out and fighting at the sharp end when we're back out on track." concluded Leventis.

Words copyright MJP Media
Pictures copyright MJP Media / Formula Photographie / Strakka Racing

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