Josh Skelton got the third round of his Michelin Le Mans Cup campaign underway at Paul Ricard in the South of France last weekend.
After two busy days of testing Josh and teammate Tony Wells, both had great pace heading into the weekend. It would be over to Wells for the all-bronze qualifying, where in a busy session, he managed to set down the sixth best lap time, which put the duo in contention for the late afternoon contest.
As the race got underway Wells took the car to the 50-minute mark and ran in the top five at stages before handing over to Josh in sixth for the remaining hour of the race. The driver from Cumbria had a great opening to his stint, making up two places very early on and sat comfortably in fourth, whilst challenging the DKR Engineering car ahead for a place on the podium.
Unfortunately, an unscheduled pit stop due to a mechanical fault put the #7 Nielsen Racing machine out of contention. Josh will be next be on track for fourth round of the series at Motorland Aragon Circuit at the end of August.
Josh Commented,“I was really looking forward to getting started at Paul Ricard as it is always a circuit that I have got onvery well with, and showed great pace over the years.
“The weekend started very strong, with the test going well and I felt confident within the car. I really wanted to turn our luck around from the start of the season, and get the result that we deserved.
“Tony had a decent qualifying which put us in a fighting chance of a podium. After a great start he took us up to fourth, but through the stint dropped back to our starting place in sixth. I knew we could race from here and achieve a great result and had my eyes set on the podium.
“When I jumped in the car I quickly managed to get us up to fourth again, and subsequently got involved in an intense battle for the last spot on the podium. Unfortunately an issue with the car meant we had to pit, and our possible race for the podium was sadly gone. However we keep our heads up and keep pushing for the result we deserve. A big thank you to the whole of the Nielsen Racing crew, onto the next one!”
