Josh Skelton headed to the legendary Circuit De La Sarthe in France for round two of the Michelin Le Mans Cup series last weekend, supporting the Centenary of the Le Mans 24 Hours.
Josh and teammate Tony Wells worked hard to battle strongly through the field in their two 55 minute races, to see if they could recover to the points after a disappointing first round in Barcelona.
The driver from Cumbria lined up P19 and P22 after a hectic qualifying. Tony took the start for race one and had a great getaway, but encountered an incident at the first chicane of the opening lap, which caused him to drop to the back of the field before handing the car over to Josh. It was a great recovery drive from Josh, to climb all the way back from P43 to P18 at the flag.
As the first race, Tony was in the hot seat for the start of race two which got underway on Friday morning in front of the big crowds at Le Mans. Starting from P22 the pair had a lot of work to do.
Tony had another good start in race two and managed to climb to P12 at the pit stop window before handing over to Josh. A slight issue in the stop with radio communication meant the team dropped back to P18. However, a great job by Josh and flying pace saw them climb all theway back up to P4 at the flag and take the fastest lap of the race.
Unfortunately a post race time penalty for a collision between Tony and another driver dropped the duo back to P8, nevertheless a good number of points were scored.
Josh now heads to Paul Ricard for Round 3 of the Championship in the middle of June.
Josh Commented, “It was amazing to come back to this iconic Le Mans circuit, I love this place! The feeling you get is special. I had great pace every time we hit the track, and I felt at ease with the car which is very important at a circuit like Le Mans.
“Unfortunately, the qualifying sessions were messy for both myself and Tony, so we had a lot for work to do in the races. I was frustrated with this because the potential for pole was there.
Race 1 didn’t start particularly well but I managed to have a great recovery drive back up the field from P43 to P18, but unfortunately no points were scored. Race 2 was great. I managed to climb from P18 to P4 on track and set the fastest lap of the race, which really means something at Le Mans.
I’m feeling confident heading into the next round in a months’ time, and looking to carry on this forward momentum. Big thank you to all of Nielsen Racing for all the hard work.”
