Following huge technical problems and several racing incidents, neither of the two Lotus Evora made it into the final classification of the ten-hour long “Petit Le Mans” at Road Atlanta, since neither the triumvirate of James Rossiter/Johnny Mowlem/David Heinemaier-Hansson (GBR/GBR/DEN) nor their sister car of Martin Rich/Oskar Slingerland/Kaspar Jensen (GBR/NED/DEN) managed to complete the required 70 percent of the total running time.
Since both cars suffered sincere damage, the team’s appearance in the final event in China on November 13th has now been called into question as well . . .
Team principal Jan Kalmar: “This was the worst race of my career. It’s really incredible that so many negative things can happen in a single event. Unfortunately even all the night shifts didn’t help. What makes me glad is the fact that at least our appearance has been appreciated. For instance the organisers told me that they’ve never seen a team working that hard. Now we first need to analyse our own situation and take a look whether we even have all the spare parts needed to get both cars ready to race again in Zhuhai.”
Team owner Lukas Lichtner-Hoyer: “Of course we’re all very disappointed. Actually it already became apparent during the free practice sessions that nothing would work out at all this time. An engine failure for the #65 Evora, a heavy crash by Oskar Slingerland on top of that, in which the #64 Evora was heavily damaged. Basically it already was a small miracle that our team was able to put both cars onto the starting grid. For that reason alone they deserve the highest praise.”
