Fresh off a mind-blowing victory at their 24 Hours of Le Mans debut, the Level 5 Motorsports team, belonging to driver Scott Tucker and composed of also Christophe Bouchut and Joao Barbosa, headed to Bologna, Italy with their Microsoft Office-sponsored Lola Honda. What appeared to be another useful triumph for the team became a bittersweet day after some late-race malfunctions prevented just one more historic victory to the Wisconsin-based team.
The 3 drivers delivered again superb shows behind the wheel. Initially maintaining a sixth place spot on the grid of LMP2 competitors, they moved to the lead with less than a couple of hours remaining. Bouchut manned the last leg of the race, taking the wheel with just more than one hour to go. The victory was theirs, just an official checkered flag from being official. But Twenty five minutes before the end, Bouchut's voice crackled on the radio to say gear selection difficulties.
The automobile was caught in 4th gear because of a gear actuator malfunction. Bouchut, experienced in the motorsports field and one of the most successful endurance drivers across the globe, managed to persevere through to the checkered flag using only a few gears. Ultimately, the team gained a third-place finish. Where they first enjoyed a 15-second lead, they now faced the reality that the win they nearly grasped was no more-and it was taking a while to sink in. "That's racing," Tucker said. "Still, ending up on the podium with this level of competition is incredible. Unfortunately, it isn't sinking in right now because we were so close to a win here."
Despite the fact that victory eluded them, they gained useful experience in a difficult field of challengers, and they experienced a large performance increase driving the Spyder, the automobile they switched to from the 2010 Lola Coupe after the 24 Hours of Le Mans. "It was the first time we drove the Lola-Honda Spyder and it definitely proved to be the right choice," Barbosa said. "We were much more competitive than in the previous races. We still have to work on speed and qualifying pace, but we were strong heading into the race. That took us to the lead. There's a few more races to go, so hopefully we can continue to improve this package."
Enhancement seems hardly a possibility if you think about the podium standing the team had already done at this point in the year. With any losses being less due to driver performance than mechanical issues, a clean car seemingly guaranteed Level 5 top finishes. With the win ever-present in their minds, the team looked ahead to continuing the ALMS season with races at Lime Rock Park and Mosport International Raceway in Ontario.
The 3 drivers delivered again superb shows behind the wheel. Initially maintaining a sixth place spot on the grid of LMP2 competitors, they moved to the lead with less than a couple of hours remaining. Bouchut manned the last leg of the race, taking the wheel with just more than one hour to go. The victory was theirs, just an official checkered flag from being official. But Twenty five minutes before the end, Bouchut's voice crackled on the radio to say gear selection difficulties.
The automobile was caught in 4th gear because of a gear actuator malfunction. Bouchut, experienced in the motorsports field and one of the most successful endurance drivers across the globe, managed to persevere through to the checkered flag using only a few gears. Ultimately, the team gained a third-place finish. Where they first enjoyed a 15-second lead, they now faced the reality that the win they nearly grasped was no more-and it was taking a while to sink in. "That's racing," Tucker said. "Still, ending up on the podium with this level of competition is incredible. Unfortunately, it isn't sinking in right now because we were so close to a win here."
Despite the fact that victory eluded them, they gained useful experience in a difficult field of challengers, and they experienced a large performance increase driving the Spyder, the automobile they switched to from the 2010 Lola Coupe after the 24 Hours of Le Mans. "It was the first time we drove the Lola-Honda Spyder and it definitely proved to be the right choice," Barbosa said. "We were much more competitive than in the previous races. We still have to work on speed and qualifying pace, but we were strong heading into the race. That took us to the lead. There's a few more races to go, so hopefully we can continue to improve this package."
Enhancement seems hardly a possibility if you think about the podium standing the team had already done at this point in the year. With any losses being less due to driver performance than mechanical issues, a clean car seemingly guaranteed Level 5 top finishes. With the win ever-present in their minds, the team looked ahead to continuing the ALMS season with races at Lime Rock Park and Mosport International Raceway in Ontario.
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