As like yesterday in race one it was the top three teams who led the rest of the field into the first complex of corners up to the “Dunlop Bridge”
Stephen Kershaw and Ryan Charlwood slotted into fourth place just in front of Pekka Paivarinta and Ilse de Haas who were fighting off “Young Gun” Ted Peugeot and his father Vincent. By lap two though Kershaw and Charlwood had dropped two places leaving Paivarinta and de Haas giving chase to the leading three teams of Markus Schlosser and Marcel Fries, Tim Reeves and Kevin Rousseau, Todd Ellis and Emmanuelle Clement. Ted and Vincent Peugeot were right with Paivarinta and de Haas.
Lap four saw Kershaw and Charlwood slip down to seventh place leaving Lukas Wyssen and Thomas Hofer in sixth place.
The top three teams were all together with nothing separating them. There was a small gap then it was fourth and fifth place.
Lap seven saw Kevin Cable and stand in passenger Max Vasseur pull into pit lane, rounding off a bad weekend for the team. Yesterday saw the team DNF with mechanical problems.
All teams kept their positions from half distance up till lap 15, when things were changing up front.
Ellis and Clement had passed Reeves and Rousseau for second place and gave chase to Schlosser and Fries.
Reeves and Rousseau were having problems; the team had dropped down to fifth place. Whatever problem Reeves and Rousseau were having they managed to hold on to the fifth place just in front of the sixth place team of Lukas Wyssen and Thomas Hofer by the end of the race.
It turned out that Reeves and Rousseau had suffered a broken gear lever leaving them stuck in fifth gear for the remainder of the race. The team are happy they managed to finish the race, it could have well been a DNF.
Kershaw and Charlwood managed to take seventh place. The team worked on their machine into the night to try and sort the overheating problem they had in race one. However the problem was to come back in this race.
An overjoyed Schlosser and Fries were to take the race win with no problems; they were credited with the fastest lap too, a time of 1:44.342. They will be heading to the next round in Hungary leading the championship with 45 points.
What a start to Todd Ellis with stand in passenger Emmanuelle Clement, two races and two podiums. Crossing the line today in second place, adding to their third place yesterday. And a great weekend for Clement, two podiums for the local French lady.
Third place went to Pekka Paivarinta and his stand in passenger from Holland Ilse de Haas. Paivarinta will be very pleased with his weekend, because it looked like he would not compete after a free practice incident left his passenger Kim Friman medically unfit for the weekend. Again a great weekend for Ilse de Haas, another lady on the podium.
The full French team with “Young Gun” Ted driving his father Vincent Peugeot just missed out on a podium place, but none the less a great fourth place. The team can be very happy with this as this is their first time competing at this level.
The weekend in Le Mans turned out good, although some teams could not be present, and team members too, due to the covid pandemic restrictions. We all hope things will be so much better as we head off to the “Pannonia Ring” in Hungary at the end of the month for the next round.
Mark Walters.
All Photo credit goes to “Good Shoot”