McCaig & Noble Do The Double at LMP3 opening weekend

Henderson LMP3 Cup Championship – A brand new season a brand new series, the ACO Backed series in the UK, it forms the beginning of a new ladder series to feed new up and coming prototype drivers into Le Mans or World Endurance Championships…

With a stronger field than expected for the start of the new season, United Autosports came in as the force to be reckoned with with a two car team also continuing their momentum after claiming a sweep of the prototype classes at the ELMS opening round last weekend at Silverstone. There was a driver change for this meeting in both cars this weekend but this is a team who definitely know how to win races.

Race 1 – Saturday

Under a beautiful blue cloudless sky, the inaugural round of the Henderson LMP3 cup took place, drivers took their positions on a a small but highly competitive grid and got ready to make history. Ultimate anticipation, questions have been asked about this new championship – could this format work? Will the tyres hold out? How reliable will these cars be? And most importantly will it be entertaining racing?

Most of these questions are just natural paranoia as we all know the LMP3 cars last and tyres, especially coming from Pirelli – the series is Pirelli backed and the manufacturer has tyre engineers at the track monitoring the surface temperature and offering help to teams all day. This is the kind of support you find with some high level championships, this is some serious racing. This could be the series that will enable future Prototype drivers to shine and put them on the road to the endurance championships all around the world.

Start, – The G-Cat Racing car is on pole followed by the two United Autosports entrants, always a threat especially after last weeks hugely successful ELMS weekend at Silverstone. As the lights go out, the low strung rumble of the Nissan engines power away from the line, it was a tight pack at the front but the G-Cat racing car struggled off the line forcing the United Autosports cars round the outside putting them into P1 and P2 as they go into Redgate.

Christian England managed to get a flyer off the line, hard hard work and falling lap times enabled him to build the No.3 into a commanding lead with his team mate following behind. Into Redgate then came G-Cat Racing followed by the Nielsen Racing car piloted by Jason Rishover, a late brake manouver just pushes him into the back of the G-Cat racing Ligier making both drivers wide creating an opportunity that the Ecurie Ecosse/Neilsen Racing couldn’t pass up and Colin Noble pushed through into 3rd postion.

The race settled down for a short while then as the pit stops and driver changes commenced and the often more experienced drivers stapped themselves in and the order began to get shaken up eventuraly settling down with Ecurie Ecosse/Neilsen Racing No.79 car of Alisdair McCaig on top with the United Autosports No.3 of Matt Bell behind and the second car of Neilsen racing in third. Jamie Spence at the wheel of the No.23 pressed Matt Bell hard passing him to take the second position. Only a few laps later Bell suffering a rear left puncture and with only a few laps remaining he started dropping down the order bumping the T-sport racing Ligier, piloted by ex-formula 1 driver Karun Chandhok, up into the final podium position. The fast paced Douglas Motorsport car closed in on the No.7 T-sport car but Chandhok had just about enough pace to hold the gap until the end. Ecurie Ecosse take a clean sweep securing the top 2 podium spots making history – winners of the first LMP3 Cup UK race.

Race 2 – Sunday

Sunday afternoon and the sun was still shining, the grid, even after a second qualifying this morning, is set to be the same as yesterday, G-Cat racing on pole followed by No.2 then No.3 cars of the United Autosports team. One interesting point from qualifying is the fact that the winners from Saturdays race are starting down in 6th on the grid.

The last main race of the weekend starts late on the Sunday afternoon, the sun has begun to drop and low light casts long shadow over the circuit. Teams are not in the pit garages but using their own awnings and this gave a real ‘old school’ American Le Mans series feeling as the Ligiers are wheeled out of their stands on the dolly jacks whilst a crowd gathers staring in awe of the machinery. There is a certain buzz around these cars from the public, kids eyes light up, maybe its already starting to inspire dreams in these potential future prototype drivers.

The lights go out and its on with the 2nd race, again the G-Cat car gets a terrible start off pole being swarmed by the United Autosports machines along with a ton of pressure from the Tockwith Motorsports car going into Redgate. By the end of lap one both the Neilsen racing/Ecurie Ecosse Ligiers have gone past the pole starter forcing G-Cat racing down into 6th place with the rest of the field bottlenecked behind it, the car is clearly having issues as it comes over the line at the end of this first lap.

Pitlane opened at the 28 minute mark where an onslaught of cars come in for the driver change massively shuffling the order about, Karun Chandhok benefiting the most jumping to 6th just by the efficiency of his mechanics. The second half of the race was where it all changed, Colin Noble once again took control and set fastest lap after fastest lap to overcome the pair of United Autosports cars to take the lead once again. Andrew Evans was sitting third, on course for a podium but lost control at the old hairpin putting the car into the gravel with only 4 minutes to go. This promoted the Tockwith Motorsport Ligier to third, a podium for Sarah Moore and Richard Dean.

Steven Tandy and Karun Chandhok Secured fourth position after Tandy started the car from 8th position on the grid.

With Ecurie Ecosse on the top step once again it was a fine double for Alisdair McCaig and Colin Noble, stamping their domination on the opening round of the Henderson LMP3 Cup, already proving they could be early favourites for the season.