Exactly
one hundred years ago the Wright brothers, Wilbur and
Orville, made history in Le Mans by demonstrating their
amazing flying machine for the first time in Europe. Their
flights were relatively brief by today’s standards,
but a splendid monument rises high in the centre of the
town to celebrate the association between Le Mans and
those pioneers of aviation.
In 2008, RML’s hopes of repeating
the team’s class-winning successes of 2005 and 2006
ended late on the Saturday evening, after nearly eight
hours of racing, when the team’s MG Lola EX265 took
to the skies. In terms of height and distance the car’s
flight did little to challenge the achievements of the
Wright brothers, but for Mike Newton, driving the car
at the time, it would leave a lasting impression. As Ray
Mallock, founder of RML remarked, “We joined the
flying club this weekend,” and in doing so became
one of a string of prototype teams to see their cars leave
the ground in recent weeks.
The 76th running of the Le Mans
24 Hours had actually started with great promise for the
Wellingborough-based squad. Tommy, taking the start in
RML MG Lola EX265, had been rising steadily though the
LMP2 class order. From a relatively lowly grid position
of sixth, he had picked off the MG’s rivals one
by one, and inside the first twenty minutes had risen
to third. His pace appeared consistently good, and the
British-domiciled Brazilian commented on how stable and
inspiring the car’s handling had been. Then, almost
on the half-hour, and just moments after he had moved
through to capture another overall position, he and the
LMP1 car he’d just passed made contact. The MG lost
grip with the road and buried its nose in the barriers.
The impact was full-frontal and
heavy, but Tommy managed to coax the stricken car back
almost five miles to the pitlane, where the RML engineers
effected a full repair in under thirty minutes. That was
some achievement in itself, and Tommy was soon lapping
even quicker than he had previously, but there was a considerable
amount of ground to make up. Co-drivers Mike Newton and
Andy Wallace continued the trend, each completing faultless
double-stints, and by nine o’clock the MG had regained
seventeen places overall.
The drivers began their second round
of stints in the cockpit; Tommy the first to return, and
then Mike. The CEO of AD Group had been in the car almost
an hour when he came through to the famous Porsche Curves.
His approach to the sweeping curve was nothing unusual,
but the result was. The car snapped suddenly to the right,
side-on to the direction of travel, and as the air pressure
built up under the edge, the car lifted clear of the ground.
It kept on rising, and revolving. “I can recall
looking across, and seeing the ground coming in towards
me,” said Newton later. Almost at the point when
the car was upside down, the front corner dug in, spinning
the car violently back the other way, until the left rear
hit the ground in turn. The car bucked again before finally
settling back on its wheels. Miraculously, Mike was able
to bring the MG slowly back to the pitlane and into the
garage. Thanks to AD Group's video recording technology,
installed in the MG Lola in the form of the RML X-PRO
Recorder, Mike was able to show Phil Barker, RML Team
Manager, exactly what the car - and driver - had just
experienced. This assisted Phil in directing the team
to focus the repair work on the areas of impact and subsequent
damage as the RML pit crew stripped down the MG and then
put it all back together again.
This second rebuild took two hours,
but when Andy took the car out again he reported problems
with the handling. Three times the team made adjustments,
but it soon became apparent that there was additional
underlying damage that was compromising the team’s
capacity to achieve a driveable set-up for the chassis.
The team also faced a second dilemma. In order to achieve
a classified finish a car must complete 70% of the winning
car’s distance, and time was running out.
At 1:58 on Sunday morning the decision
was reached that the team had done as much as was humanly
possible, but the challenge was simply too great. "The
truth is, we simply can't achieve a classified finish
from this position,” said Adam Wiseberg, Motorsport
Director of AD Group. “Even if we could get the
car to handle properly again, there are insufficient hours
left in this race for us to complete the minimum number
of laps required to meet the 70% rule. Accepting that
has been a very difficult decision."
Ray Mallock, founder of RML, was
in the garage to witness the final hours. "Although
the team did a remarkable job in getting the car back
together again, we have been unable to recover the chassis
settings that would enable our drivers to race competitively,
or safely. Sadly, there is nothing to be gained by pressing
on."
And so, with the race on the point
of entering its eleventh hour, the shutters came down
on the #25 RML MG Lola. Tommy was already resting, unaware
of what was taking place. Andy, last to drive the car,
was preparing to head back to "an early night",
if two in the morning could ever be called that. Later,
after analysing the video footage of his crash alongside
the telemetry data, Mike could see that he had been travelling
at over 270 kph when the car took flight. Not only did
the video recorder survive the crash, but the spectacular
footage also took the breath away from all who saw it
in the RML control room, leaving Mike pondering on his
lucky escape.
The team now has a two-month break
before Round 4 of the 2008 Le Mans Series at the Nurburgring
in Germany. It will be plenty of time for reflection,
and recovery.
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