PAUL RICARD PODIUM FOR HUGHES AND SPEEDWORKS

It was former BTCC racer Tony Hughes’ first visit to Paul Ricard, and two days in a simulator prior to his visit to the South of France venue paid dividends as Bredbury based Speedworks Motorsport continued their run of podiums with the Team’s Aston Martin Vantage.

The International Endurance Series powered by Hankook made its maiden visit to the former French Grand Prix venue for the epic 24-hour encounter boasting a 58 car line-up to boot, though temperatures at the Le Castellet track would play their part as teams battled 34+ degree heat.

Hughes once again joined the Aston Martin of John Gilbert and Devon Modell whilst the Team’s line-up featured a new face in, former Porsche Carrera Cup GB racer Steven Liquorish. The quartet quickly got to grips with the challenging 5.8km circuit, and as such were left a little frustrated with 4th on the grid in the SP3/GT4 Class.

“We were a little disappointed with 4th” explained Hughes, “we think the heat played a big part and definitely affected the Aston’s performance during qualifying”.

The race started brightly, with Modell at the wheel of the Vantage they were quickly to the top of the tree, leading the SP3 Class after just twenty-three minutes. Drama was never too far away however, as once again the heat played it’s part – with the engine running too hot the Team had a precautionary pit-stop to check things over.

As the race continued and driver changes began the Aston suffered a broken belt [that runs the cooling] with Liquorish at the wheel. Steven nursed the car back to the pits for the necessary repair and coolant top-up, but the Aston was to continue to suffer from overheating, and the car’s owner – John Gilbert – was forced to pit early once again. Tony took over as the race continued in to dusk, with the cooler evening temperatures being a little kinder to the car Hughes was able to claw back a place, to 3rd in class.

With overheating problems affecting the Aston intermittently, and with the demise of two of their closest competitors – the Securtal Sorg BMW M3 and the Cor Euser Racing Lotus Evora [which had suffered from a fire], and with the two Ginetta’s of Nova Race running so well ahead of them the decision was reluctantly taken to park the Aston in the pit lane with 8 hrs to go, so as not to risk the Aston’s engine, but maintaining 3rd place in the meantime.

“It’s disappointing not to do the duration of the race” remarked Tony, “but obviously it was good to get third in class and that sets us well in the Championship points”.

“It will be nice to get back in the Ginetta for the next two rounds and crack on with the Championship now” he added.

Tony currently sits third on the SP3/GT4 standings behind John Gilbert and Devon Modell with dropped scores still to be applied.

The Series now heads to Barcelona in Spain on the 4-6th September. 

Photography by  www.mphotographic.co.uk