Fourth place finish in the Michelin Le Mans Cup
Great result for John Schauerman and Wayne Boyd, including fastest lap.
First place in the European Le Mans LMP3.
Michelin Cup
United Autosports finished fourth at Spa Francorchamps, Belgium on Saturday 8th August 2020, during round two of the 2020 Michelin Le Mans Cup.
After a delayed start, the Le Mans Cup race got underway in very hot ambient temperatures. John Schauerman (#23) and Daniel Schneider (#24) started the race in ninth and 10th, after qualifying earlier in the day.
Both drivers had good, clean starts, maintaining their starting positions and getting stuck into the race. John made a fantastic move to take eighth place, while Daniel was scrapping with the cars behind him. After dropping a few places, a great move by Daniel to take P11 saw him get his rhythm back. Unfortunately, a collision with a GT car marked the end of the race for the #24 car before the end of the first hour.
With just over an hour left to run, John pitted the #23 from eighth to hand over to Wayne Boyd. A great pit stop by the team saw Wayne re-join in seventh place. Before long he had moved up into fifth, setting fastest lap after fastest lap. Wayne began to catch the fourth placed car, reducing a 30-second gap to seven seconds before the second round of mandatory pit stops began.
With 11 minutes left to run, Wayne pitted the #23 for fuel only and made his way back out to finish the race. He passed one more car to take fourth place with six minutes of the race remaining, bringing the #23 home a fantastic fourth after two hours of racing, including getting the fastest lap of the race too.
The next round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup will be held at Paul Ricard, France on 28-29 August.
Wayne Boyd: “Absolutely fantastic race for us. I’m really happy for John and all the boys. We qualified ninth so to gain five positions on our starting position with no safety cars or FCYs was pretty impressive. John did a great job in his stint and kept it very consistent with good lap times and kept it in one piece. Fastest lap was also nice to get. We will be pushing for a podium at Ricard. The United car was absolutely fantastic today.”
European Le Mans LMP 3.
United Autosports have scored their second double win in a row at Spa Francorchamps, Belgium on Sunday 9th August 2020, as Phil Hanson and Filipe Albuquerque won overall in the #22 Oreca 07, while Wayne Boyd, Tom Gamble and Rob Wheldon won the LMP3 class in the #2 Ligier JS P320.
Our LMP3 team continued where they left off at Paul Ricard with a second consecutive pole position for Wayne Boyd in the #2 Ligier JS P320. Duncan Tappy qualified the #3 fourth on the grid. Rob Wheldon started the #2 Ligier JS P320, while Andrew Bentley started the #3 Ligier. Rob made a great start, pulling a four second lead to the second placed car in the opening laps, but the safety car after 16 minutes ruined Rob’s lead. On the restart, Rob maintained the LMP3 lead, while Andrew had moved up a spot to third. After one hour and 10 minutes, and a fantastic opening stint, Rob pitted the #2 from the lead. Andrew Bentley momentarily took the lead of the race in the #3 Ligier before pitting to hand over to Jim McGuire. Unfortunately, not long after starting his stint, Jim had to pit again with a steering wheel issue. Rob pitted the #2 Ligier just short of the two-hour mark, handing over to Tom Gamble. With 1 hour and 45 minutes left to run, Duncan Tappy took over the wheel of the #3 Ligier from Jim McGuire. Tom in the #2 pitted for fuel only just as the skies began to get darker and rain was incoming. With under an hour to go, Wayne jumped on board the #2 as Tom pitted, just as the rain began to fall. He went back out on slicks to re-join in the lead of the race. Duncan in the #3 meanwhile was running fourth with 37 minutes remaining after a great couple of stints by him, but with 29 minutes remaining he pitted again for the final time for fuel dropping him back to seventh. At the end, Duncan finished fifth with Wayne crossing the line to take their second consecutive win of the 2020 season. The #2 Ligier also scored the fastest LMP3 lap of the race.
United’s #2 car now leads the championship by 29 points with three rounds to go.
Wayne Boyd: “Another really good weekend for us. Obviously, the pole for us yesterday gave us the perfect start. Rob had a clear track at the start of the race and he did an absolutely fantastic double stint, he deserves a lot of credit for this. Tom did a great job too creating me a big lead so it was just a case of bringing the car home. It just shows how good our car is, it has been unbelievable all week so a massive thanks to the boys and all of United.”