The second Road To Le Mans race of the weekend took place on Saturday morning, with the usual Michelin Le Mans Cup drama and excitement to keep the large crowd around the 13.6km circuit on the edge of their seats.
Early pitstops under a Safety Car propelled the no29 MV2S Racing Ligier and the no90 Blackthorn Aston Martin Vantage to the front of their prospective fields, with both cars coming home to take the chequered flag at the end of the 55-minute race.
The second race of the weekend got underway with the no85 R-ace GP Duqueine of Fabien Michal leading the huge grid into the first corner.RTLM Race 1 winner Torsten Kratz was soon on the move in the no22 WTM by Rinaldi Racing Duqueine, moving up to third on the opening lap.
The no88 AF Corse Ferrari of Custodio Toledo was leading GT3, with his teammate Charles-Henri Samani keeping pace in the no82 Ferrari, who in turn was ahead of Derek Deboer in the no95 Racing Spirit of Leman Aston Martin.
However, an early Safety Car period was declared when the no29 MV2S Racing Ligier of Christophe Cresp went off into the gravel, the French driver rejoining the track and the back of the Safety Car train. The second car, the no62 Bretton Racing Ligier had stopped with a left rear puncture and had to be pushed behind the barriers.
Once this was complete the race went back to green with the no22 Duqueine moving up to second as Kratz overtook the no20 High Class Racing Ligier of Tommy Foster on the Mulsanne Straight.
A Slow Zone was declared at Dunlop after the no23 Biogas Motorsport Ferrari had stopped.As the cars slowed down after the last corner, the no82 Ferrari ran into the back of the leading no88 296 GT3 causing damage to both cars.Samani was struggling into the first corner as the bonnet came loose and both the no82 and no51 AF Corse Ferraris spun at Dunlop.
The Slow Zone was removed but another car off at the final corner brought out the second Safety Car of the race.
Several cars made an early stop including the no29 MV2S Racing Ligier of Christophe Cresp and the no90 Blackthorn Aston Martin of Martin Berry, with Maximus Mayer and Lorcan Hanafin taking over the driving duties respectively.On the next lap all the other cars came into the pits except the no83 Iron Dames Lamborghini, Celia Martin electing to stay out for another lap before pitting.
The race resumed with the Mayer ahead of the no6 ANS Motorsport Ligier of Clement Moreno, who was being caught by the no97 COOL Racing Ligier of David Droux, which had started the race at the back of the grid.Lorcan Hanafin was leading GT3 in 3rdoverall, holding a massive gap to the second placed no57 Kessel Racing Ferrari.
Droux was soon past the no90 Blackthorn Vantage and challenging Moreno for second place, the Swiss driver moving up to second on the outside into Indianapolis with six minutes of the race remaining.
A couple more Slow Zones were declared and then removed to recover some stranded cars in two separate incidents.
The last lap saw David Droux closing the gap to Maximus Mayer in the leading MV2S Ligier, the Spaniard pushing hard to keep the gap as the chequered flag approached.There was a heart stopping moment for the team when Mayer ran wide on the exit of Virage du Pont, but the Spanish driver gather the car up and kept the charging COOL Racing Ligier at bay, crossing the line just 0.935s ahead.
Tommy Foster in the no20 High Class Racing Ligier had managed to pass both Henrion David in the no85 R-ace GP and Clement Moreno in the ANS Ligier to claim the final podium position.
Lorcan Hanafin brought the no90 Blackthorn Aston Martin home to claim the victory for the British team and his teammate Martin Berry, the first in the teams debut season in the Michelin Le Mans Cup. They finished nearly 10 seconds ahead of championship leaders Matt Kurzejewski and Alessandro Balzan in the no51 AF Corse Ferrari 296 GT3, with no18 High Class Racing Porsche 911 of Nick Jones and Sven Moller claiming the final podium position.
CLICK HERE for the result for Race 2 of the Road To Le Mans
