After four seasons with DKR Engineering winning the Michelin Le Mans Cup title, the 2021 season saw a different team name on the LMP3 trophy for the first time since the series began.
British team Nielsen Racing, along with drivers Colin Noble and Tony Wells, finally secured the titles they had been fighting long and hard for since 2017.
In 2017 Tony Wells and Colin Noble, racing the no79 Nielsen Racing Ligier, finished the year as Vice Champions with one win and three second places to their name.
In 2018 Wells and Noble raced in different cars, with Tony finishing the season in 3rd place in the no2 Ecurie Ecosse/Nielsen Ligier and Colin one place higher in the Vice Champions spot once again in the no79 Ecurie Ecosse Nielsen Ligier.
In 2019 Wells and Noble became teammate again, this season finishing in 3rd place with two wins and in 2020 they finished in 6th overall with another win to add to their tally.
In 2021 their long-standing relationship paid dividends and it proved to be their season, but it was far from an easy road to the championship with plenty of opposition from the established teams and from some of the new ones making their series debut.
The season started at Barcelona and a 6th placed finished got their year off to a solid start, however they bounced back well with victory at Le Castellet in May. In a dramatic filled two hours, Noble took the chequered flag just one second ahead of Matt Bell in the no69 Cool Racing Ligier after the Scottish driver overtook several cars in the final 45-minutes to lead the race.
A third-place finish at Monza was followed by victory in the first Road to Le Mans race at the Circuit de La Sarthe. An early Safety Car saw many of the cars pitting, including Tony Wells in the no7 Nielsen Racing Ligier. When racing restarted the no7 Ligier was at the front of the field, with Noble building up a gap to keep the lead to the chequered flag.
The second RTLM race didn’t go so well as Wells suffered an early accident, forcing the English driver into the pits and eventually into retirement, which proved to be the only non-points scoring race of the season for the no7 Nielsen Racing Ligier.
A fifth placed at Spa-Francorchamps saw the team head into the final race of the season with an 11-point lead over the no66 Rinaldi Racing Duqueine and 14 ahead of the no69 Cool Racing Ligier.
This points advantage proved to be crucial as Tony Wells and Colin Noble struggled during the race, finishing down in 10th at the chequered flag.However, their main rivals also didn’t score well with the no66 Rinaldi Racing Duqueine finishing in 7th and the no69 Cool Racing Ligier in 4th place.
This meant that the no7 Nielsen Racing Ligier driven by Tony Wells and Colin Noble were the 2021 Michelin Le Mans Cup Champions on 75 points, just 4 points ahead of Matt Bell and Maurice Smith in the no69 Cool Racing Ligier after another great season of racing.
