The Relentless-sponsored Strakka Racing put in a commendable effort at the world’s toughest motor race

There’s no such thing as an easy ride at the infamous Le Mans 24 hours race, and this year’s event (11-12 June) proved to be one of the most testing yet for the immensely talented Relentless-sponsored Strakka Racing team. Sadly the difficulties they faced proved to be too problematic to overcome, but a valiant effort was put in by all involved.

Crash in the night

The Silverstone-based team were forced to totally rebuild their HPD ARX-01d car, which is backed by Relentless Energy Drink and The Sun, over a 17-hour period, after driver Nick Leventis suffered a 9.2G crash in Qualifying 1. Impressively, they managed to have a perfectly-running, road-ready car come the start Qualifying 2. The team fought back to second position on the starting grid, but the attacking drive through the night saw Danny Watts run wide at Tertre Rouge and drive over the high sleeping-policemen kerbs, launching the car into the air and landing with a 15G impact.

More repairs

Danny was forced to return to the pits after the crash, as the damaged front aero was causing high-speed understeer. The front of the car was replaced, but a more severe problem caused by the crash then came to light. Either the oil pipe or oil cooler became compromised, and upon hitting full throttle when coming out of the pits, oil began to pour onto the car’s back tires and the oil pressure rapidly dropped. Nick had no choice but to park the car on the first chicane at Mulsanne at 2:30am, thus effectively ending Strakka Racing’s Le Mans.

Out but not down

With the memory of last year’s emphatic win, and with world-class professionalism and team effort displayed throughout this year’s race, the Relentless-sponsored Strakka Racing team are proud of their work at Le Mans 2011 – and have every right to be so.

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