Tockwith Motorsports had its first attempt at the WEC Nurburgring 6 Hours, however it was a problematic day at this classic German endurance race.
The Yorkshire-based team, running a Ligier-Gibson JS P217 in partnership with Gulf Oil International has already become a fan’s favourite this season, in part, to the iconic blue & orange colour scheme that is synonymous with endurance racing. But TMS have earned their respect through a mixture of competitiveness and discipline that has resulted in them being the current Asian Le Mans Series (ALMS) champions.
Having started the race from 15th on the grid, and 10th in class, the #34 Tockwith car rose through the order and more fancied runners started to hit trouble too. This combined with a championship winning driver duo of Nigel Moore and Phil Hanson looked like TMS could be in for an advantageous 6-hour encounter. However, an hour into the race Nigel Moore noticed, during his triple stint, that the car wasn’t behaving as expected and soon after he handed over to Phil Hanson, the 18 year old was forced to bring the car back to the pits.
Nigel Moore said, “the car was running so well initially and we managed to get up to 11th overall and 8th in class and I felt the we were in a position to climb even higher, but then the signs started to show and I knew we certainly had a clutch problem, but it was manageable”.
Teammate Hanson was open minded about the result, “The goal was to gain experience in the WEC and race against the best there is at the best circuits. Of course I would have liked to have had more track time, especially in the race, but these things happen in motor racing and our team isn’t used to failing so it’s a bitter pill to swallow. However it’s down the road to The Red Bull Ring for next weekend’s round of the ELMS and we will come back fighting”.
“What I was pleased with though, was the way our crew got to grips to try and fix the car and managed to sort it. I’m sure after being in our pit for quite some time, others may have been expecting a retirement, but that isn’t the nature of TMS and our boys, both in and out of the car, showed their true colours and got us back on track.
“We have a week to work on the car over here in Germany and Austria before we see how our car compares with other LMP2 Ligiers next weekend at The Red Bull Ring. I was very pleased to have the support from Ligier (Onroak) this weekend, despite being the only entry for them here”.
