The inaugural round of the 2017 European Le Mans Series went underway today at the British venue of Silverstone with Oregon Team making their way to the series with a brand-new Norma M30 LMP3. The new car was driven by Colombian Andrés Méndez and Italians Dario Capitanio and Davide Roda.
If the goal for the team owned by Jerry Canevisio and Giorgio Testa was to complete as many kilometers as possible, it can be said that everything went according to plan. The French racecar was able to cross the finishing line without experiencing any mechanical issue, ending up P13 in class.
Over the four hours, the team only had to deal with a puncture right after the first driver change, when Roda was driving. The Italian, who had just relished Méndez, was sent spinning and was forced to make his way to the pits for an unscheduled additional stop.
Both Méndez and Capitanio completed hour-long stints while Roda drove for almost two hours, completing the final run to take the Norma M30 to the checkered flag.
“It basically went as we expected – said Jerry Canevisio – Our goal was to complete the race to make experience. Without that puncture and the additional pit-stop we could have achieved a better result. What counts now is that we have a lot of feedback on which we can work on so we can head the car’s development in the right direction over the tests that we plan to make before the next round at Monza”.
Both Capitanio (who took P12 in qualifying) and Méndez, the two Silver drivers, put up a quick pace while Roda, who was the only Bronze driver as well as the only one without track knowledge, did a great job by increasing his chemistry with the car.
The Italian round of the series is scheduled in one month at Monza, on the 13th and 14th of May. The Oregon Team will line-up at home with more ideal condition for an attempt to run at the front end of the charts.
