The 4 Hours of Monza has been one to forget for Tockwith Motorsports after issues saw then having to spend close to half an hour in the garage replacing the alternator early in the race. This issue saw them drop an insurmountable 15 laps.
The weekend had started much more positively for the team running relatively trouble free before battery issues appeared at around the one hour mark of the race.
While Phil was back in England finishing off his school exams, Nigel and the rest of the team spent Friday practice focused on car set up. The team completed the ELMS prologue here at Monza in late March so both drivers have driven the LMP2 here, unlike other tracks the team will visit this year. The team had a gear box problem at the end of the 6 Hours of Spa last weekend so their first priority was to check everything was ok after it had been rebuilt.
By the end of the day the team were relatively happy with how the car felt and were looking forward to what they hoped would be a strong weekend.
There was heavy rain over night on Friday and the track was damp in places when they headed of for P2 on Saturday. It was Nigel that took the Ligier JSP217 out first, and he was comfortably the quickest on track while it was still damp. It was then Phil’s turn to jump in and get comfortable with the car and the track.
Nigel qualified the car in 8th and started the race. Getting off to an excellent start, Nigel was up to 6th place on the opening lap.
Unfortunately just after the one hour mark the team were forced to pit due to battery issues – dropping 2 laps behind the leaders. The team used the long stop to do a driver change with Phil getting behind the wheel.
With the problem not clearing, Phil was forced to bring the car in again on lap 52, and the team pulled the car back into the garage. The team worked frantically to replace the alternator, rejoining just 15 laps later.
Having been ruled out of contention, the team focused on completing more mileage ahead of their debut at Le Mans next month.
From here, the team and their Ligier return to Yorkshire after close to three weeks on the road.
Next up is the Le Mans test, then the big one, the 24 Hours of Le Mans!
