Greaves wins dramatic ELMS opener

Jon Lancaster gave Greaves Motorsport victory in the opening round of the European Le Mans Series by passing Tristan Gommendy in the TDS entry late on to win the 4 Hours of Silverstone.

The Yorkshireman slashed the minute and a half deficit and then took the lead in the dying minutes of the race after contact between the leading pair in the arena section of the track sent Gommendy spinning.

Nissan factory driver Harry Tinknell ran close to the Greaves machine until losing ground as the result of a spin. He was able to recover and eventually finish second.

The striking Ligier-Judd entry of Krohn Racing finished one lap down in fourth place on their full-time European series début.

In the GT ranks, LMGTE was won by Mike Wainright, Adam Carroll and Phil Keen of Gulf Racing, one lap ahead of the second and third placed Ferraris. JMW's George Richardson, Sam Tordoff and Robert Smith finished second while Duncan Cameron, Matt Griffin and Aaron Scott's AF Corse entry finished third. The TDS Racing BMW Z4 GT3 of Franck Perera, Dino Lurnadi and Eric Dermont took GTC class honours.

The race also saw the debut of the new one-make LMP3 class. Paired with Ginetta stalwart Charlie Robertson, Sir Chris Hoy proved that he could be just as successful on two wheels as he was on four by beating their LNT stablemates by a lap to take P3 victory.


 

All images: Dominik Wilde