CCTV manufacturers AD Group are celebrating after its MG Lola EX264 sports car emerged victorious in the LMP2 class at the Le Mans 24 Hours race – the first British team ever to win this prototype class at Le Mans.
Sponsored by Group companies including AD Aerospace, Dedicated Micros and RemGuard, the MG Lola also had AD’s CEO Mike Newton behind the wheel.
In a race of highs and lows, Mike was joined by Brazilian Thomas Erdos – his regular co-driver in the MG Lola – and former works MG driver Warren Hughes.
Said Mike: “We are naturally delighted with this result, given all the heart-in-mouth drama that led up to our victory.”
The result was remarkable, the firm says, bearing in mind some of the obstacles. From the start minor problems with the cooling system and gear change put them in last place after the first hour, but they knuckled down making the MG Lola consistently the fastest car in class from that point on.
By 17 hours they were leading the LMP2 class, two laps ahead of their nearest rival but then were forced to undertake a rebuild of the gearbox, dropping them to fifth in class. Again they fought back and with three hours left had re-taken second place.
Then with only around two hours to go, a rear suspension component failed causing the MG Lola, travelling at around 150 mph, to spin wildly just missing the wall on the inside of the circuit, crossing the track and gravel trap, and coming to rest inches from the outside tyre wall.
Again after an effort by the mechanics the car rejoined the race, this time in third place in class and when the rival Courage cars suffered engine problems, with 40 minutes of the 24 hours left to run, the MG Lola swept past them to lead the class once again on the way to victory.
