OAK claim ELMS win at Donington

OAK Racing's #35 machine recorded the first win for the team's Morgan-badged LMP2 chassis in Sunday's European Le Mans Series round at Donington.

The French squad's Nissan-powered car - piloted by Olivier Pla, Bertrand Baguette and Dimitri Enjalbert - was locked in a three-way battle with the Oreca-Nissans of Thiriet by TDS (Pierre Thiriet and Mathias Beche) and Murphy Prototypes (Warren Hughes, Brendon Hartley and Jody Firth) as the six-hour event reached its final 90 minutes.

However when leader Hughes spun and Beche landed a stop-go penalty for speeding in the pits the French Le Mans-based squad's cause was aided significantly. They would eventually win by a little over 20 seconds from the TDS effort with the Murphy squad completing the rostrum.

OAK were one of nine LMP2 squads competing at Donington which, added to a lone LMPC machine (the Boutsen Ginion FLM of Dagoneau/Battut/Hartshorne) made for a healthy prototype field at the British venue.

However the same could not be said of the GT ranks. Just two cars entered the Am class, where the IMSA Porsche of Nicolas Armindo Raymond Narac and Anthony Pons beat the AF Corse Ferrari of Perazzini/Cioci/Griffin. The Pro class was worse still: JMW's Ferrari of Alan Simonsen and Johnny Cocker was the sole entry at Donington, running unchallenged for the win.

The series' next event - the third of the 2012 campaign - is set to take place at Czech circuit Brno on September 9.

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James Weeks