LMS: Hughes joins RLR for Hungaroring

Team RLR has added Warren Hughes to its driver line-up for its Le Mans Series debut at the Hungaroring next month.

The experienced sportscar racer will join SPEED series graduates Barry Gates and Rob Garofall in the Lancashire-based squad’s ex-RML MG Lola for the 1000km race.

Hughes was a class winner in the LMS last weekend at the Algarve Circuit in Portimao, where he finished sixth overall in a Formula Le Mans prototype shared with Jody Firth, and is also an LMP2 class-winner at the Le Mans 24 Hours.

The Newcastle-born driver visited the team’s workshops in Bolton on Tuesday for a seat-fitting and will link-up with the rest of the squad again at Snetterton in two weeks time for a test ahead of the trip to Budapest.

“We are delighted to be welcoming Warren to Team RLR for our debut appearance in the Le Mans Series at the Hungaroring,” said Team RLR boss Nick Reynolds.

“I think he will bring a lot to the team and the other drivers in the squad with his professionalism and experience of the championship.

“Warren has a superb track record in the Le Mans Series, and has even taken class honours in our car a couple of seasons ago when it was with another team.

“The car has been completely rebuilt since then and we have done a huge amount of testing this year to get it to where we think it needs to be, so it will be great to see what he thinks of it when we run with him at Snetterton at the beginning of August.

“We tested there earlier in the year too so it will be a good yardstick for us to measure how far we have progressed since then. We are excited about that and looking forward to the build up to our race debut in Hungary.”

Hughes too is looking forward to his LMS return having driven regularly in the LMP2 class with the likes of Quifel-ASM Team, Team WFR, Embassy Racing and RML over the past few years.

“This is a great opportunity for me,” he said. “I was aware of the guys behind Team RLR competing in the SPEED Series and knew that they did a very good job. When I got the chance to join the team and drive an LMP2 car again I jumped at it.

“I think the competition is going to be pretty tough in Hungary as there’s a lot of new cars in the field and the depth of the LMP2 class has definitely gotten stronger over the past couple of seasons. However, if we can get a good run and keep the car out of the pits then I’m sure we can get a very good result and maybe surprise some people.

“I’m really looking forward to going testing with the team at Snetterton, and if that goes well we can push on and get a result in Hungary that the team deserves for their efforts so far.”


Andy Wilkinson

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