Michelin Le Mans Cup
Road to Le Mans, Rd.3, 15th July 2023
Josh Skelton got Rd.3 of his Michelin Le Mans Cup campaign underway at Paul Ricard in the South of France. After two busy days of testing Josh and his teammate Tony Wells both had great pace heading into Saturdays race day. It would be over to teammate Tony Wells for the all bronze qualifying session. After a busy session, Tony managed to set down the 6th best lap time which would see us starting the 1 hour 50 minute race from there later in Saturday afternoon.
Tony would start the race and take the car to around the 50 minute mark before handing over to Josh for the remaining hour of the race. A good start by Tony would see him gain two places up to P4, but unfortunately he would then loose those places again throughout the stint before handing the car over to Josh in P6 at the pitstop. Josh had a great opening to his stint making up 2 places very early on sitting comfortably in P4 and challenging the DKR car ahead for a place on the podium. Unfortunately he would have to make a pit stop with a mechanical fault which put them out of contention. Josh will be next on track for Rd.4 at Motorland Aragon Circuit at the end of August.
Josh Explained: “I was really looking forward to getting started here at Paul Ricard as it is always a circuit that I have got on very well with, and showed great pace over the years. We set off looking very strong in the testing and I was feeling confident within the car. I really wanted to turn our luck around from the start of the season, and get that result that we deserved.”
“Tony would take the car for the bronze rated qualifying session, where he would put us 6th on the grid for the race. After a great start he took us up to 4th, but through the stint eventually dropped back to our starting place in P6. I knew we could race from here and achieve a great result, I had my eyes set on the podium. When I jumped in the car I quickly managed to get us up to 4th again, and subsequently involved in an intense battle for 3rd. Unfortunately an issue with the car meant we had to pit, and our possible race for the podium was sadly gone. However we keep our heads up and keep pushing for the result we deserve. A big thank you to the whole of the Nielsen Racing crew.”