ELMS – Oak Racing: Pole is not enough

Small Le Mans 2012, the start of which will be given shortly, will not only be the scene of the ALMS final. Indeed, the Georgian event also constitutes the final round of theELMS, a championship that Oak Racing intends to win. Best time in qualifying in LM P2 (ALMS and ELMS combined), Olivier Pla showed the entire field what the intentions of the Sarthe team were. And boss-driver Jacques Nicolet has a second reason to rejoice, since the first row in the category is 100% Morgan, a car developed by OnRoak Automotive, the manufacturing branch of his company. Indeed, behind the wheel of the Morgan du Conquest Endurance, Martin Plowman set the second time in the category, just two thousandths behind Olivier Pla.

With pole in hand, Olivier Pla, Jacques Nicolet and Bertrand Baguette will now focus on winning this afternoon, with the aim of Oak Racing winning the 2012 ELMS champion crown. All hopes are high, and this especially since the event contested on the Road Atlanta circuit counts double. “American circuits are apparently doing well for Oak Racing and Olivier Pla, underlines team principal Sébastien Philippe. This is our second race in the United States this year (after Sebring in March. Ed.), and our second pole position. Today we are very satisfied because beyond being on pole, our partner and importer for the United States, Conquest Racing, which runs the same car, is also with us on the front line. Today we demonstrated the good potential of our Morgan 2012 LM P2, but qualifying is one thing and a 10 hour race is another. The importance of qualifying is ultimately very relative compared to everything that can happen in the race, but it is always good to demonstrate the quality of the team and the car. The whole team did an excellent job. »

Olivier Pla, although proud of his performance, also refuses to get excited. Even more than pole, it is victory, even the title, that the Toulouse driver wants to seize. “It’s great to be able to come here to Road Atlanta, straight from Fuji, put the car on the track and be competitive straight away, he admits. I had a very well balanced car for qualifying. It was quite a strange session because the more we drove, the faster the track was and therefore the more the times dropped. I managed to get a clear ride at the end. If pole is the icing on the cake, you have to stay focused for tomorrow's race and prepare for all kinds of scenarios. » 

As a reminder, in the general Drivers classification, Olivier Pla and Bertrand Baguette are 19 points behind the Mathias Beche-Pierre Thiriet pair. On the Team side, the delay of Oak Racing on Thiriet by TDS Racing amounts to 10 units.