REBELLION Racing set for intense Le Mans test day

2012 LE MANS 24 HOURS – TEST DAY : REBELLION RACING IS PLEASED TO BE BACK AGAIN AT LE MANS FOR THE OFFICIAL LE MANS TEST DAY AND ARE FULLY READY FOR THE EVENT.

#12 Rebellion Racing Lola B12/60 Toyota: Nicolas Prost, Neel Jani, Nick Heidfeld

Photo by: Lucien Harmegnies

The past weeks have been turbulent as the news broke that an Administrator had been appointed at Lola Cars International Limited and Lola Composites Limited.

We hope that a positive outcome will emerge from the Administration period.

For ourselves, at REBELLION Racing, our focus is very much that the show must go on and so we are focussed on the challenges ahead.

REBELLION Racing will work with the companies that have been part of the vast array of subcontract suppliers to Lola Cars International and we will continue campaigning our two Lola-Toyota B12/60 coupes for the rest of the season with the aim of securing the 2012 FIA Endurance Trophy for the best private LMP1 team.

REBELLION Racing will compete at the 80th edition of Le Mans 24 Hours with the team’s two updated Lola-Toyota B12/60 coupes aiming for a podium finish whilst battling for top Privateer and petrol powered honours, repeating last year’s and recent successes.

The team will introduce from this weekend, during Le Mans Test Day, a new low downforce aerodynamic package on both of the cars. It is an update produced by Lola for the new Lola-Toyota B12/60 coupes, successfully introduced during the last FIA WEC round at Spa last month, in order to fit with the Le Mans track’s main requirements: low drag and high top speed.

REBELLION Racing finished as the best petrol powered car in the 2011 edition of Le Mans 24 Hours, a result that helped the team to finish the season as the best Privateer in the championship behind Peugeot’s and Audi’s factory teams.

REBELLION Racing is heading to this year’s Le Mans 24 Hours as the leader of the FIA WEC LMP1 Trophy for best Privateer Team with 37 points and a 1-2 finish at the last round, the 6 Hours of Spa.

Sunday’s official test will be intense as the team have scheduled, on top of other requirements, specific work programmes for the new aero kit, for tyres choices and strategy with Michelin and for engine development with TMG.

Bart Hayden, REBELLION Racing Team Manager : “This Sunday’s Le Mans Test Day is a rare occasion to test the cars on the Le Mans 24 Hours track, especially the newly resurfaced part on the Mulsanne straight, so it is very important for us to have both cars fitted with the 2012 “Le Mans” aero kit, as scheduled. We have a detailed programme of work for each of the two cars to gain as much information as possible after their first outing at Spa last month and to compare the on-track performance to the simulations. If the rain comes on Sunday we will have to deal with it like we did at Spa last month. If we are missing data on the dry after Sunday’s test, it will be the same for everyone! In any case, I think we are ready where we wanted to be.”