What a season this is turning out to be for Strakka Racing. After claiming first prize in the MICHELIN GREEN X Challenge at Le Castellet in April, the British squad scored the best ever result achieved by an LMP2 car in June’s Le Mans 24 Hours (fifth). Last weekend, in Hungary, the HPD-ARX 01c qualified on pole position before recording a historic win.

Nick Shorrock, Piers Phillips

“A lucky win? I don’t think so. I believe you make your own luck,” says Strakka Racing’s team principal, Piers Phillips. “We simply prepared thoroughly and did our job as professionally as possible. The outcome was always going to hinge massively on the way you dealt with the traffic round the twisty circuit. That was a point we stressed to our drivers: we told them the race would no doubt be about survival and they responded brilliantly. Our car was one of the few that didn’t take a single knock.”

“At the start, we knew there was every chance we would get swamped by the powerful LMP1 cars on the run to the first turn, so we just let that happen and then concentrated on staying out of trouble, but you could see many of the other cars taking risks overtaking slower runners. We were third at the halfway point, and then the Peugeot pitted… That’s when we sensed that a win was possible.”

The slow-speed Hungarian venue clearly suited the nimble HPD which benefited from a brand new high-downforce aero package developed by HPD and Wirth Research. “It worked at once,” explains Phillips, “and that made our job much easier, leaving us to concentrate on other jobs, such as fine-tuning our car’s handling and making sure that the drivers felt comfortable.”

“It’s also clear that our Michelin rubber gave us a tyre advantage over the other LMP2 cars. Along with Michelin, we prepared thoroughly for the Hungaroring, since wear was likely to be an issue. That enabled us to come through the race without any problems. So a big thank you to the guys at Clermont-Ferrand!”

The last round of the 2010 Le Mans Series will take teams to Silverstone, which is a stone’s throw from Strakka Racing’s base. “We will be up against the factory Peugeot and Audi teams, so our chief objective which will be victory in LMP2…“

1000 km d'Hungaroring, Strakka