Historic win for Hughes, Kane at Spa.

Warren Hughes and Jonny Kane have taken their place in motorsport history after helping TVR to secure its first ever international sportscar win in the opening round of the LMES.

The duo led a one-two finish for the Team LNT T400-Rs in the six hour race at Spa-Francorchamps, with Patrick Pearce, Marc Hynes and Jason Templeman securing second place - with both cars also in the top ten overall.

Race day at Spa saw foggy and damp conditions which led to the cancellation of a number of the support races - among them both rounds of the British F3 International Series - but with the LMES cars having headlights the decision was made to start the race.

In far from ideal conditions, Hughes made a superb start to the race in the #81 car and had soon moved up to second place in the GT2 class. After holding position through his opening hour and a quarter stint, Hughes handed the car over to Kane who set about putting the lead Ferrari of Andrew Kirkaldy and Nathan Kinch under severe pressure, even after a slight brush with a wall.

After running a double stint, Kane then handed back over to Hughes, who soon inherited the lead when Kinch was caught out by a combination of cold tyres and a damp track and went off.

Once the safety had pitted after the Ferrari - and numerous other cars - were recovered, Hughes was careful on his cold tyre until there was enough heat in them to allow him to push harder and he was then able to bring the car home in eighth place overall - and with a lap advantage over the sister car in second.

"What a result, a one-two finish and eighth and tenth overall," team owner Lawrence Tomlinson said. "Team LNT has worked so hard during the winter to develop these cars and we are seeing the fruits of our work. Alan Mugglestone, our engineer, called the race to perfection today and Warren and Jonny executed it perfectly.

"They were magnificent. They are undoubtedly the strongest driver pairing in the field and this, combined with further development of the TVR, makes me very optimistic for the rest of the season."

Next up for the team is the British GT Championship race at Magny Cours, where the field will run as part of the FIA GT round at the French circuit.