RML win secures LMP2 lead.

RML have finally secured their first win of the 2006 Le Mans Series season after Tommy Erdos and Mike Newton took advantage of late misfortune for the Rollcentre Radical team to secure the LMP2 class victory.

Erdos took the start of the race from the fourth row of the grid and the LMP2 pole. The Brazilian had a clean opening 30 mins but then contact with the #24 Lola of Sam Hancock forced him to pick up gravel, resulting in a puncture and an early pit stop. Losing the class lead as a result, Erdos but set about taking it back as soon as he was back on track and overtook the Rollcentre Radical with Joao Barbosa at the wheel and the #40 ASM Lola to take the class lead just before pitting to hand the car over to team-mate Newton.

As the team completed the driver change, the Safety Car was deployed, with Newton returning to the track just behind the Safety Car but with the Radical having got ahead.

With the ASM Lola retiring in the pits with piston failure the Radical now had over one lap lead in the LMP2 class, with Newton drove a strong consistent double stint, before handing over to Erdos to complete the race.

Erdos immediately set about closing down the gap to the Radical, which stood at over a lap. Lapping consistently quicker than Rob Barff in the Rollcentre car, sometimes taking up to three seconds a lap off the leader, the gap started to drop, and the MG Lola was running in sixth place overall when Erdos pitted for his final scheduled stop.

In the closing minutes of the race the Radical also completed its final pit stop but would not restart once fuelled due to a starter motor problem. Erdos kept up a steady pace and watched the Radical's lead slip away as the car sat in the pits and with only seven minutes of the race remaining he took the LMP2 class lead and drove conservatively to the flag to give the team a first LMS win of the year and a fourth place overall finish..

"I am delighted with the win," Erdos said. "The team really deserve this as they have been working so hard for it all season, it's especially sweet when it's your home race! We are now leading the championship and our main rival hasn't had a good result here today so that gives us a further push for the final round."

Newton was equally thrilled with the victory, while RML chief executive Ray Mallock was quick to praise the whole team on adding another win to the success enjoyed at Le Mans.

"Superb team work has once again brought us this win today," he said. "We had our fair share of bad luck early on in the race due to a puncture and losing out during the safety car and we thought we couldn't catch the Rollcentre Radical but their starter motor problems in the final pit stop handed us the win. We commiserate with them, but that's racing."