KEO Racing suffers premature end in race after great performance in Portimao
Asnaes, Denmark 30/10/2018. The last round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup came to an early end Sunday morning after a successful prelude that saw KEO Racing continuously at the top of the timing table.
Already during Wednesday during the open day of testing the team showed great pace with P2 in the morning session that saw Danish driver Johan Jokinen behind the wheel of the Ligier JS P3 – a spot that would be shared with German driver Paul Scheuschner over the weekend.
As the official activities of the last round of the Michelin Le Mans Cup began on Friday morning with the first practice session KEO Racing stayed at the top of the timing sheets with Johan in P2.
The one-hour long free practice session was interrupted by rain around halfway through, thereby denying Paul the chance to acquaint himself with the KEO Racing-setup.
For the second free practice Saturday morning KEO was once again to be found in P2 with Johan before handing the car to Paul who only was able to get a single lap in the car before the session was red flagged not to be resumed.
This practically left Paul without any experience of how the car behaved going into the qualifying.
This didn’t stop the German from putting in an excellent performance and by the end of the qualifying session he had put the car in P6.
Had he only gotten more laps in the free practice to learn about the setup a top 3 would have been up for grasp.
Rainfall during the night of the race meant tricky conditions for the opening part of the 2-hour race. Paul would be behind the wheel for the opening hour before handing the car to Johan to take it across the line.
Unfortunately, the tricky conditions became a too great factor during the start as Paul would suffer from the wet exit curve at turn 1 leading him into a spin and was hit by another driver. Paul was able to return the car to the pits but damage to the cooling systems meant the car would have to retire in lap 1.
Next month KEO Racing will have activities with our pre-season tests to prepare for the 2019 season.
“It was a weekend in which we expected to have a great result and up until the race we did show that we have the speed and the ability to be right at the top.
However, this unfortunate incident left us without a chance to prove it in the race.
The mechanics and the drivers had worked tremendously all of the days and we surely will be back to show our true potential”, said Kim Olsen (Team owner).
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