Silverstone: Allen Timpany race report

Timpany takes fifth in class at Silverstone 1000kms

Allen Timpany and co-drivers Chris Buncombe and Bill Binnie brought their Binnie Motorsports Lola B05/40 AER home in fifth place in the Le Mans Series LMP2 class in an incident-packed Silverstone 1000kms.

Having qualified 12th overall and fourth-in-class, Buncombe took the start but was unfortunate to lose time early in the race due to an unscheduled pit stop. The young Brit was already experiencing technical problems when an electrical failure forced him to take a short cut off track to the pits where he suffered bodywork damage.

Timpany took over the car eighth in class and 17th overall and battled his way up the order. Despite suffering from a compromised aerodynamic package caused by the car's earlier off, Allen produced consistent lap times during his double-stint, making solid progress through the field. When he pitted to hand the car over to Bill Binnie for the final stage of the race he had moved it up to fifth in class.

Binnie took over the car for the final two hours of the race and maintained a strong pace to finish fifth at the chequered flag representing a good finish for the team after the troubles they'd experienced early on.

The result leaves Timpany joint sixth in the LMP2 drivers' championship out of the 37 drivers who have contested the category in the 2007 Le Mans Series.

Allen Timpany said: "We were pretty pleased with our pace, although in the final 15 laps of all our stints the rear tyres were starting to go off. The track was very dirty offline and that made it tough in traffic and didn't help the tyre situation as we were constantly picking up bits of gravel. It was also an incredibly physical race, perhaps the toughest I've done this season. I can't exactly pinpoint why that was, but I guess it could be down to the high level of G-forces drivers experience at Silvertsone in these cars. Overall I think this was a pretty reasonable showing and a very enjoyable weekend."

Binnie Motorsports Sporting Director Gilbert Casse added: "The car was difficult to drive due to the bodywork damage we suffered when Chris had his unfortunate problem early in the race. Despite those circumstances, Allen still did a good job and his times were constantly improving during his second stint."

-credit: allentimpany.com