Scuderia Ecosse drivers prove they are Le Mans for the job

Published on Monday 19 June 2006 11:51

SCUDERIA Ecosse boss Stewart Roden will be back behind his desk at his Winchburgh base today reflecting on the ifs, buts and maybes which denied his Ferrari team a GT2 class win in the Le Mans 24-Hours.

But Roden, whose team became the first all-Scots unit to finish on the podium in the world's most gruelling race since the Ecurie Ecosse Jaguar won the first of its two races in 1956, is already looking forward to next year.

"We'll be back, and we'll return even better prepared and fired up to win," said Roden, whose team finished third in the highly competitive GT2 class behind the American Panoz and German Porsche. "The guys worked fantastically hard not only over the weekend, but throughout the proceeding three or four months to get everything in shape for the start of the race. Frustratingly, though, a couple of unforeseen technical problems ruined our chances of winning."

The biggest delay came after 15 hours when lead driver Andrew Kirkaldy from St Andrews, who was partnered by Anglo-Greek Chris Niarchos and Irishman Tim Mullen who endured painful stomach cramps all weekend, was forced to pit as he hauled in the lead Porsche. "The car suddenly started vibrating and when I pitted the guys tried to get the wheel off, but it had jammed," said Kirkaldy, who drove for around ten hours.

"In the end they had to take a sledgehammer and a chisel to it and between them they managed to get it off and get us going again. But the delay cost us around 40 minutes and that's what cost us the win. Obviously it would have been fantastic to have finished either first or second, but given the age of the team, this is a terrific performance and I can't wait to come back."

In addition to finishing third in GT2, the Scuderia Ecosse car finished 17th overall of the 27 cars which finished from the starting grid of 50.

But while one group of Scots celebrated, there was despair for Dumfries racer Allan McNish whose Audi came in third overall after a series of problems saw fellow Audi driver Frank Biela's team win - the first diesel-powered car to claim the prize.

The 36-year-old, who started from pole position in his Audi R10TDI, led for the opening three hours before his car lost power and was called into the pits for the first of a series of series of problems.

"It's certainly not the way I anticipated the race going," said a deeply disappointed McNish.