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In keeping with the team’s Belgian tradition, Tony Wells, Colin Noble and Nielsen Racing took the runner-up position in the second round of the European Le Mans Series held at Spa-Francorchamps, the first podium for the new Duqueine D08 in the 2020 championship.
The #10 car of Rob Hodes and Garett Grist suffered damage from an early off and eventually retired after three and a half hours.
#7 Tony Wells & Colin Noble
Qualified – P7 2:14.954
Race – P2, P16 overall after 95 laps
#10 Rob Hodes, Charles R Crews & Garett Grist
Qualified – P8 2:14.967
Race – DNF after 74 laps (mechanical failure)
Sven Thompson commented “A good weekend to get two podiums and be more competitive than we were overall at Paul Ricard. Today’s race was obviously good, a bit far away to challenge for the win without some other circumstances arising but we’ve shown we were comfortably able to fight if we were closer on track.
“Unfortunately, Rob got involved in an incident earlier on with another car, damaging the back of our own car and, although we were able to repair it fairly briskly in the pits it put us a few laps down. We retired later in the race with a drive-train problem that I think was a result of that impact earlier on.”
Tony Wells added “We’ve missed out having a proper podium again, but it was good wasn’t it? It was surprising. The car has improved all week and that’s the best it has even been, we’re getting there.
“The double stint was alright; my neck was sore by the end. In the last couple of laps, I was looking forward to stopping but the rest was alright, I didn’t even feel the heat.”
Colin Noble concluded “That was a really good race! Kind of unexpected in ELMS. The car was really good, especially in the hot conditions at the start it was very nice. Once it cooled off a bit it went away a bit, but we created a nice gap. Tony gave it his all, had a nice stint and handed it over.”
Nielsen’s 2020 racing calendar
| 18/7 | Le Castellet Round | R1 | LMC |
| 19/7 | 4H Le Castellet | R1 | ELMS |
| 8/8 | Spa Round | R2 | LMC |
| 9/8 | 4H Spa-Francorchamps | R2 | ELMS |
| 23/8 | Michelin GT Challenge at VIR | R4 | IMSA |
| 29/8 | Le Castellet Round | R3 | LMC |
| 29/8 | 4H Le Castellet | R3 | ELMS |
| 18/9 | Road to Le Mans | R4 | LMC |
| 19/9 | 88th 24 Heures Du Mans | ||
| 27/9 | Acura Sports Car Challenge at Mid-Ohio | R5 | IMSA |
| 10/10 | Monza Round | R5 | LMC |
| 11/10 | 4H Monza | R4 | ELMS |
| 17/10 | Petit Le Mans | R6 | IMSA |
| 1/11 | Portimão Round | R6 | LMC |
| 1/11 | 4H Portimão | R5 | ELMS |
