Six Hours of Imola for Scott Tucker and His Dream Team

Fresh off a mind-blowing win at their 24 Hours of Le Mans debut, the Level 5 Motorsports team, belonging to driver Scott Tucker and comprising also Christophe Bouchut and Joao Barbosa, headed to Bologna, Italy with their Microsoft Office-sponsored Lola Honda. What turned out to be another useful victory for the team became a bittersweet day after some late-race malfunctions prevented yet another historic victory to the Wisconsin-based team.

The drivers delivered again striking performances when driving. At first maintaining a sixth place spot on the grid of LMP2 competitors, they moved to the lead with less than a couple of hours remaining. Bouchut manned the end leg of the race, taking the wheel with just more than one hour to go. The win was theirs, just an official checkered flag from being official. But Twenty-five minutes prior to the end, Bouchut’s voice crackled on the radio to say gear selection trouble.

The automobile was stuck in fourth gear due to a gear actuator malfunction. Bouchut, experienced in the motorsports field and one of the most successful endurance drivers across the world, was able to persevere through to the checkered flag using only 3 gears. Eventually, the team gained a third-place finish. Where they first enjoyed a 15-second lead, they now faced the reality that the win they nearly grasped was no more-and it was taking a while to sink in. “That’s racing,” Tucker said. “Still, ending up on the podium with this level of competition is incredible. However, it isn’t sinking in right now because we were so close to a win here.”

Though victory eluded them, they gained valued experience in a challenging field of competition, and they experienced a substantial performance increase driving the Spyder, the automobile they changed to from the 2010 Lola Coupe after the 24 Hours of Le Mans. “It was the first time we drove the Lola-Honda Spyder and it definitely proved to be the right choice,” Barbosa said. “We were much more competitive than in the previous races. We still have to work on speed and qualifying pace, but we were strong heading into the race. That took us to the lead. There’s a few more races to go, so hopefully we can continue to improve this package.”

Improvement seems hardly a possibility if you think about the podium standing the team had already done at this point in the year. With any losses being less due to driver performance than mechanical issues, a clean car seemingly guaranteed Level 5 top finishes. With the win ever-present in their minds, the team looked ahead to continuing the ALMS season with races at Lime Rock Park and Mosport International Raceway in Ontario.

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