Equestrian Liz Halliday and Intersport Racing Score Another Class Win in Houston
Equestrian News Release
American three-day eventing rider and sportscar racing driver Liz Halliday continued her 2006 winning streak today, taking the LMP2 class of the Lone Star Grand Prix with team mate Clint Field and top privateer racing team Intersport Racing. Following their LMP2 class success in Sebring in March, Liz Halliday’s and Clint Field’s second win in as many races, again beating the two mighty works Porsches, mean that they have extended their lead in the 2006 Drivers Championship whilst Intersport Racing has also extended its lead in the Teams’ Championship. To complete her success of the day, the organizers awarded Liz the Founders Trophy - an award given to privateer drivers. Her fifth career Series win means that she ties for the most victories by a female driver in the American Le Mans Series.
The number 37 Lola was running a strong third in class, two hours into the race, when the car suffered a cracked header – caused by an extremely bumpy circuit - and lost a lot of power. Clint drove back into the pits, the mechanics worked on the car and he rejoined the race. Ten minutes later, Clint was forced back into the pits but this time the team were able to fix the problem enough to get the car to the end. He rejoined the race and could not believe his luck when the Penske Porsches fell by the wayside during the last 30 minutes of the race! Field nursed the underpowered Intersport Racing Lola over the final 20 minutes to claim his second straight win of the season with Liz Halliday.
After celebrating on the podium with her team mate, Liz Halliday said: "This is just an awesome result for the team, Clint and I – not bad for my first street race! It shows that it is never over until the chequered flag. We knew we could not beat the works Porsche on performance – they are in a league of their own and their speed this weekend was unbelievable. But the circuit is extremely bumpy and very hard on cars and drivers. We knew some teams might try too hard and would have mechanical problems towards the end of the race and this is exactly what happened with both Porsches. Third behind the two Porsches was already a good result for us, but to beat them for the second straight race is very sweet and fantastic for the team. Today’s race was survival of the fittest and we did!"
After the race, Clint Field added: “When I passed the yellow Porsche, I thought this is too good to be true! At the end of the race, power-wise it was a quarter of the power, I could go flat out in most of the corners that I shouldn't have been able to. We seem to have a knack for holding the car together and Porsche is developing the art of losing the car with half and hour to go.”
This event also saw Liz continue her move up the step ladder of endurance racing as the young American qualified the Intersport Lola B05/40 AER for the first time. Liz said: “This race has been brilliant for me. I was very proud to qualify the car for the team for the first time. It was not the easiest circuit for a first but I think I did a pretty good job and third in class behind the two Porsches was not too bad! In the race, I was a bit cautious at the start as I did not want to be in the wrong place in the wrong time on a circuit with no run off. I then drove a solid one hour stint and then handed the car to Clint as planned. This new win feels really good and I hope that we can score a hat trick in Mid Ohio next weekend.”
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