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SR9 Takes Best-Ever Finish At Le Mans

13th June 2010

The Swiss Racing Performance team has given the Radical SR9 LMP2 its best-ever finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans this afternoon, with a historic 18th place and sixth in class with their SR9-Judd.

Five years after the same chassis finished 20th in Radical’s first assault on the French endurance classic, Racing Performance drove a perfect, fault-free race to the chequered flag, competing as part of the biggest Le Mans grid since 1955. Avoiding numerous on-track incidents and retirements, including the spectacular demise of all four Peugeot 908 LMP1s, the team proved that the SR9 continues to be the ideal privateer’s Le Mans prototype.

Settling into a steady pace after qualifying 30th overall, Racing Performance soon started to climb the leaderboard, including the new, rival Norma-Judd, which retired after only 40 laps. Crucially, Race Performance made it through the night unscathed, and emerged on Sunday morning with a top-20 finish within grasp.

The first all-dry race for several years was extremely fast, with the distance and lap records both broken, but also extremely attritional; only half the field managed to finish. The trio of Pierre Bruneau, Marc Rostan and Ralph Meichtry drove into 20th position with less than two hours to go, then benefitting from the late demise of the #4 Oreca-Peugeot and #009 Lola-Aston Martin.

The finish maintains Radical’s 100% mechanical reliability record at Le Mans; its only two retirements in the last five years have been as a result of accident damage. Competing with a driver-line-up of two gentleman drivers and one Le Mans debutee, the SR9 proved its reputation as a reliable, easy-to-drive Le Mans car for privateer teams to field. Radical extends its congratulations to the Race Performance team and drivers, on a fantastic finish in Radical’s fifth Le Mans outing.