All three drivers of the #141 Dayle ITM Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO teammates were somewhat pleased yet reflective after finishing fifth in the 10th Anniversary Highlands 6 Hour endurance race at the Highlands Motorsport Park in Cromwell on Sunday.
The combination of Brendon Leitch, Christina Orr-West and Tim Miles proved to be one of the quickest GT3s competing, yet a problem with a fuel valve dropped them out of contention.
“It was awesome,” commented Christina Orr-West. “It’s a fabulous car and thoroughly enjoyed the experience.”
With a traditional Le Mans start, drivers running to their cars, Brendon Leitch was third quickest to the Dayle ITM Lamborghini with teammate Tim Miles already in the driver’s seat.
“It proved to be a difficult start,” said Miles. “The car didn’t fire up, so I had to reset it so didn’t make the most of Brendon’s (Leitch) awesome run.
“I loved it. The car is so alive and incredibly well-balanced, predictable and fun. I was able to put in some consistent laps and made up a couple of places. The three of us were a good team and had the pace.”
After 90 minutes, Miles boxed for tyres, fuel and a driver change with professional Lamborghini driver Brendon Leitch getting behind the wheel.
“Unfortunately, we had a fuel problem which cost us time,” said Leitch. “We had an airlock in the fuel line, and the pressure dropped, meaning I had to limp around the circuit at about 50kph and back to the pits in order to reset it.
“Other than that, the car was a rocket ship and went really well. We even set a new GT3 (with BoP) lap record. Both Tim and Christina went really well and did what they were meant to do.”
Unfortunately, this dropped them down the order, several laps behind the leaders.
“I did a 45-minute stint with Christina getting in the car for the next 90 minutes and she maintained a really good pace.”
“Our goal from this point was to get back on the lead lap,” said Orr-West. “So, I really had to step up and we were able to claw our way back. I first got to drive the car on Monday in a test session and was pleasantly surprised at how quickly I got up to speed. Driving it was just magic and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.
“It was a really interesting race as there was only one safety-car period which went against us in the end. We needed another one in the last third of the race as it would have given us the chance to gain another lap back.”
This wasn’t to be, and Leitch called on all his experience racing Lamborghini in Europe to put in some continuous quick lap times, even passing the leaders to unlap themselves.
“We’ve got to be happy in the end,” said Leitch. “Fifth is still a good result, we got some laps back and showed how quick we were. It was a lot of fun, we all had some great battles, some good old door-to-door racing and finished with the car in one piece.”
A large crowd of spectators witnessed a close finish with the Mercedes AMG GT3 driven by Ant Pederson/Paul Pederson/Marco Giltrap narrowly beating home the Wolfbrook Audi R8 GT3 Evo2 of Andrew Waite/Steve Brooks/Bill Ridingby by just 0.813 seconds with NZ Endurance champions Jonny Reid and Sam Fillmore (Audi R8 GT3 Evo2) in third.
Header Image: The Bridge always provides fresh air under the #141 Dayle ITM Lamborghini Huracán GT3 EVO – photo Terry Marshall
Words & Images Supplied
