Lars Once again joined Team RLR in one of their 2 Ligier cars but this time had a new team mate in the form of Jonathan Wright. It was the first time at Spa for both drivers and Jonathan’s 2^nd race after 30 years since he last competed in British F3.

Spa is considered by most the best circuit in the world and after the first practice session Lars agreed with this statement. With very little practice time available learning this mammoth circuit was going to be difficult. Within 15 laps Lars was setting good times and seemed to gel with car and circuit.

Qualifying went well and on new tires Lars qualified the car in 14^th place out of 23 cars, which was a great effort as he was driving the heaviest and oldest car on the grid.

Lars says; ‘Wow this is the best circuit I have driven! It is a proper race circuit and it is very demanding mentally and physically. The problem is myself and Jonathan have not been here before and with the lack of testing we are still learning how to drive this circuit. My qualifying lap was very good and I feel I am in a good rhythm round here. Two years ago here in the same championship my lap time would have put the car on pole but now with these new lighter cars there is no way we can keep up but we are still very happy with our performance as a team.

Race 1 was held in beautiful weather in front of the ILMC teams and big Belgium crowds. Lars had a great start as he gambled aggressively round the outside of the first corner and moved up to 8^th place before Au Rouge. Lars kept 8^th place for most of his stint putting in lap times within 1 second every lap which was very consistent trying to build up a good margin to the cars behind him before handing over to his team mate Jonathan Wright. Lars handed their Team RLR Ligier over to Wright in 9^th place after a good pitstop by the team. Wright put in a strong stint and was holding 9^th place until the last lap when he was unfortunately blocked by his Team RLR team mate while lapping him. A final place of 10^th place was still very impressive for the team and exceeded the team’s expectations.

Race 2 again started by Lars was impressive as on the first lap Lars made his way up to 9^th place and into the top 10 again. The track conditions were very hot and this is always very demanding on drivers. Lars was putting in very fast lap times and was hassling the car in front for 8^th place when suddenly his car slowed out of a corner midway through lap 10 as the fuel pump failed this putting the car out of the race as Lars had to park on the side of the race track and was not able to make it to the pits. This was very disappointing for the team as another top 10 finish was on the cards.

Lars says; I have to say it has been a very successful weekend and I now feel extremely comfortable in the car and I think I have shown that I am learning fast and showing good pace. Race 1 was a great result for the whole team because at the beginning of the weekend a top ten finish seemed unachievable but we had good pace in the race and I managed to drive consistently without mistakes. It has always been a dream to race at Spa and I have to say it has not disappointed. I am looking forward to racing on home soil at Donington next month and I believe a top 5 is achievable’.