ELMS 4H Barcelona
Jonny Egdar Secures Top 10 Finish on ELMS Debut
Motorsport UK Academy, Team UK driver, Jonny Edgar made his debut in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS) over the weekend with the AO Racing by TF Sport team at the Circuit de Catalunya for the 4 hours of Barcelona and secured valuable championship points with a P7 finish in the LMP2 category.
Following an impressive performance in the second round of the IMSA Endurance Cup in March at the Sebring 12 Hours, Cumbria’s finest made the return to Europe and the first round of the 2024 ELMS season.
Before the weekend began, Jonny and his teammates, Louis Deletraz and Robert Kubica were given two days of testing at the official championship prologue at the Circuit de Catalunya (the same track the 4 hours of Barcelona would be held at), and enjoyed a productive test racking up plenty of mileage and data.
Moving into the weekend and Free Practice 1 on Friday, Jonny and his teammates hit the ground running, setting the fastest time of the session, and felt even more confident with the car than in the prologue.
After an uneventful second practice session, Jonny’s teammate, Louis Deletraz jumped in for the 15 minute qualifying session and put the car in 10th place in LMP2, having also saved an extra set of tyres for the race.
In perfect conditions, the 4 Hours of Barcelona got underway with Robert Kubica behind the wheel. Jonny took over the driving duties for the middle stint. However, whilst working his way up the order, Robert sustained some damage to the front of the car following contact, through no fault of his own, under a Full Course Yellow restart and had to pit for repairs. The damage set the team back in the LMP2 order and shortly after they lost a lap thanks to the unfortunate timing of a pit stop and the safety car being deployed, which meant Robert had to wait at pit exit.
Despite the unfortunate start to the race, the team pushed on and Jonny put in a good performance during his stint, setting competitive times and helping the team climb back into the top 10. The D.Tolson and sons sponsored driver then handed the car over to Louis for the finish, securing ninth place overall and six valuable championship points.
Jonny: “It was a difficult race unfortunately, Robert sustained damage early on which wasn’t his fault, it was just one of those things and it was then tough to go a lap down as we were stuck at pit exit once the safety car was deployed. After that the car felt good though and we had strong pace so we were able to recover P7 in LMP2 which is a good result considering the situation and I’d just like to say thank you to the team for all of their hard work.”
The second round of the European Le Mans Series will see Cumbria’s finest and his AO by TF Sport team travel to the Paul Ricard Circuit for the 4 Hours of Le Castellet on the 5th May 2024. The race will be live streamed on the championship’s official YouTube channel.
