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Strakka Racing’s Nick Leventis and Peter
Hardman were back at Le Mans last weekend for a
very different motorsport event from the 24 Hours
they shared last month in the Vitaphone Aston
Martin DBR9. This time they were taking part in
the Le Mans Classic, co-driving historic racing
cars around the full Le Mans circuit. The team’s
three cars included the Aston Martin DBR1 that
took victory in the Le Mans 24 Hours in 1959, a
beautiful Ferrari 246S from 1960, and a 1966
Ferrari 330 P3.
Responsibility for qualifying fell to the
former Classic winner Peter Hardman, who responded
with pole for the #29 Aston Martin in the Group 3
grid (for cars dating from 1957-61) and then an
impressive 11th for the Ferrari P3 in the Group 5
class (for those originally raced between 1966 and
72). Sadly, recurrent gearbox problems in practice
lead to the eventual withdrawal of the Ferrari
246, although Nick still maintains it “was the
most beautiful car on the grid!”
When it came to the races, Nick took first
stint in the Aston Martin DBR1, starting from the
pole set by Peter. “It was a fantastic race,” he
said, “but I couldn’t hold on to Gary (Pearson) in
the D-Type Jaguar. He just had so much power and
left me standing!” Nick held his ground, battling
on for third, and left Peter well placed to fight
through to second at the flag. That determined
their grid position for the second race. Soon
after the start Nick “found 5th gear instead of
3rd by mistake” and lost a handful of places, but
recovered much of that ground before handing over
to Peter, who continued the good work. He’d
regained fourth place by the close, and the gap to
the winning Jaguar D-Type was just 46 seconds. The
final run for the Aston came at 10:40 on the
Sunday morning, with Nick once again driving first
stint. “I’d been looking forward to a good result,
but I spun just after the Dunlop Bridge. It was
entirely my own fault.” He slipped to 21st, but by
the end of his four-lap stint he’d recovered
impressively to sixth. Peter then took over the
car for the second stint and pushed hard in the
final laps to finish fifth.
 The team’s
first race in the Group 5 Ferrari 330 P3 came late
on Saturday evening. “The start went really well,”
said Peter. “I went quicker in the first two laps
than I had in qualifying, and managed to battle
through to 5th from 11th, but then I began to
experience problems with the brakes.” It was a
situation that grew steadily worse, and Nick was
forced to drive very conservatively throughout his
second-stint. Despite this, he crossed the line in
a competitive tenth place.
The P3’s second race came at dawn on Sunday
morning, and Peter took the 45 minutes solo.
Starting from 8th, based upon his fastest lap from
Race One, he battled hard to take the flag in
fourth, but with one of the other competitors
penalised for a hasty pitstop, the Ferrari P3 was
reclassified third. In the car’s final race,
Peter ran fifth before a noise from the back
heralded a problem with the P3’s differential, and
after three laps Peter parked up.
“The Aston did a great job to last all
three races,” said Peter in admiration for the
fifty-year-old DBR1. “The chicanes and tight
corners are very tough on those old cars. The only
disappointment was not being able to get the best
out of the 246, but overall it was a very
successful weekend.” Nick thoroughly enjoyed the
experience. “I absolutely loved it, and it’s such
a privilege to drive cars like these around the Le
Mans circuit.”
The team has a few days rest before heading
off to Italy for the next round of the Peroni
Endurance Touring Car Championship at Misano,
where Nick and Peter will be competing in the
team’s BMW M3 GTR.
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