Archie Hamilton up to speed at Le Mans test

Archie Hamilton completed the official test sessions in preparation for the Le Mans 24 Hour race. Archie will be start the 14th June race in the Ram Racing #53 Ferrari 458 Italia. His co-drivers for the race are Johnny Mowlem and Mark Patterson and the trio will contest the LMGTE Am class. Archie made his Le Mans debut last year and follows in his grandfather’s footsteps. Duncan Hamilton competed at Le Mans nine times and won the event in 1953.

Today saw Archie and Johnny Mowlem complete 74 laps (over 1000km) in the Ferrari in preparation for the big race in two weeks. Archie focussed on race runs and the team was pleased with his pace and consistency. The team posted a fastest time of 3:59.248, seventh in class

Before returning to Le Mans, Archie will race in the second round of the International GT Open series in Portugal. The Portimao round this coming weekend will again feature two races of 50 minutes and a 70 minutes respectively where Archie intends to make up for lost points at the Nürburgring opener in the V8 Racing Corvette that he shares with Diederick Sijthoff. At that round, mechanical issues led to retirement in race one and in the second race Archie had taken the car from 14th to fifth when he was hit by another car, ending his hopes of gaining points.

"It’s fantastic to be back at Le Mans," Hamilton said. "I can understand why my grandfather was so addicted to racing here. It’s great to be with Ram Racing and I’m learning a lot from the team. It’s good to be in a GT car after racing in a prototype last year. Both have their pluses but the Ferrari is particularly easy to drive and I feel comfortable being on the pace that the team set for me to aim at so I am happy that I can do my job well for the race.

“Before I can get back into endurance mode I need to focus on the GT Open race next weekend. I hope our bad luck is out of the way and that we score points this weekend. We were certainly capable of that in Germany and it was little consolation that the driver that hit me was penalised afterwards. I’ve put that behind me now and we have a clean sheet for Portimao and I will be doing my best to get on the podium."

Ram Racing