Skip to main content
search
Team Nollet powered by New Star to Augustów win

Chris Davies on 8th July 2018

Team Nollet powered by New Star with Philippe Chiappe, Peter/ Nelson Morin and Konstantin Ustinov won the Augustów Necko Endurance – Race 2 in Poland today.

The opening handful of laps were too close to call and Medovarus 74 headed Team Abu Dhabi and the two Nollet boats through the first four tours of the circuit.

Team Abu Dhabi soon snatched the lead, however, and had completed 24 laps by the 24-minute mark and was running marginally in front of Medovarus 74 and Nollet 1.

Nollet 1 gained the lead over the next handful of laps and the French crew and Team Abu Dhabi began to edge slightly away from their rivals. But Team Abu Dhabi was back in the lead on the 50-minute mark, albeit running on the same lap as Nollet 1 and one ahead of Medovarus 74.

Nollet 1 regained the initiative, however, and were running three laps ahead of Nollet 20, Medovarus 74 and Team Abu Dhabi after 1hr 20min of the race.

Twenty minutes later and Team Abu Dhabi climbed back into an outright second place, a mere one lap behind the leaders.

The race began to develop into a fascinating tussle and, with 2hrs 22min on the clock, Nollet 1 led by two laps from Medovarus and three laps from Team Abu Dhabi.

Nollet 20 dropped time and was running five behind the Emirati DAC in fourth place. The leading trio held station and the gap remained the same as the race approached the half-way mark.

But Team Abu Dhabi climbed to second overall soon afterwards and trailed Nollet 1 by just two laps after 3hrs 13min. Medovarus 74 slipped to third, a further eight laps behind, and Touax Racing Team, Nollet 20 and Xtrem Racing filled the minor positions.

Approaching the four-hour mark, Nollet 1 maintained a two-lap lead over Team Abu Dhabi, but Medovarus 74 had lost touch with the leaders and was running 16 laps behind.

Team Abu Dhabi kept the pressure on right through the latter part of the race and a mere three laps separated the leading two boats after Nollet 1 had run 275 laps after 5hrs 11min.

Medovarus 74 was 19 laps adrift with 49 minutes remaining, but ceded third position to Nollet 20 soon afterwards and slipped close to the clutches of Touax Pegase Racing Team after stopping with 24 minutes to go. But they managed to get going again to conserve fifth place behind the leading quartet.

But there was late drama for Team Abu Dhabi and a cruel battery issue robbed the team of a second-placed finish with just five minutes of the six hours still to run.

With the team having completed over 90% of the race, race officials told team members that points would be awarded for sixth position.

Augustów Necko Endurance – race 2 result (unofficial @ 17.17hrs):

1. Team Nollet powered by New Star 1 320 laps

2. Team Abu Dhabi 6 310 laps – DNF (points for 6th place)

3. Team Nollet powered by New Star 20 300 laps

4. Touax Pegase Racing Team 8 297 laps

5. Medovarus Racing Team 74 278 laps

6. Xtrem Racing 26 274 laps