Terrence Woodwardand Tommy Foster managed to secure fifth place on the last lap of the openingLe Mans Cup race at the Catalunya Circuit, where 24 of the 54 lap race wasbehind the safety car.
Woodward hadqualified their 360 Racing Ligier JSP320 on the seventh row of the 42 car grid,with team mate Mark Richards directly behind him.
“I felt a bit of pressure before going out to qualify, but three red flags in a 15 minute session and I only got two flying laps in. Nearly all the incidents were on out laps, so felt very frustrated,” said Woodward.
“I got one lap in as a red flag ended my second fastest lap and I backed off too much going for a third and the flag was out. So even my best was with a yellow flag, ”Richards added.
An incident on the opening lap caused the first safety car intervention, with four cars damaged after a spinner at Turn One had come back across the track.
Richards had got ahead of Woodward as they lay 14th and 15th, “I got baulked into Turn One and my line almost stopped, so Mark was one of the cars that took me around the outside,” added Woodward.
After 16 minutes the race went live again for just three minutes, before one of the lead cars was in the gravel and the safety car came out again.
During the brief period between the cautions, Woodward had managed to retake Richards as they moved to 13th and 14th respectively. But it was another10 minutes before the green flag appeared.
“We just wanted to get up to pace, but we couldn’t do that with all the stoppages,” said Woodward.
Four laps of racing and the safety car appeared for a third time, but Woodward had lost a place to United Autosports Scott Andrews during that time, but with other spitting or retiring, he was 12th with Richards directly behind.
Two more race laps and it was the fourth safety car appearance, which prompted most of the crews to opt for a pitstop, with 22 laps completed.
Woodward had pitted from 10th to hand to Tommy Foster, who despite rejoining 11thunder the safety car, made good progress from the green flag. “At least Ihanded it to Tommy in one piece and he just got out before the safety came around again,” he said.
