The Lotus 19 Monte Carlo, built and run by Tolman Motorsport, was out for it’s first competitive race of the year at a bright and dry Donington Park at the weekend. Tolman’s British GT driver Luke Davenport was up for the driving duties and duly took on the one hour Masters Historic Sports Car race with enthusiasm and determination.
In a dry but cloudy qualifying session, Luke got up to speed in the Lotus extremely quickly, setting his fastest time on his first flying lap. This placed the car second in class and 16th overall for the race the following day. Race day followed with Luke putting in some consistently quick laps, bringing the car home second in class and 10th overall having completed 33 laps of the Donington Park circuit in the one hour race.
“It was an absolute joy to be back out in the 19”, commented Luke Davenport. “I really appreciate the opportunity from Tolman Motorsport and Christopher Ross, the cars owner, to continue aiding the development of the car from last year!”
“The car has improved 10 fold. We were significantly quicker than we were at Donington last season but perhaps more telling was the reliability and consistency of the car throughout the race. I now feel we are in a position to put the car into a more relevant series to its specification and compete right at the sharp end. I may just need to spend a bit more time in the gym because every muscle was screaming at me to stop by the end of an hours stint!”
Tolman Motorsports MD Christopher Tolman added, “It was wonderful to see ‘our’ Lotus 19 back out on track which is where cars like this belong. The team and car performed faultlessly throughout the weekend and it was a joy to be working on the 19 in a championship full of amazing cars. We have managed to improve the car since it’s last outing and hope to see further improvements at its next race. Thank you to Christopher Ross for wanting to run the car and to Luke for his driving. A special thank you to our technicians who again gave up a weekend at home to work on this special car.”