Beechdean Mansell Skips Spa to Focus on Le Mans

Britain’s newest endurance racing team Beechdean Mansell Motorsport announced today that it would be missing the next round of the Le Mans Series at Spa Francorchamps on 9th May to focus on preparations for the Le Mans 24 hours in June.  


The team, which was only launched in January, has experienced some very difficult development issues with the Ginetta Zytek 09S Le Mans Prototype, and with Le Mans only six weeks away Team Owners Nigel Mansell and Andrew Howard took the difficult decision to focus the team’s energies on being ready for Le Mans, which is only 6 weeks away. 

The Ginetta Zytek completed the Paul Ricard 8-hour race last month, a great result for the team’s first endurance LMP1 event, but the team’s engineers discovered a long list of essential developments as a result. 

Team Principal Andrew Howard said, “This is a big disappointment to everyone because we were looking forward to racing at Spa.  Everyone at Beechdean Mansell and Zytek have been working hard to deliver the new developments that will enable us to compete at the level we know we are capable of but there is still some way to go.  It is felt that more time is required to ensure the cars longevity for a demanding Le Mans event and so we decided to miss the 6-hour LMS race in Spa.  We will be doing some private testing to ensure we are ready for the 24 Hours of Le Mans.”

Nigel Mansell said: “While I am very disappointed not to be racing at Spa next weekend this is a decision that needed to be taken and one that I support to enable us to be ready for Le Mans.  The car had a lot of problems in Paul Ricard but we worked very hard to reach the chequered flag in our first endurance race as a team.  Beechdean Mansell has come a long way in a short space of time and it was inevitable that we would face some challenges and it’s how we deal with those challenges that defines us as a team.  Missing the next LMS race is a tough choice but is the right one to enable Beechdean Mansell Motorsport to be competitive in the world’s greatest race at Le Mans.”  

The Le Mans 24 Hours takes place on 12/13 June and if you wish to support Nigel, Leo and Greg Mansell on the road to Le Mans then visit www.beechdean.co.uk. 


Beechdean Farmhouse Dairy Ice Cream
Founded in 1989 by Andrew and Susie Howard, Beechdean Dairies have been producing high quality Dairy Ice Cream which is supplied to a number of specialist retail outlets and high profile venues around the country, and are now one of the UK’s leading Ice Cream manufacturers.

All production of Beechdean’s Farmhouse Dairy Ice Cream is still carried out on the family’s 600-acre dairy farm in the Chiltern Hills and at the state of the art new factory on a dairy farm in Cheshire. The company is going from strength to strength as they approach their 21st year in business and currently produce a staggering 8 million litres of ice cream a year.


2010 Le Mans Series - Calendar
Round 1                               10 and 11 April                                   Paul Ricard HTTT               France
Round 2                               8 and 9 May                                        Spa-Francorchamps        Belgium
Round 3                               17 and 18 July                                    Portimao                             Portugal
Round 4                               21 and 22 August                              Hungaroring                       Hungary
Round 5                               11 and 12 September                     Silverstone                         Great Britain

2010 Le Mans 24 Hours
                                12 and 13 June                                  Le Mans                                               France 


- Jeff Carter-