United Autosports Takes Class Victory in 24 Hours of Le Mans

The United Autosports LMP2 car driven by Bijoy Garg, Oliver Jarvis, and Nolan Siegel has taken class victory in the 24 Hours of Le Mans, scoring the Yorkshire-based team’s second win at the race in the last five seasons.

It was a race marked by difficult and volatile conditions, which saw multiple dramas caused by ever-changing weather and the longest single safety car period in the race’s history as heavy rain made for poor visibility at night. With more than four hours of the race under safety car conditions, race control had to send out reserve safety cars in order to refuel.

Both of the United Autosports LMP2 crews, wearing the #22 and #23 number boards, made it through to the hyperpole qualifying session but had to settle for fourth and fifth in the class grid with the Pro-Am #23 car ahead of its sibling machine by just under five-hundredths of a second.

The #23 was soon in strife when opening driver Ben Keating span at the Dunlop Chicane in the first hour of the race, but the Le Mans veteran — in his tenth race, with two previous class wins — was able to get the car going again. Its trip through the gravel had major consequences though, as an alternator issue which cost the car 90 minutes in the pits was traced to a “rogue” stone inside the assembly.

In what proved to be a race of attrition, with several LMP2s falling out of contention due to incidents, the #22 crew was able to keep its powder dry (despite the heavy rain) and hit the front with two hours remaining through a well-timed and quick pit stop. After building a solid buffer, Jarvis was able to come through after 297 laps to take the chequered flag with almost 19 seconds’ advantage.

It would be a second win for Jarvis, who also took LMP2 honours in 2017, as well as United Autosports which won the class in 2020. For Garg and Siegel it was a first win, and came on their race debuts. The #23 would finish sixth in the LMP2 Pro-Am class.

The win comes off the back of a mixed season so far, with one Pro and one Pro-Am podium finish in two European Le Mans Series (ELMS) races and a single podium in two IMSA SportsCar Championship races in the USA, and will hopefully energise the team’s remaining campaign.

United Autosports was also running the two McLaren 720s GT3 Evo cars in the LMGT3 class, but endured a far more torrid time.

After some early promise in the practice sessions, neither was able to progress through qualifying into hyperpole and would start 11th and 19th in class. The pair would perform better on race pace, with both cars leading at one point or other through the pit stop windows and with an eye on a podium finish, but both retired in the 19th hour after suffering separate issues.

The #95 was the first, retiring after 212 laps after coming into the pits with a mechanical issue, while the #59 would stop on-track eight laps later.