No. 30 Patron ESM HPD Excluded from 6H Silverstone

Photo: John Dagys

Tequila Patron ESM’s No. 30 HPD ARX-03b has been excluded from Sunday’s FIA World Endurance Championship season-opening Six Hours of Silverstone after not passing post-race technical inspection.

The front and rear plank of the third-place finishing LMP2 car, which was driven by Scott Sharp, Ryan Dalziel and David Heinemeier Hansson, was found to have been under the minimum thickness of 20 mm.

According to the team, the non-compliance came as a result of chassis modifications made to comply with the FIA WEC rules, which differ slightly than those used in the TUDOR United SportsCar Championship Prototype class, where the car most recently competed in.

Silverstone marked the final race for the team’s HPD ARX-03bs prior to a planned switch to new Ligier JS P2 Hondas beginning at Spa-Francorchamps next month.

“We were optimistic about this weekend, even though we hadn’t competed at Silverstone before,” Sharp said. “We’re disappointed in the post-race technical inspection failure. Definitely not the way we want to start our season.

“We knew coming here with the 03b that we’d be off the pace of the newer P2s. But we saw first-hand what the Ligiers can do – be lightning fast in qualifying and leading the entire race.

“So, we were able to see our future a bit today. We’re looking forward to getting the Ligiers.”

As a result, the drivers and No. 30 team will not score any points from today’s race, promoting the No. 42 Strakka Racing Dome S103 Nissan to a third place class finish.

John Dagys

John Dagys is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of Sportscar365. Dagys spent eight years as a motorsports correspondent for FOXSports.com and SPEED Channel and has contributed to numerous other motorsports publications worldwide. Contact John