Wells and Lee bag a race victory at Circuit Paul Ricard while following it up with a charge from the back of the grid to 2nd in class after technical issues prevented Dan from setting a lap in qualifying.
6 June 2022 – Dan Wells and Oscar Lee continued their strong start to the Lamborghini Super Trofeo Europe season with a 1st and 2nd place in the competitive Pro-Am class at the 5.84km circuit in the South of France.
Free practice 1 was a wash out, and given the weather for the rest of the weekend was forecast to be dry and hot, car #51 sat out the morning session. FP2 took place in much better conditions, and Lee completed most of the running to familiarize himself with the technical Formula One circuit.
Qualifying took place early on Saturday morning, and Oscar took the duties as the first qualifying driver. The 20-minute session saw Oscar post a lap time good enough for P13 overall, and 3rd in class - a great job by the Taiwanese-American driver. Wells was confident of a great result in qualifying, but it wasn’t meant to be as a technical issue meant he was unable to set a lap time and would be resigned to the back of the grid for Sunday’s race for which Wells would start. The duo quickly put this disappointment behind them, and focused on race one on Saturday afternoon.
Oscar started well from the left side of the grid in the baking hot sun, with temperatures reaching 32 degrees Celsius, immediately overtaking his competitor in class to run P2 in Pro-Am throughout his stint. He made good progress throughout, and after an issue for the leader, ran P1 in class until his pitstop to hand the Prosperity Investment Management-backed car over to Wells. Dan immediately rose up the overall order while maintaining the hard earned Pro-Am lead that Oscar had fought to earn, until trouble struck with 6 laps remaining which meant that his engine power was compromised. A nervy 15 minutes ensued, which saw Dan take the class win by just 2s, to the elation of his REXAL FFF Racing team.
Race one victory saw the duo take the championship lead
The Sunday morning race would be a lot tougher than the previous day. Starting from 37th and last, Wells had the mammoth task to try and make up the positions as quickly as possible to try and salvage a result after the technical issue in qualifying. Dan didn’t waste any time, immediately scything his way past 14 cars in just 3 corners, before a safety car was called. Thankfully, it was a short caution period and Wells was able to continue his battle up the order. Overtaking cars lap after lap, he managed to fight his way into the top 8 by the end of his stint, before handing over to Oscar to continue the recovery effort. Lee put in his best drive in Super Trofeo to date to continue to drive up the order, overtaking all the way to the front to take P2 in class by just over a tenth of a second.
Wells commented, “It’s been quite an amazing but challenging weekend. Getting the win yesterday with the issues we had at the end of the race was amazing, but the Sunday event was really something special. I was delighted with my run through the field, but to get out the car and witness the drive that Oscar put in to bring us all the way up to 2nd in class, and 5th overall, from the very back of the grid - was exceptionally special and is a testament to the hard work he has put in to this event. A big thanks to REXAL FFF Racing for their tiring work in hot conditions this weekend, and also to our partners Prosperity Investment Management for their support.”
Wells and Lee now lie just two points behind the leaders in the Pro-Am standings, with the next event taking place at the team’s home track - Misano World Circuit, on July 1-3.
