After their big accident at Spa Francorchamps, RML have made a remarkable recovery.

During the last minutes of the second free practice session at Spa, Mike Newton and the factory Peugeot 908 HDi driven by Pedro Lamy collided and the HPD ARX 01 D was destroyed. Mike was briefly in hospital following the crash but was not seriously injured.  It was not certain that with the short time left to the 24 hours of Le Mans, that the car could be resurrected. The team imported a rolling chassis from Andretti Green in the USA, via Holland losing precious days in the process. But RML managed to rebuild the car in six days it was testing again at Snetterton on the seventh day! 

Mike shares the #36 LM P2 Honda Performance Development ARX 01 D with Tommy Erdos and Ben Collins.

Mike Newton: "They took me to Verviers where the medical staff were excellent. A CAT scan found a brain (laughs) and it was there and in one piece with no damage to vertebrae, just bruised muscles. The safety gear contributed to that fact." he continued on the subject of the shakedown of the car, "we had two sessions at Snetterton in low downforce (Le Mans) setup. (the qualifying last night) it was good to improve 2-3 seconds on Test Day times. "

Tommy Erdos: "RML always produce a car that is easy to drive and works like a Swiss watch. The car has been really good from the word go. Yes, we lost track time at Spa but we have a car that was easy to drive from the start."

Ben Collins: "Our pace will be close the guys at the front. You have to go fast and take care of the car at the same time. It is a huge pleasure to be back at Le Mans. I'm still living the dream and looking forward to getting back in the car."