RLR MSport opens 2024 with welcome and “surprising” Ultimate Cup podium in Le Castellet

RLR MSport took a welcome podium finish away from the opening round of the 2024 Ultimate Cup Series at Circuit Paul Ricard (15-17 March) with Mexico’s Ian Aguilera and Canada’s James Dayson.

The build-up to the Ultimate Cup’s four-hour curtain-raiser consisted of testing on Thursday (14 March) and a brace of 90-minute free practice sessions the following day (Friday 15 March) – a format RLR MSport is very familiar with as a long-time competitor in the European Le Mans Series (ELMS).

Aguilera and Dayson were satisfied with their respective performances in testing, despite suffering with confidence-denting oversteer, although both were slightly underwhelmed after qualifying a lowly 15th, the latter admitting he had failed to extract the most from his Michelin tyres.

The Circuit Paul Ricard podium looked out of reach and a top-five finish was the objective for the #77 duo, but an attacking start to the race saw Dayson sweep around the outside of two cars in the first sequence of corners, where a hesitant rival prevented him from progressing even further.

The Canadian continued picking off opponents after a brief Safety Car and hopes of silverware increased as he marched relentlessly up the leaderboard, enjoying the fresh, grippy tyres RLR MSport had saved by only running a single set across the three-part qualifying session.

Competitors’ decisions to stop early and additional on-track overtakes meant Dayson entered the second hour in P2, which he held even as understeer set in during the latter half of a stellar two-hour stint.

Aguilera then took over the #77 Ligier JSP320 for only his second competitive LMP3 outing, and eight months out of the car didn’t slow him down.

He was P2 and just a tenth off the pace in the middle segment of qualifying and was able to push on in the race proper, especially as RLR MSport successfully dialled out the excessive oversteer that had blighted testing.

It was the longest stint of his career to date and a faulty drinks bottle added to the challenge, but the Mexican teenager continued his teammate’s good work by gaining ground with some exceptional overtakes, including an opportunistic divebomb from a long way back at Turn 13.

Impressively consistent, Aguilera brought home a welcome and somewhat unexpected third-place finish for RLR MSport, putting the team on the front foot for its core campaigns in the ELMS and Ligier European Series.

“I hoped for a top five result after qualifying and was surprised when the team came over the radio to tell me we had finished third,” said Aguilera. “We had two days of testing that were about relaxing in the Ligier JSP320 and, although oversteer made that difficult, pace came quickly. I re-acclimatised well to the high downforce and was pleased to go second fastest with a small deficit to P1 in qualifying, and I knew we would be strong in race trim with two extra sets of tyres.

“It was a hard two-hour stint – the longest I’ve ever done – but I did a lot of overtaking, my consistency was good and I had fun. James’s stint was mega, as he had pace and got us up into P2, RLR MSport got the car setup bang on and our strategy was perfect. I’m delighted with the third-place result and track time in the Ultimate Cup has set me up well for the 2024 Ligier European Series, which also visits Circuit Paul Ricard.”

Dayson said: “If anyone had told me after qualifying that we would be on the podium, I would have laughed in their face. I haven’t done much qualifying or ran on many fresh sets of tyres during my racing career and the Ultimate Cup experience shows it’s something I need to work on moving forwards. However, most teams had run three sets of tyres in qualifying, while our decision to use only one and save the rest for the race paid dividends.

“My race stint was mega; I passed two cars in an aggressive start and was just focused on picking off rivals, getting up to second towards the end of my first run. I’d pass one car and quickly catch the next and, while I didn’t quite get the lap times I wanted while fighting understeer in the second half of my stint, I didn’t lose any positions.”

Dayson continued: “Ian (Aguilera) did a great job – he’s really quick and clearly a big talent who is showing a lot of potential for the next stages of his career beyond the Ligier European Series. All-in-all, to qualify 15th and finish third is just awesome. It’s a good result for RLR MSport and I got to shake off the cobwebs, ready for the rest of the European season.”