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Liz Halliday joins
Eurosport for the Le Mans 24 Hours -
6/3/08
Halliday
on road to recovery and back behind the mic for
Motors TV 
- 11/1/07
Halliday
misses Petit Le Mans and Laguna Seca to concentrate
on recovery
- 10/3/07
Liz
Halliday joins Motors TV commentary team for Spa
1000kms
- 8/14/07
Liz
Halliday sidelined with broken collar
bone
- 7/24/07
Halliday
to cover Lime Rock race for CBS
- 7/6/07
Halliday’s
victory bid ended by gearbox failure
- 6/17/07
Wet qualifying
brings more positives than negatives for
Halliday -
6/15/07
Woman
in Le Mans world
- 6/13/07
New
challenge for Liz Halliday in Valencia
- 5/2/07
Liz
Halliday joins CBS Sports for American Le Mans
Series coverage
4/12/07
Halliday
ready for European season opener
4/11/07
All
systems go as Liz Halliday heads to
Sebring
Halliday
'delighted' to be named in 50 to watch list by San
Diego Magazine
Dual
sportswoman Liz Halliday to race Aston Martin in
007 year!
New 2007 "Women Racers"
calendar featuring Liz Halliday -
11/13/06
Halliday joins
Coulthard, Irvine on Sky One -
11/2/06
Liz Halliday and
Intersport Racing end the season on a high
- 10/21/06
Liz Halliday, Jon Field and
Clint Field finished 4th in class in the 1000 mile
Petit Le Mans - 10/1/06
Halliday’s most impressive
performance to date - 9/3/06
Halliday and Intersport
finish 3rd in class, 8th overall in Road
America - 8/18/06
No Let-Up for Halliday as She
Trades One Kind of Horse-Power for Another
- 8/4/06
Mid-season Q&A with
Liz - 7/29/06
Liz Halliday becomes the
winningest female in ALMS history -
7/23/06
Liz Halliday second in class
at Salt Lake City - 7/16/06
Salt Lake City Preview, Round
5 of ALMS Series - 7/12/06
Lime Rock Challenges
but Halliday and Team Retain LMP2 Lead -
7/6/06
Lime Rock Preview, Round
4 - 6/27/06
Salperton One-Day
Event, Gloucestershire, England -
6/27/06
Gritty Drive Rewards Liz
Halliday at Le Mans - 6/18/06 Finish
Frustration and Another
Fight-Back - 6/17/06 18 Hours
Impressive Fight-Back for
Liz Hallidy - 6/17/06 6 Hours
Q&A for Liz regarding
the 24 Hours of LeMans
Liz Halliday - First (and
only) Lady of Le Mans
Tweseldown
CIC
Liz Halliday on Le
Mans...
Third Straight Podium for
Halliday
Liz
Halliday and Intersport Racing Score another Class
Win in
Houston
Preview
- Lone Star Grand Prix - American Le Mans Series -
Round 2
Racing
Driver and Equestrian, Liz Halliday, on Radio 5
Live!
Encouraging
Sebring Test for Liz Halliday and the Intersport
Team
Halliday's
2006 Season is
Go!
Intersport
beat Porshe to Claim Class Win and Second Overall
in the 54th Runnings of the 12 Hours of
Sebring
Intersport
Still Relishing 'Enormous" Sebring
Win
Interview
with
Liz
Liz
Halliday Ends Alms Season on a High as Intersport
Claims Team Championship
Victory
Liz
Halliday Gets Ride for
2006
Liz
Halliday Heads East for Season
Finale
Puncture
Halts Intersport's Challenge for LMP2 Pole Position
at
Sebring
Racing
Driver and Equestrin, Liz Halliday, competes in
CCI** Event with New Horse, Harry (Silken
Crisp)
Stand
By For
Sebring!
Victory
for Liz Halliday at Petit le
Mans
Related
Issue:
Women
in Racing,
Women
Racers,
More
Women in
Racing,
Notable
Women
Bio
D.O.B: December 14, 1978
Place of Birth: San Diego, California, USA
Lives: Farnham, Surrey, UK
Profession: Racing Driver and Professional
Equestrian
Education: University of California Santa Barbara
(Biology)
Snippets
Racing driver Liz Halliday will form part of
Eurosport’s commentary team for their
exclusive coverage of the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours on
14-15 June. 
* * *
Liz Halliday is back in the commentary box next
weekend as the 2007 Le Mans Series season concludes
with the 1000-mile Mil Milhas race at Interlagos in
Brazil.
* * *
Halliday, who combines her two sporting careers
as a racing driver and as a three day eventer, had
planned to return to the ALMS, where she is the
most successful female driver in series history,
for the final two races at Road Atlanta and Laguna
Seca in October. However, she will instead undergo
a final operation next week on the injury she
suffered in an eventing accident in July, before
concentrating on regaining her fitness for
2008.
* * *
Are horses more dangerous that
horsepower? Racing with the fastest prototypes
in the world and taking 2nd in class in 2006 ALMS
series, you would think that race cars were more
dangerous. Go figure. Liz fractured her collarbone
in a riding accident, not a racing accident. We all
wish Liz a speedy recovery and long to see her back
in a race car again!
* * *
Liz
and teammates after leading their class at one
point, pulled out during the 17th hour with gear
box problems at the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
* * *
Despite wet conditions throughout both of
Thursday’s qualifying sessions Liz Halliday,
the only female driver to contest this
weekend’s iconic Le Mans 24 Hours, was happy
to draw on the positives.
* * *
Liz makes the podium at the 12 hours of Sebring
(2007) finishing 3rd in an Aston Martin. First time
she raced an Aston Martin and first time in a GT 1
car. Her team had a 6-lap lead on her old teammates
who moved up from P2 to the much faster P1 car this
year.
* * *
Liz Halliday has been confirmed as part of the
driving strength at Team Modena for the 2007 Le
Mans Series and the American Le Mans Series (ALMS)
opener at Sebring.
* * *
Halliday appears in 18 month Women in the
Winner's Circle 2007 calendar along with 17 other
women throughout the motorsports field.
* * *
Liz
Halliday becomes the winningest women racer in ALMS
history - Click on this
runner.
Starting at the back of the grid at Laguna Seca,
the team worked their way through traffic and ended
up 12th overall and 3rd in class and Liz and Clint
tied for second overall in championship points.
Penske Porsche drivers Massen and Luhr tied for
first overall.
* * *
Liz had a Katherine Legge happen to her at
Laguna
Seca today, October 20. Part of her rear
spoiler dislodged as she was going into turn 5 and
spun her tail first into the wall which put the
race car out of commission for the day of testing
and qualifying.. Hopefully, her crew will get
everything together for her four-hour race
tomorrow.
* * *
Liz Halliday and team finished 4th in class in
the 1000 mile Petit Le Mans race in Atlanta
(10/1/06) - the penultimate round of the American
Le Mans Series.
There is one race to go at Laguna
Seca October 21.
* * *
Liz started the 2h45m race from 3rd in class,
7th overall, and had onlookers gripped when, having
inherited 2nd place from arch rival Sascha Maassen
of the mighty factory Porsche team when he pitted
early for fuel under a safety car period, she
managed to keep him at bay for nearly a full stint.
Liz was matching his lap times lap for lap in a
tense duel, until she was ultimately hampered by a
couple of brake lock ups and a flat spotted tyre in
the last lap of her stint. The team finished 3rd
for an 8th podium finish. Round 9 of the 2006
American Le Mans Series is the famous “Petit
Le Mans” in Road Atlanta and takes place on
30th September. As far as I can tell, if she
finishes the last two races in 3rd or better,
she'll take-home 2nd in class for the year. If she
wins both races, she beats out the two mighty
Penske factory Porsche teams for 1st in class.
* * *
Liz Halliday and team finishes on the podium
once again, in third place (8th over-all), but not
high enough in the race to hold her number one
place in the series. She drops to a tie for 2nd
overall, 2 points behind Sascha Maassen in the
Penske Porsche, with three more races to go.
* * *
Liz Halliday became the winningest female in
Series history today (7/23/06) with her sixth
career win as she and Clint Field gave Intersport
Racing its third LMP2 victory of the season in
LMP2. Halliday took the lead with seven minutes to
go as Penske Racing's No. 6 Porsche RS Spyder sat
helplessly in pitlane with a blown engine. Entering
the race with a 1-point lead in the class drivers
championship, they leave with a 5-point advantage
over Lucas Luhr and Sascha Maassen. Next race is
August 20 at Road
America ,
Elkhart Lake, WI.
* * *
Penske Racing earned its third straight victory
as Luhr and Sascha Maassen cruised after the sister
car of Timo Bernhard and Romain Dumas stopped at
the pit exit with throttle problems. The victory
propelled the two Germans to within 1 point of the
class championship lead, held by Intersport
Racing's Clint Field and Liz Halliday, who finished
second in class together in their Lola B05/40-AER.
The race will air on CBS, Sunday, July 16 at 2pm
EDT.
The next round of the American Le Mans Series is
the Les Schwab Tires Presents Portland Grand Prix.
The sixth race of the 2006 American Le Mans Series
season is scheduled for 6 p.m. PDT on Saturday,
July 22. CBS Sports will broadcast the race from 3
to 5 p.m. EDT on Sunday, July 23. American Le Mans
Radio will have live coverage at americanlemans.com,
which also will feature IMSA Live Timing &
Scoring.
* * *
UK-based Californian, Liz Halliday, heads to the
brand new Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City
this weekend for round five of the American Le Mans
Series. Along with her Intersport Racing co-driver,
Clint Field, Liz leads the LMP2 class drivers’
championship by just five points ahead of the
factory Porsche squad of Saacha Maassen and Lucas
Lurh. Despite scoring two superb class wins and two
thirds in the opening four races, Halliday and
Field are only too aware that their challenge to
stay at the top of the table intensifies as the
might of the Porsche rollercoaster roars on.
* * *
Having barely drawn breath since finishing 4th
in class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the
British-based Californian sportswoman Liz Halliday,
headed to Lime Rock, Connecticut, last weekend to
continue her title chase in the American Le Mans
Series. She and teammate Clint Field took their
fourth podeum this year, placing third in the LMP2
class to the two factory Porsches.
* * *
Liz and teammates finish 24
Hours of Le Mans
with a fourth in class and 19th overall.
* * *
Through 18-hours of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, Liz
and teammates have had two major fight-backs and
were standing in the 28th position over-all.
Check www.lemans.org
for the absolute latest.
* * *
The Intersport Racing team completed the fourth
and final qualifying session for this year’s
24 Hours of Le Mans by posting the second fastest
time in the LMP2 category. This means they will
start the 74th running of the greatest motor race
on earth second in class and 13th overall. The team
missed out on pole position by two seconds, over
the 13.5Km La Sarthe circuit.
* * *
Racing driver and equestrian Liz Halliday will
be the only lady driver taking part in this
year’s running of the most famous endurance
race in the world, the Le Mans 24 Hours.
* * *
Liz Halliday returns to Le
Mans for the official test day that forms the
prelude to the world’s most famous endurance
sports car race. She will be the only lady driver
taking part in this year’s running of the most
famous endurance race in the world, the Le Mans 24
Hours.
* * *
Liz Halliday follows the two factory Porsche
entries to finish 3rd at Fundidora
Park
Monterey Mexico for her third podium in as many
races.
* * *
Five: The number of victories for Liz Halliday
in the Series, making her the most successful
female driver in ALMS history. Intersport Racing's
heroic victory over Penske Racing - the defending
LMP2 champions - outlasted the two Porsche RS
Spyders in Houston.
Liz Halliday joins
Eurosport for the Le Mans 24 Hours
Racing driver Liz Halliday will form part of
Eurosport’s commentary team for their
exclusive coverage of the 2008 Le Mans 24 Hours on
14-15 June.
The dual sportswoman, who also competes in
International 3 Day Eventing, has contested the
world’s most famous motor race three times,
finishing fourth in class in 2006 and leading the
LMP2 category last year before gearbox failure, and
will now provide expert analysis for the
pan-European channel.
The California-born Halliday has previous
commentary experience on both sides of the Atlantic
with CBS Sports and Motors TV and has vast
experience of sportscar endurance racing having
competed in the European based Le Mans Series, the
American Le Mans Series and the FIA GT
Championship.
She is now set for her first Le Mans commentary
stint and admitted she’s looking forward to
the challenge of tackling a 24 Hour race from a
very different perspective!
“It’s a big honour for me to be
invited by Eurosport to do this,” said
Halliday. “They’re a huge channel all
across Europe and it’s a good opportunity to
further my media career, which is something I
really enjoy.
“I absolutely adore Le Mans and hopefully
that enthusiasm will be transferred to the viewers
during the race. I’ve raced at La Sarthe three
times and was the only female driver to do so for
the past two years, so I’ve got good
experience there as a driver and I hope to bring
that to the commentary box.”
Halliday, who hasn’t raced so far in 2008
having undertaken an extensive 3 day eventing
programme all across Europe, also revealed she is
planning a return to the cockpit later in the
year.
“I had a couple of options to race at Le
Mans this year, but, having come so close to a
podium finish in 2006 and then having led the LMP2
class last year, I only wanted a drive with a team
capable of challenging for honours. However
I’m hoping to return to action at Petit Le
Mans and possibly Laguna Seca later in the year so
plans are very much in the pipeline to get behind
the wheel again soon.”
Eurosport’s coverage of the Le Mans 24
Hours begins on Saturday 14 June at 7.30am (UK
Time) and continues throughout the day. They will
also stream all the action live at player.eurosport.co.uk
For more details, visit www.eurosport.com
Halliday joins
Coulthard, Irvine on Sky One
Female racing driver and equestrian, Liz Halliday,
will help Formula 1 stars David Coulthard and Eddie
Irvine put ten celebrity wannabe racing drivers
through their paces next week, as part of a new Sky
One television show presented by Denise van Outen
called, The Race.
Designed to finally determine whether it’s
men or women who really make the better drivers,
the series will pit two teams of five against one
another for seven days of frantic
battle-of-the-sexes action at Silverstone, home of
the British Grand Prix.
Liz, a multiple race winner and championship
runner-up in the 2006 American Le Mans Series, will
help Red Bull Racing driver Coulthard train the
girl’s camp, comprising urban music maestro Ms
Dynamite, Tamara Ecclestone – daughter of
Formula One boss Bernie – former Atomic Kitten
Jenny Frost, US film star Melissa Joan Hart and TV
personality Ingrid Tarrant.
Meanwhile, former Ferrari ace Irvine – who
finished runner-up in the Formula One World
Championship in 1999 – will coach the boys
alongside Silverstone Racing School chief
instructor, Steve Deeks. Representing ‘the
lads’ will be ex-boxing world champion Nigel
Benn, England football legend Les Ferdinand, AC/DC
lead singer Brian Johnson, Lock, Stock and Two
Smoking Barrels star Nick Moran and electro-pop
pioneer Gary Numan.
Before the real trials begin, each celebrity
will have to obtain their Association of Racing
Drivers Schools certificate (ARDS) to qualify them
for the challenges ahead and ensure they have the
necessary skills to cope.
From then on it's high-octane entertainment as
every day from 6 November one driver from each team
will step forward to take part in a one-on-one
driving duel, the Rev Head Challenge. With the
pressure all on one person to bag valuable points
and move their team up the grid, this will be a
true test of character.
The main event of each day will see the celebs
competing as a team against the opposite sex in
everything from superminis and monster trucks, to
off-road buggies and Lotus sportscars to improve
their ‘grand prix grid’ standing and
avoid being handed the ‘suit of shame’.
With team pride and camaraderie playing as big a
part as personal rivalries and self-esteem,
passions and tensions are set to run high.
Coulthard and Irvine will have to choose a
driver from their respective teams to be eliminated
on the Friday night show, while a grand final - a
Formula Ford race – will be held on Sunday
November 12.
“I’m really excited to be involved in
this and so pleased to have been asked,”
enthused Halliday. “It’ll be a real
honour to meet and work with Eddie Irvine and David
Coulthard and hopefully I can learn a thing or two
myself. I’ve done quite a lot of coaching in
the past which should stand me in good stead with
my team and allow me to pass on some constructive
assistance. I’m going to push the contestants
as much as I can because I really want us to win,
but ultimately it’ll be down to each one of
them being brave, being focused and working
hard.”
An excited Denise van Outen added, “I can't
wait to get trackside with the girls and boys to
find out once and for all which sex really is
better behind the wheel. This is going to be the
hardest week of some of our celebrity's lives and
with David and Eddie in charge I can't see anyone
being given an easy ride."
• 'The Race' will be shown live at 10pm
every night on Sky One during the week of
competition, beginning this coming Monday, 6th
November. More information on www.skyone.co.uk
• Further ‘behind-the-scenes’
coverage will also be shown in an additional
program, The Pit Stop, at 11pm every night on Sky
Three, a Freeview channel. More information on
www.sky.com
• Anyone wishing to watch the Grand Finale
live at Silverstone on Nov 12th can purchase
tickets directly from Silverstone (Ticket Hotline:
08704 588260) or visit www.silverstone.co.uk
Liz Halliday and
Intersport Racing end the season on a high
Liz Halliday and the Intersport Racing team secured
a fantastic second overall in the LMP2
Driver’s Championship of the American Le Mans
Series this weekend, with a podium finish in the
tenth and final round of the season at Laguna Seca,
California.
Halliday and co-driver Clint Field’s
championship position is even more impressive for
the fact that they have finished ahead of two of
their four arch rivals from the factory Porsche
team, despite many observers writing off their
chances as soon as Porsche announced their plans
towards the end of 2005.
To achieve success in the face of such adversity
illustrates perfectly the character of the little
Intersport team, a private, family-owned operation
based in Ohio. Throughout the season they have
fought hard to maintain intense pressure on their
Porsche rivals, seeking to exploit any sign of
weakness. Reliability was one such area in which
Porsche struggled early on in the season and
Intersport capitalised beautifully, being sure to
finish races where their rivals faltered. It was at
this early stage of the year that Intersport built
the foundation to their championship assault,
Halliday’s co-driver and defending champion
Clint Field keen to seal a second title and Liz
herself looking to record her first.
Inevitably however, Porsche soon found the
reliability to match their speed, and finally the
mighty RS-Spyders were able to exploit their
inherent pace advantage.
Yesterday’s race in Laguna Seca summed up
much of the second half of the season, with
Intersport feistily refusing to give up, proving
themselves absolutely the ‘best of the
rest’ as the German steamroller continued.
Jon Field took the start for Intersport,
impressively holding station in third place as the
Goodyear tyres on the Lola-AER struggled for grip
on the dusty circuit. Jon’s son Clint then
took over, continuing the faultless run before
handing to Halliday on lap 65. Despite the
increasingly eventful race being peppered by a
multitude of accidents and crashes, Liz performed
beautifully, lapping quickly and consistently,
maintaining third place with a flawless run.
On lap 80 a ‘full course yellow’
forced the team to review their strategy and Liz
was called into the pits for a driver-change, fuel
and new tyres. Such is the advantage of pitting
during a safety-period that the sacrifice to
Halliday’s remaining run was very much in the
team’s overall interest.
With Jon Field now back at the wheel, the charge
continued for the #37 car, again unabated until
Clint was handed the reigns for a final, clean run
to the flag. With four hours complete, Intersport
finished 12th overall, 3rd in class.
Summing up her weekend, Liz said:
“It’s not too bad a way to end the year.
Although we always race for the win, it’s
great to be on the podium here today –
especially with the class having become super
competitive with the arrival of more Radical
chassis and so on. We're proud to be ‘best of
the rest’. I didn’t get too much time in
the car today but I think the strategy was right.
We had planned all along to switch drivers under
yellow and this is exactly what we did. It paid off
and helped us to secure third place in the race and
second in the championship, so we’re ending
the year on a good note.
“This has been a very educational season
and I have learnt a lot. I would like to thank
Clint, Jon and the entire team for a great year and
my first full ALMS championship. We led the
championship ahead of the two Porsches for the
first six races of the season and this says how
competitive the team is. When a one-car, small
privateer team can get on top of a two-car, factory
outfit like Porsche, it’s a great credit to
the mechanics, their preparation of the car and its
faultless reliability. The boys really deserve this
result and I’m very happy for them. It is a
shame that Clint couldn’t retain his LMP2
title and that I couldn’t secure my first one,
but it is a well fought third place. On the podium,
we had the Penske Porsche drivers saying to us that
we scared them all season and they were relieved
the season was now over! This is the best
compliment we could get!”
Team owner and co-driver to Liz, Clint Field
added: “Liz drove a strong race today and this
is fantastic for the team to end the season on a
high. It would have been great to win the
Drivers’ championship for the second season in
a row and help Liz secure her first championship
but we knew it would be a tall order against
Porsche. As a team we did the best we could since
Sebring in March and I feel we can be proud of what
we achieved. I cannot wait for 2007 which will be
an even more competitive season!”
Source: www.lizhalliday.com/pages/news/latest_news_detail.aspx?nid=89
Liz Halliday, Jon Field and
Clint Field finished 4th in class in the 1000 mile
Petit Le Mans race in Atlanta yesterday - the
penultimate round of the American Le Mans Series.
- 10/1/06
After a fraught start to the 10 hour enduro, the
relatively small private team found themselves
ahead of their great championship rivals, the works
Porsche squad. With both Porsches being delayed
with temporary mechanical troubles, Jon Field in
the Intersport Lola found himself in the early lead
of the LMP2 class and taking full advantage of his
rivals' troubles. With the Porsches soon back on
track and aggressively looking to make up lost
ground, Jon wowed the crowd with a spectacular
stint in the middle of the race, keeping the
charging Porsche of Timo Bernhard at bay for lap
after enthralling lap. Ultimately the Porsche
prevailed, but only when Jon found himself having
to combat mild down-shift problems with his
gearbox.
Still with a two lap lead, Jon pitted to hand
over to son Clint, who looked set to continue
Intersport's incredible effort. Unfortunately, soon
after the pit stop, the steering column on the
Lola-AER failed dramatically, very nearly pitching
Clint into the wall and forcing him to stop for
lenghthy repairs.
The mechanics did a superb job to get the number
37 car back into the race just 38 minutes later,
sill 13th overall and 4th in class. Clint and Liz
put in fantastic final stints to bring the car to
the flag unscathed, securing vital championship
points.
More info to follow shortly....
Source: www.lizhalliday.com/pages/news/latest_news_detail.aspx?nid=86
Halliday and
Intersport finish 3rd in class, 8th overall in Road
America -8/18/06
Californian racing driver and equestrian, Liz
Halliday, traded one paddock for another last
weekend to compete in Round 7 of the American Le
Mans Series: the Generac 500 at Road America,
Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
The UK-based ‘dual-sportswoman’ headed
into the race hoping to build on the five-point
lead in the LMP2 class drivers’ standings that
she currently shares with her Intersport Racing
co-driver, Clint Field.
Whilst the duo did manage to continue their
unbroken run of podiums with a solid third place
finish, their arch rivals in the Porsche factory
squad confirmed that they have now added
reliability to their already exceptional pace, with
a dominant one-two finish in class and 4th and 5th
places overall.
Despite having been pole vaulted in the lead for
the championship by Porsche driver Sascha Maassen,
who now enjoys a two-point advantage, Halliday and
Field remain upbeat about the rest of the season
having perhaps demonstrated their strongest pace
yet and an improving ability to stay in touch with
the Porsches over a race distance.
“So far this year it’s clear that they
have had a significant pace advantage over us and
indeed nearly everybody else,” said Halliday
after the race, “so we focused on our
reliability and made sure to pick up the points if
they encountered problems. That strategy has worked
so far but we need to continue improving our pace
to beat them fair and square on the track. We
struggled a bit in recent races but we weren’t
that far off today and in the ebb and flow of
caution periods we even managed to split them
[the two Porsches] at times. We’re
pretty pleased with the progress we’ve made
pace-wise and that’s a fantastic testimony to
the team’s efforts on the car. We’ll keep
pushing in this area and if we can just stay in
contention then who knows what is possible with the
championship – it’s far from over yet
that’s for sure!”
Halliday and Field were joined in battle this
time by Clint’s father, Jon Field. Well known
for his blistering pace, Jon was given again
qualifying duties and his best effort, a 1m52.453s
lap, was good enough for third in class, just over
a second shy of the class pole set by Porsche
driver, Lucas Luhr, at 1m51.199s. After strong but
fairly short stints from Clint and Liz, Field Snr
also took the helm for much of the race and did a
great job to keep the Lola-AER-GoodYear car in
touch with the leaders.
“Jon did a really nice job today,”
continued Liz. “We focused on making driver
changes under yellow flags and this was the right
strategy to stay in contention with the Porsches.
We’ve got to do all we can to keep up the
pressure on Porsche because we know that
they’re fallible. We’re no longer leading
the Drivers’ championship, which is of course
frustrating, but we’re only two points behind
Maassen so we are certainly not giving up yet!
There are three rounds to go and in this sport,
anything can happen.”
Fighting talk from Liz, who will resume battle
with her Intersport team in two weeks’ time at
the Mobil 1 presents Labour Day Grand Prix of
Mosport, set for 3pm EDT on Sunday, September
3rd.
Halliday’s most
impressive performance to date
Californian racing driver and international
equestrian, Liz Halliday, received plaudits from
rivals and team mates alike on Sunday after a
stunning performance in Round 8 of the American Le
Mans Series in Mosport, Canada.
UK-based Halliday started the 2h45m race from
3rd in class, 7th overall, and had onlookers
gripped when, having inherited 2nd place from arch
rival Sascha Maassen of the mighty factory Porsche
team when he pitted early for fuel under a safety
car period, she managed to keep him at bay for
nearly a full stint. Liz was matching his lap times
lap for lap in a tense duel, until she was
ultimately hampered by a couple of brake lock ups
and a flat spotted tyre in the last lap of her
stint.
The entire race was held in dry conditions,
which came as a welcome surprise after torrential
weather caused organisers to cancel Saturday’s
qualifying session and allocate grid positions
according to lap times attained in free practice.
With just half an hour to the start of the race and
with grey clouds still looming ominously overhead,
Halliday’s Intersport racing team opted to put
a full dry-weather set-up on the LMP2 class
Lola-AER, a decisive move which would pay great
dividends later in the event.
Liz’s performance was followed up by a
typically charging drive by team mate, Clint Field,
who took to the circuit 3rd in class and 7th
overall. Unfortunately, after a few laps Field
began to have problems with the front brakes
locking up which ultimately had him back in the
pits on lap 53, when he came down the pit lane in
spectacular style with the Lola’s front brake
discs on fire. Instantly the Intersport crew set to
work on repairing the damage and did an amazing job
to have it back on the circuit less than half and
hour later. With 50 minutes remaining, Clint laid
19th overall, 28 laps down on the leader and hopes
of beating the Porsches were now dashed. The new
objective was to cover at least seventy percent of
the leaders’ race distance in order for the
car to be classified at the end of the race and
therefore eligible for championship points. Clint
achieved this with a quality, consistent drive and
came home third in class, securing an impressive
eighth podium in as many races for the small
privateer team.
After the race, a delighted Liz said:
“Today I think I drove the best stint of my
career and I am really pleased. I was hoping all
weekend for the race to be dry because it’s
such an incredible track to drive on slicks. I just
love this circuit - it’s fast and challenging
and is definitely one of my favourite tracks of the
season. It is a shame we had the problem with the
brakes today as we were closer to the Porsches than
we have been for a while and I think we had the
potential to challenge and maybe split them on the
podium. The crew did brilliantly to get us back out
on track during the race though, and they were a
big part of the points we gained today. We had a
tough time, but I am glad I was able to show some
of my potential today. I feel like I have learned a
lot and stepped up in my driving this weekend, and
I am going to do my best to build on that for Petit
Le Mans and the future.”
Team mate Clint Field was also very impressed by
Liz’s performance. He said: “Liz was
awesome today. This was absolutely the best stint
she has ever done and I am very proud of her. When
I took over the car, we were in a very strong
position thanks to her efforts and we were able to
push the second Porsche hard. Unfortunately, after
a few laps flat out, the front brakes locked and I
had to drive with them like that all the way from
Turn 2. They were so hot by the time I got to the
pits that they were flaming! Thankfully I managed
to get the car back to the boys who did a great job
to turn our fortunes around. All credit to them for
a great team effort today.”
Round 9 of the 2006 American Le Mans Series is
the famous “Petit Le Mans” in Road
Atlanta and takes place on 30th September.
NoLet-Up for Halliday as
She Trades One Kind of Horse-Power for Another
- 8/4/06
In a case of ‘no rest for the wicked’,
Surrey-based racing driver and equestrian, Liz
Halliday, exchanged the near 600 hundred horse
power available from the AER engine in the back of
her Lola racing car, for just two last weekend -
called Harry and Oscar – as she set off to
compete in the Wilton Horse Trials.
With her relentless schedule marching on,
Halliday jetted to Wilton having just finished a
hugely successful run in three near-consecutive
races in the American Le Mans Series. A win, a
second place and a third helped to maintain her
fantastic lead in the LMP2 class driver’s
standings, her advantage over the mighty Porsche
factory squad currently secured by a slender five
points.
Back in Wilton, Oscar – entered in the
intermediate category – had a great run with a
great score in the dressage and a much-improved
show jump - albeit slightly marred by one rail
down, and a solid clear cross country round.
“I’m pleased with the progress that Oscar
and I are making together and I feel that we are
really starting to put all three phases together
now.” Said Liz, “We had a couple
Liz/Oscar communication issues on the cross
country, but nothing major that would have caused
us any trouble. The ground was also pretty hard and
given that he’s going to run again on
Wednesday at Aston-Le-Walls I didn’t want to
take him too fast.”
Despite holding back, Liz and Oscar finished a
satisfying 8th overall – their best result to
date at Intermediate level.
On with Harry who, despite being a bit unhappy
with the large amount of flies around the event,
went on to do a very acceptable dressage test
leaving them in good standing as they went into the
jump phases. Two rails down was the result of a
slightly wild run in the show jumping, but overall
Liz was satisfied with his performance. The same
could not be said however for the cross country
which, according to Liz, was a disaster!: “It
was a strange day. We had two stops on the course
and Harry just didn’t seem right straight out
of the box. He was very disinclined to gallop-on
and just kept backing out of the fences, which was
very out of character. Naturally we had the vet out
straight away who found that, although he is mostly
okay, he did have quite sore muscles, especially in
his front end, and some physio work seems to have
helped a lot. You have to remind yourself that
horses have off-days too- just like us!”
Following the result on Sunday, Liz obviously
opted to withdraw Harry from the Gatcombe Horse
Trial on the 5th August as it was meant to be his
first competition at Advanced level and she did not
feel it would be right for him physically or
mentally to move up a level off of a bad run.
Luckily, she was able to get him into the
Aston-Le-Walls horse trials on Wednesday the 9th
where he and Oscar will both again compete in the
Intermediate sections. Until next Wednesday, Liz
will pay extra attention to Harry’s
performance and of course do everything possible to
ensure he arrives well-prepared. Looking further
ahead, the following event for Liz will be the
Highclere Castle Horse Trials in Wiltshire on the
28th of August. Before then she’ll be back
behind the wheel on August 20th with Round 7 of the
American Le Mans Series: the Generac 500 at Road
America, Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin.
Mid-season Q&A with
Liz
Following three wins, a second place and two thirds
from the opening six races of the 2006 American Le
Mans Series, Liz Halliday’s attention now
turns to a pivotal stretch of the season.
Four races remain for Halliday and her
co-drivers, Jon and Clint Field, in the #37
Intersport Lola. After running three events during
July, the Series will draw breath and next be in
action on August 18-20 at the Generac 500, Road
America.
During this slight break in her driving
schedule, but not in her other pursuits (Liz is
also an international equestrian), Halliday took
the time to reflect on the first half of the
sportscar season.
All in all, are you happy with how the first
portion of the season has unfolded for you and the
team?
“By and large, yes. Getting the LMP2 win at
Sebring was a huge confidence-builder for all of
us. Winning that race over the 12-hour period
proved that our car had the durability you need to
win out here.”
At the end of 2005, Porsche debuted a pair of
LMP2 cars with Roger Penske managing the team. What
was your initial reaction?
“The more top-of-the-line manufacturers we
can attract into the Series, the better it is for
all of us. We knew from the start that we could not
match up to either of their cars in terms of
flat-out speed. Where we could compete, however,
was in our ability to finish races.”
The Penske cars have won an overall race
[Mid-Ohio] and led in several others, and
some feel it is the equivalent of an LMP1
car?
“I would not want to speak for them, but
their stated goal has been to win as many LMP2
victories as they can, and I think they are sincere
in that belief. Lucas [Luhr] and Sascha
[Maassen] are both champion drivers. They
are tough to beat no matter what car they might be
in.”
You ended July with a come-from-behind win at
Portland. Explain how it came about?
“Both Porsches showed early speed. But the
#6 car got tangled up with Duncan Dayton’s
prototype and needed extensive repairs. That
allowed us to move up to second position. Then,
with about 15 minutes to go in the race, the #7
blew its engine and now it was up to us to take
advantage.”
When Luhr’s #7 went out, you were in the
car. What did the team tell you on the radio?
“Just the normal lap information followed
by the fact that I was running in first place!
After that I was just told to keep the car on
course, and not do anything too risky that would
jeopardize a win.”
Of the three wins so far, which was more
satisfying, Sebring, Houston or Portland?
“You can’t categorize winning. Sebring
was great because it set a tone and it is such a
difficult and significant race to win. When the
Porsches came on the scene, a lot of people thought
we might not win again. Both Houston and Portland
were gratifying from the standpoint that we had a
reliable car, managed to avoid trouble, and came
home first in class.”
Intersport and Porsche are currently locked
in a tight battle in the overall LMP2 points
race?
“We are, and I hope we will continue to be
all the way to the final event at Laguna Seca in
October. All of us at Intersport have a lot of
respect for the team that Penske/Porsche has put
together. At the same time, I hope they have the
same respect for us.”
How has your driving improved from last year
to this?
“I believe I get better from race to race,
but there are still some rough spots along the way.
At Salt Lake City, I thought my first stint [to
open the race] was one of my poorest as I
always have very high standards for myself. Jon
pulled me aside and said, ‘We all know you can
do better,’ and put me back in the car for the
finish of the race. That meant a lot. I’ve
only been driving this type of car for about a year
and I’m improving all the time, but I’m
competing against some of the best drivers in the
world and I try to learn from each of them as I go
along.”
At Portland, you “debuted” as a CBS
reporter on one of the feature segments. How did
that go?
“It was a lot of fun. Television commentary
is something I want to pursue career-wise and the
more experience I can get now, the better. My job
was just to talk to the other drivers about some
fun topics that were a bit different than the
average interview, racing or non-racing. I think I
came off okay!"
What will you be doing between now and the
next race at Elkhart Lake?
"I’ll be concentrating mostly on my horses
and eventing in England. I left the States the day
after Portland, and for the most part, I’ve
just been working my horses out in preparation for
several events in early August. It will be good to
spend a couple weeks focusing on my horses
consistently, but I also think that I’ll be
more than ready to get back in the car by
mid-August. It’s going to be a fight to the
finish in our class and I’m greatly looking
forward to being in the middle of it.”
Source: www.lizhalliday.com/pages/news/latest_news_detail.aspx?nid=74
Liz Halliday becomes the
winningest female in ALMS history - 7/22/06
Liz Halliday became the winningest female in Series
history with her sixth career win as she and Clint
Field gave Intersport Racing its third LMP2 victory
of the season in LMP2. Halliday took the lead with
seven minutes to go as Penske Racing's No. 6
Porsche RS Spyder sat helplessly in pitlane with a
blown engine. Entering the race with a 1-point lead
in the class drivers championship, they leave with
a 5-point advantage over Lucas Luhr and Sascha
Maassen.
"This one's for the team," said Halliday. "They
are the ones who keep this Lola going around
forever. Slow and steady wins the race has been our
motto. We know we can't keep pace with the Porsches
but they had some problems today that played into
our favor. Great luck today."
Intersport's AER-powered Lola B05/40 opened the
season with consecutive wins at Sebring and
Houston. The car has finished every race except one
this year and has earned championship points in
each of the Series' six rounds of 2006. In the
class team championship standings, the Ohio-based
independent trails the Penske crew by just 3 points
heading into the next round at Road America. Never
one to back down to a challenge (just ask Penske
and Porsche), Intersport is showing no signs of
letting up even as three Acura P2 entries loom for
2007.
"We came away from Salt Lake a little
disappointed. We took second which was great but we
were disappointed with our pace," Field said. "This
week we were a little closer to Porsche. The grip
wasn't good. Our pace in the race was a second to a
second-and-a-half off. We kept going around and
were happy to capitalize on their reliability.
"When a company like Porsche comes into the
Series, they're going to do it right," Field added.
"We want to beat them outright. Toward the end of
this year and next year, I think we can get closer
and beat them fair and square. We have a good car,
engine package and tires. With the announcement
that Porsche was coming in, we upped our game and
we'll do the same for Acura. Hopefully we'll be as
quick as they are."
More information to follow shortly.
Liz Halliday second in class
at Salt Lake City - 7/16/06
Californian ‘dual-sportswoman’, Liz
Halliday - a racing driver and international
equestrian in three-day eventing - finished second
in class in Sunday’s fifth round of the 2006
American Le Mans Series, held at the brand new
Miller Motorsports Park near Salt Lake City, Utah,
USA.
The ten-round series was making its first visit
to the impressive new venue and the extremely long,
fast and flowing track appeared to delight both
fans and competitors alike…
"Wow, what a facility!” said Halliday when
commenting on the host venue, “Larry Miller
has really done a great job to create a superb
track and venue, and I'm sure it will only get
better over the years. I certainly found the track
very challenging though, and with twenty-four turns
and not many features, along with the lowered grip
from the sand that was blowing onto the track, it
was one of the toughest I have driven - but a great
challenge nonetheless.”
Halliday and her team mate, Clint Field, started
the 2h45min race from eighth position overall and
third in class. As has now become the norm,
Halliday took the start and completed a
trouble-free opening stint, despite struggling
slightly with the new circuit. After fifty-four
minutes she handed over to team mate Clint who
drove for one hour before handing back to Liz for
her final run to the flag.
A fairly quiet and incident-free race for the
duo suddenly perked up when their main rivals, the
Porsche factory team, had a problem with one of
their cars as it stopped on the track with terminal
throttle problems with less than half an hour to
go.
Having been running third in class, Halliday and
Field promptly inherited second position and a
vital clutch of championship points to retain their
slender lead in the LMP2 drivers’ standings by
just one point.
Liz Halliday said after the race: “My first
stint in the race was difficult but I kept going
and made sure I stayed out of trouble. Clint then
took over and kept up a good pace, staying as close
to the Porsches as possible– which, yet again,
had incredible pace. When I took over the car later
on for my second stint, I found it far more
comfortable and enjoyed the push to the flag. Given
our ‘David vs. Goliath’ situation at the
moment I’ll gladly take today’s result
even if it was a bit lucky – The team did a
great job to give us a very reliable car, and it
just goes to show that in sportscar racing
sometimes staying out of trouble and doing
consistent laps can go a long way!
The ALMS now heads to the Portland International
Raceway for round six of the series on July 22. The
race starts at 18:00PST and will last for
2h45m.
Salt Lake City Preview, Round
5 of ALMS Series - 7/12/06
UK-based Californian, Liz Halliday, heads to the
brand new Miller Motorsports Park in Salt Lake City
this weekend for round five of the American Le Mans
Series. Along with her Intersport Racing co-driver,
Clint Field, Liz leads the LMP2 class drivers’
championship by just five points from the factory
Porsche squad of Saacha Maassen and Lucas Lurh.
Despite scoring two superb class wins and two
thirds in the opening four races, Halliday and
Field are only too aware that their challenge to
stay at the top of the table intensifies as the
might of the Porsche rollercoaster roars on.
Halliday, who is tied for the most Series wins
by a female driver (5), said: “Clint and I are
under no illusion that to stay abreast of the two
Porsche works cars for the remaining six races of
the season is going to be hard, but we will do our
best and keep on fighting! We had a tough weekend
in Lime Rock and despite my contact with the wall
towards the end of the race we still scored more
points for the championship with a third place
classification. So we are still well in the hunt
and fully motivated, it would be great to beat at
least one of those Penske - Porsches this
weekend….!”
Liz, who is also an international equestrian in
Three Day Eventing, has been back in England
recently for a one day event at Tweseldown in
Hampshire, but is looking forward to getting back
to business behind the wheel. “I’m really
excited to be visiting Salt Lake City,” says
Liz, “the circuit is totally new, very long
and by all accounts a real pleasure to drive –
I can’t wait. I expect the weather will be
very hot so it might be a hard race physically, but
it’s nothing we are not used to or prepared
for.”
Co-driver and Team Manager of Intersport Racing,
Clint Field, said: “Salt Lake is a first for
the ALMS championship and also for all of us here
at Intersport. It’s a new, state-of-the-art,
permanent circuit – very long at 4.5-miles,
with 24-turns, so it should be a great! I am also
pleased that all the teams will be starting from a
level playing field with no previous experience of
the circuit to rely on as I think this will play
into our favour slightly and help us keep up with
the Porsches – never an easy task, but
we’ll be giving it everything!”
In the US, CBS Sports will televise the event on
Sunday 16th July 2006, 12pm MST. For more
information, please visit www.cbs.com
In Europe, the race will be broadcast on Motors
TV at 6.30pm UK time on Sunday 16th July 2006. For
more information, please visit www.motorstv.com
Live coverage will be available at www.americanlemans.com
with American Le Mans Radio and IMSA Live Timing
& Scoring.
For more information on the circuit, visit
www.millermotorsportspark.com
Lime Rock Challenges
but Halliday and Team Retain LMP2 Lead -
7/6/06
American racing driver and three-day event rider,
Liz Halliday, endured a tough race at Lime Rock
Park in Connecticut this weekend but came through
to be classified 3rd in class and retain her
position at the top of the LMP2 drivers’
championship leader board alongside her Intersport
Racing team mate, Clint Field.
Halliday and Field pushed hard from start to
finish despite difficult traffic conditions
throughout the race, and braking issues in the last
hour that made for a challenging drive. However,
they knew from early on that while they would
struggle to match the pace of their main title
rivals, the two-car works Porsche team, a solid run
to the finish would secure vital championship
points.
That plan was nearly scuppered however when in
the latter stages of the 2h45m event, having been
running a fine 3rd in class, Halliday was finally
caught out by the braking problems in the Lola.
Like her team mate, she had been struggling with
pad knock-off, necessitating several pumps to the
pedal before each and every corner to regain lost
brake pressure. While concentrating on lapping
heavy traffic, Liz by her own admission forgot to
pump the pedal for a couple seconds. As she entered
one of the fastest corners of the challenging 1.53
mile circuit, it dropped straight to the floor,
then the rear brakes locked up and she spun and
made heavy impact with the wall.
Although Liz was able to drive the car back to
the pits, the car suffered extensive damage, and
the team chose to retire the car safe in the
knowledge that they had completed more than enough
laps to be classified and to maintain their 3rd
position until the finish.
Liz Halliday: “Phew – tough day! Given
everything we had to go through, I am hugely
relieved to still be classified and retain our lead
in the championship because with Porsche running so
strongly now, we really can’t afford too many
more days like this. The first part of the race was
fine for us – I took the start once again and
felt like I made a pretty good run off the line,
but then lost a couple places when I got stuck on
the outside of the Highcroft Lola which had lost
its gears suddenly just into the first corner.
After that I settled down and concentrated on
putting in some good lap times. It’s a bumpy,
twisty, slippery, ‘busy’ track – but
I enjoyed it, it’s a really good challenge.
Unfortunately though, we later had to cope with
this braking problem which ultimately caught me out
not long before the end of the race. I was in fifth
gear when I hit the wall so it was pretty fast.
It’s unfortunate for the team who now have a
lot of work to do, but equally I’m really
happy we still grabbed those championship points. A
big thanks to Clint and the rest of the boys for
all their efforts.”
Intersport Racing Team Manager and co-driver to
Liz, Clint Field: “I feel happy that we
retained our classification, but bad for Liz.
Unfortunately she got caught out by the brake
problem and hit the wall. The car was so
uncomfortable and unpredictable on the brakes that
it literally could have happened to anybody -
especially on a small circuit as twisty as Lime
Rock with no run off area. Nevertheless, we still
got classified third in class and scored more
points which is more than we were expecting, so the
weekend turned out pretty good despite what
happened in the end. We are pretty happy heading to
Salt Lake City and believe that we can step up our
level of performance and be closer to the two
Porsche works cars.”
A hectic schedule continues now for Liz as she
heads back to the Tweseldown Horse Trials in the UK
to ride in another one day event on 10th July,
before flying back to the US for the next round of
the American Le Mans Series in Salt Lake City on
July 15th.
Lime Rock Preview, Round
4
Having barely drawn breath since finishing 4th in
class at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, the British-based
Californian sportswoman Liz Halliday, heads to Lime
Rock, Connecticut, this weekend to continue her
title chase in the American Le Mans Series, in
which she currently leads the LMP2 class
drivers’ standings with her team mate Clint
Field.
On the back of two wins already this year
(Sebring and Houston) expectations are high for
Lime Rock, although even Liz admits it will be a
big challenge, “This will be my first visit to
Lime Rock,” says Liz, “and there is very
little practice time so I don’t expect things
to be easy. Having said that, the great thing about
getting to the end of a race as long and gruelling
as Le Mans, is that you end up doing nearly a full
season’s worth of mileage in just one event,
which is really useful in terms of getting fully
dialled in to the car and just feeling very at one
with it. So when I get to a new track like Lime
Rock, I can concentrate all my efforts on learning
the circuit without being in any way distracted by
what’s going on with the car.”
Liz will be helped in her preparations by
professional race instructor Bruce MacInnes, a Lime
Rock specialist, who will help tune her into every
little nuance of the 1.53 mile circuit, “I
came across Bruce through Lynn St. James
[female ex-Indycar racer] and I’m sure
he’ll help me up to speed quicker than I would
otherwise. All circuits have their little secrets
so Bruce’s experience here will be
invaluable.”
Far from putting her feet up between Le Mans and
Lime Rock, Liz has been flat out with her other
sporting career as an international equestrian,
having taken part in a one day event at Salperton
Park, in Gloucestershire, England, as well as
making a guest appearance in a promotional event
for the British Military…
The “Kingsley Challenge” was
originally set in the 19th Century by the Kingsley
Club, a Worcester College, Oxford Gentleman’s
Club, when Henry Kingsley won a wager that he could
run a mile, row a mile and horse ride a mile, all
in fifteen minutes. It was seen as 'a near
impossible feat' and for many years the challenge
was all but forgotten, but it has since been
resurrected to foster competitive spirit and ethos
amongst Guards units in London.
This year the Challenge was held on and around
the Serpentine in Hyde Park on 21 June. Each
competitor began by rowing a mile on the
Serpentine, then ran a mile along the south side,
and finished by riding a mile along Rotten Row.
While of course being more than happy with the
riding section and breezing through the run, Liz
was not the only competitor to struggle with the
row. Navigating a professional skull backwards at
5mph requires a technical skill very different to
driving forwards at 200mph and it is fair to say
that Liz’s chosen route was probably not the
fastest! Nonetheless, having had only a few hours
of rowing experience in her life, she at least
managed not to capsize, which is more than can be
said for many other competitors!
For this weekend though, Liz will require a very
different kind of horsepower as she takes the fight
to the factory LMP2 class Porsches, “It’s
sad to say,” says Liz, “but now that
Porsche have found reliability, they are going to
be virtually unstoppable – they’re just
so quick. Having said that when you look at the
dominance of the Audi’s in Le Mans and you
consider that we finished 2nd overall to them in
Sebring, I think we’re doing a pretty good
job. Realistically if we can finish in front of at
least one of the Porsches this weekend I think
we’d be pretty pleased. Either way you can be
sure we’ll be going for it and the team will
give it their all.”
The race is scheduled for a 3 p.m. EDT start. In
the US, CBS Sports will televise the event from 4
to 6 p.m. EDT on Sunday 2nd July.
In Europe, the race will be broadcast on Motors
TV at 1.30pm UK time on Sunday 2nd July 2006. For
more information, please visit www.motorstv.com
Live coverage will be available at www.americanlemans.com
with American Le Mans Radio and IMSA Live Timing
& Scoring.
Salperton One-Day
Event, Gloucestershire, England
Liz Halliday, the British-based Californian
sportswoman, competed in Saturday’s Salperton
Park One Day Event with horses Harry (Silken Crisp)
and Oscar (Arctic Knight), just days after
returning from Le Mans in France, where she
finished 4th in class and was the only female
driver to contest the famous annual 24 hour motor
race.
Liz’s dual sporting focus on both her horse
riding and motor racing ensures a busy schedule,
but she relishes the challenge: “I love being
busy,” says Liz, “and coming straight
here to Salperton so soon after Le Mans is no
problem at all – in fact I love the
variety.”
Liz entered her first horse, Harry, in the
Advanced Intermediate class where he performed
beautifully in his first Advanced Dressage test
giving Liz her best score on him this season. He
then jumped very well around a large Advanced show
jumping course and only had one unfortunate rail
down. “Harry did a fantastic job,” said
Liz, “and I’m very, very pleased with
him. He’s well on his way to a full advanced
run now. I didn’t cross country him today
because we wanted to save his legs since he's done
quite a lot this year already, but some great
progress has been made in the other
phases.”
Liz’s second horse, Oscar, was also
“phenomenal!” in both the show jumping
and dressage, running as high as 2nd after the
dressage. Again, like Harry, Oscar had one rail
down in the show jumping but given the size of the
course and his previous difficulty with the show
jumping phase, Liz was very pleased: “I had a
good day today with Oscar, although he did find the
cross country tough going. It’s basically a
fitness issue and something we’ll need to
address, but given his comparative lack of
experience with me it’s not something we can't
solve with a bit more time. We’ll get to work
on his strength and fitness over the next couple
weeks, and both horses will be out again at the
next event at Twesledown on the 10th of July, where
they will compete in the intermediate
class.”
Gritty Drive Rewards Liz
Halliday at Le Mans
Europe-based American racing driver and equestrian
Liz Halliday today realised one of her life’s
ambitions by completing the legendary 24 Hours of
Le Mans, the world’s greatest motor race. Liz
was the only woman competing in the event this year
and was also privileged to take the start of the
event for the Intersport team.
The 2006 edition of the race began with two
qualifying sessions held in torrential rain on
Wednesday afternoon and evening and two more, in
the dry, on Thursday. Intersport qualified second
in the LMP2 category and Halliday approached the
start in an optimistic mood, soaking up the
incredible atmosphere. Race day dawned clear and
warm and an estimated 230,000 fans packed in to the
famous circuit to watch the start of the race.
However, 2006 would prove to be a year of intense
competition and incredibly high attrition as the
race unfolded over the 24 hours.
Halliday and her American team-mates, Clint
Field and Duncan Dayton, suffered technical
difficulties from the off, with an engine misfire
which took several laps to resolve, demoting them
to 49th within the first half hour. However, they
mounted a monumental fight-back, which began with
Halliday pushing hard from the off. “I was in
the car for about two hours at the beginning. It
took a couple of laps to get my rhythm back after
we sorted the problem but then it started to go
well.”
She and her team-mates began by driving double
stints each and by her second session, Halliday was
clearly settling into the car and the conditions.
“The car felt much better in the second
stint,” she explained. “My lap times were
improving all the time, although the traffic seemed
quite bad at times, so it was important to try to
be safe, as well as fast.” By the time Liz
handed the car over to Dayton, the Intersport Lola
was occupying 20th overall and third in LMP2.
But then, at half race distance, the car
suffered a gearbox problem. The rules stipulate
that teams can rebuild gearboxes but not change the
outer casing, so the Intersport technicians did
just that, taking only 40 minutes to replace the
gearbox internals. But the time loss undid much of
their incredible climb up the leader-board and they
had to mount a charge again, in the full darkness
of the French countryside. Halliday again took over
and by the end of her next stint, had moved up from
33rd to 28th overall.
“That was a really good stint,” said
Liz. “But I still had to be careful. There was
so much debris and gravel on the track that it was
easy to pick up a puncture.” Indeed, she was
one of many drivers suffering from deflated tyres
but this simply served to spur her on even harder.
“We were on another fight-back at that point
but we were already at half race distance, which
was further than I’ve got last year, so that
gave me a boost.”
Several smaller glitches were dispensed with on
the run through dusk and as the sun came up, the Le
Mans heat returned, with a vengeance. However, a
combination of determination and focus looked like
rewarding Liz with her first Le Mans finish, a
prospect she was looking forward to.
“I have to say, I’ve never done that
many total hours in a car before – I am
exhausted. The physical exertion and the heat made
it very hard work. I’ve done 24 hour races
before but with four drivers to a team, where we
did single stints. This weekend, I did three
doubles and a triple and I know I’ve been
working hard. Having said that, watching from the
garage as Clint drove the final stint to the
finish, I would happily have got back in and driven
all the way to the end!”
The 2006 event would have one last sting in its
tail for the team, however, as Field suffered a
puncture at the end of the Mulsanne straight and
the tyre debris wrapped itself around the
car’s bodywork, preventing it from driving.
The team held its breath as they watched on the
live TV screens while Field wrestled with the tyre
and bodywork until finally, he was able to continue
and cross the finish line, recording the
team’s finish.
Speaking after congratulating both team-mates,
Liz said; “I’m so happy we finished this
year. In fact, it means a lot more after that
finish! Of course, we would have loved to have been
on the podium, as that was my original goal. But
with all the issues we had, to finish fourth is
still pretty good for the whole team and I’m
very proud of that. I think the important thing is
that we showed we had the pace, comparable with
some of our competitors who did make the podium and
I think the car still has the pace to be able to
achieve that.
“We did the Sebring 12 Hours earlier this
year with the Lola but that was a completely
different event. Le Mans is obviously a lot longer
and the nature of the circuit is very different. At
Sebring, you don’t have the chance to rest for
a minute whereas here, with the long straights, I
was even having to talk to myself at times to stay
focussed.
“I feel I’ve learned a huge amount
this year. We’ve already had some good results
in the ALMS but this is Le Mans – it’s
the ultimate endurance race. And we
finished.”
Team Manager Brian Alder was also happy with the
team’s performance over the week. “What
an unbelievable way to finish! This is the first 24
hour race I have finished and I’m very pleased
about that. It justifies all the effort and hard
work that everyone has put in over the last few
weeks. We’ve had a great season so far; four
races and four great results. We now need to
maintain that momentum in the ALMS.”
Frustration and Another
Fight-Back - 6/18/06 - 18 hours
Having mounted a huge fight-back at the start of
the 24 Hours of Le Mans, climbing to 20th from 49th
following repairs to the engine, Liz Halliday and
the Intersport Racing team faced another set-back
just before half race distance, when their gearbox
failed. Regulations prevent the team from actually
changing the gearbox but rebuilding it is
permitted, despite taking time.
The problem occurred during Duncan Dayton’s
night-time stint, with the loss of gears. The team
brought the car into the garage and rebuilt the
gearbox with new internal components, retaining the
original casing, as stipulated by the regulations.
An impressive feat in itself but not without a time
penalty – the process took 45 minutes and when
Halliday retook to the track, they had again
descended the order, this time to 33rd. However, by
the time she handed the car back to team-mate Clint
Field, the team had risen to 28th overall.
“That was a really good stint,” said
Liz. “I did a double, as our tyres don’t
seem to last for a triple. I was very cautious with
the amount of traffic on the circuit, as well as
the debris – there was gravel all across the
road at Arnage. I picked up a puncture on my
penultimate lap and I think I got it there. It was
strange though – it didn’t feel like a
puncture at first and I was terrified there was a
suspension problem. So I backed off completely to
make sure I didn’t damage the car.”
Once back in the pits, the team changed the
tyres and Liz handed the car over to Dayton once
again for his pair of stints.
“I guess we’re on another fight-back
now, after the time lost fixing the gearbox. But
we’re well over halfway race distance now,
which is further than I’ve got before. I also
think it will be easier once the sun comes up. I
always find the 3am stint to be the hardest –
it’s really tough.”
Impressive Fight-Back for
Liz Hallidy - 6/17/06 6 Hours
American driver Liz Halliday and the Intersport
Racing team mounted an impressive fight-back from
49th place overall, following a problem with their
Lola AER which resulted in five pit stops in as
many laps, straight from the start of the 2006 24
Hours of Le Mans.
Halliday started the race but immediately
noticed a misfire from the AER turbocharged engine.
A series of pitstops ensued, while the team
attempted to rectify the problem, including
replacing the ignition coil and spark plugs.
However, the fault was eventually traced to a
problematic turbo wastegate which was causing
excessive turbo boost and the engine to enter a
‘safe’, limited mode. Once the team
changed the wastegate, Liz and team-mates Duncan
Dayton and Clint Field set about climbing back up
the leader-board, having dropped to 49th position
in the process.
“I was in the car for almost two hours at
the beginning,” said Halliday at the six-hour
mark. “We got the problem sorted but obviously
we lost a lot of time. Then it took me a few laps
to get my rhythm back. When you’re trying to
drive and talk to the team on the radio, explaining
the problem, it’s quite distracting.”
Duncan Dayton took over for a single stint,
followed by Clint Field, also for a single stint,
before Halliday took to the car again for the first
of the team’s multiple sessions. She ran
faultlessly for a double stint, around 1.5 hours in
the darkness of the La Sarthe circuit, setting
increasingly impressive lap times as she went.
“The car felt much better in the second
stint,” she explained. “My times are
still improving, as I learn more places where I can
gain extra speed. I think Le Mans is like that, you
keep learning all the time. The traffic seems quite
bad this year but that’s probably because my
times are better at night than last year. It’s
a case of keeping it as safe as possible now
throughout the night.”
By the time Halliday handed over to Dayton, the
team had climbed back up to 20th overall and third
in LMP2, an impressive feat in the first quarter of
the race.
Halliday and Intersport
Racing Qualify Second in Class for LeMans
The Intersport Racing team completed the fourth and
final qualifying session for this year’s 24
Hours of Le Mans by posting the second fastest time
in the LMP2 category. This means they will start
the 74th running of the greatest motor race on
earth second in class and 13th overall. The team
missed out on pole position by two seconds, over
the 13.5Km La Sarthe circuit.
Duncan Dayton took the car out early on and Liz
Halliday followed, before Clint Field took over,
claiming the team’s fastest time in the
process.
After yesterday’s torrential rain, the
times tumbled as the drivers exploited the warm and
dry conditions. As expected, the fastest times were
set at the end of the first session and the very
beginning of the second, as the air cooled and the
tyres used for qualifying worked perfectly.
However, the margin for a quick lap was very
narrow, just one or two circuits and the
combination of a fresh track after the rain and
heavy traffic throughout posed a problems for many
drivers.
Liz Halliday explained; “I only did two
timed laps in the first of the two sessions this
evening,” she said. “To me, the car
didn’t feel as stable as it usually does and
when Clint took over, he agreed. We feel it may be
that the tyres pressures climbed too high on the
circuit, while the rain also washed the build-up of
rubber away, changing the grip levels.
However, following the one-hour break, the car
felt much better when Halliday re-took to the
track. “The second session showed that
we’re all on the pace at night. The car felt a
lot more stable and that helped the confidence a
lot. My pace was a lot better than last year and
without the traffic we experienced, I feel I can go
even quicker in the race.
“I did almost a full stint, around 10 laps,
replicating race conditions and I’m pleased
with the result. I think we all are. I feel
we’re definitely ready for the start
now.”
Team Manager Brian Alder was also pleased with
the team’s performance. “Second in class
is a good result – it shows we’re right
there. The track conditions after the rain last
night are a lot different to the test day, so
everyone’s times are a little slower. But
we’re right where we need to be. We have a
good pace and set-up on the car, so we’re
ready.”
Halliday and the rest of the drivers will now
take part in the legendary drivers’ parade
around the streets of Le Mans tomorrow (Friday)
afternoon. This gives the estimated ¼ million
fans the opportunity to see their racing heroes
close up and personal before the race itself begins
at 5pm local time on Saturday afternoon.
Q&A for Liz regarding
the 24 Hours of LeMans - 6/14/06
American motor racing driver and equestrian rider
Liz Halliday talks about her feelings in the run-up
to her second time at the famous 24 Hours of Le
Mans.
What do you remember most about your debut at
Le Mans last year?
It was amazing – really the most
spectacular event I have ever been a part of. I
remember the feeling when I took to the track for
the first time and thinking, ‘Wow, I’m
actually here!’ Also, the fans were incredible
– it was totally unbelievable to be around the
hundreds of thousands of people who come to watch
the race. I really can’t wait to take part
again!
You led the LMP2 class for quite some time
before a mechanical failure caused the car’s
retirement. How do you think this year be
different, for you and the team?
I think that we were a strong team last year,
but since then we’ve had more time to get to
know the car. AER has also done more work on the
engine reliability as well, so in theory, we should
be even better prepared this time. Last year’s
Le Mans was also my first race in this car. Since
then, I have had lots more races and success with
the team and the car. We have a great driver
line-up and team, and hopefully we will be on the
podium at the end.
You and Intersport go to Le Mans off the back
of three straight American Le Mans Series podium
finishes. How important is that momentum?
It’s great to go into a big race like Le
Mans knowing that you have had a strong start to
the year. The win at Sebring is especially
important because the car ran almost flawlessly for
the twelve hours – that’s a big boost for
the team.
What’s the most difficult thing for a
driver preparing for Le Mans?
I think the mental and physical preparation is
difficult. Because you are sometimes doing three or
four-hour stints at Le Mans, you need to have a lot
of endurance fitness, as well as neck and upper
body strength. The other big factor at Le Mans is
mental fitness. It’s the biggest endurance
race in the world and there is a lot of pressure on
the drivers to perform well and get to the finish.
If you’re well rested and prepared, you can
put everything into the race.
What will you be doing when you arrive in
France?
When I arrive, there is a day of scrutineering,
which is always busy, but around that you want to
have as much time as possible to relax and settle
in before the driving starts on Wednesday
evening.
If you are to win Le Mans, what factors come
into play?
Most importantly, you need reliability from the
car and the drivers. We need to be quick and
consistent without taking too many risks. Also, a
good race strategy from the team must be in place,
to keep the car running in the best condition.
It’s a team effort, and the main goal has to
be to finish.
What LMP2 cars will be your main
competitors?
I think our main competitors will be the RML
car, which won last year and the Belmondo cars, as
they tend to be very reliable. There are many more
competitors this year that we need to be wary of,
such as Synergy, Rollcentre and Binnie
Motorsports.
How was scrutineering this afternoon?
Yes, it was fine. As drivers, we don’t do
very much when we’re there. It was very hot
though.
Last year was very busy, with lots of fans.
Was it the same this year?
There weren’t as many as last year but
still quite a lot. Last year we were right next to
Pescarolo so that was a big draw for the crowds.
There were still plenty there this year, though. I
did a lot of interviews, some on the stage and some
with Motors TV. We also did the traditional team
picture, so there was plenty going on. I also
signed a lot of autographs for the fans who were
there, which was nice.
Is there much of a buzz because you’re
the only woman taking part?
Yes. Most of the questions I get asked revolve
around that. I think most people know who I am
after last year now.
How does it feel to be the only
woman?
Actually, it’s pretty cool. From a media
standpoint, it’s good to be unique. From a
driving point of view, I hope we all respect each
other as drivers. When we’re on the track, for
me, that’s the main point. I think as long as
you do the job, then the other drivers will respect
you, woman or man.
Do you think being the only woman puts extra
pressure on you?
I’ve never been one of many woman anyway.
I’m the only one in ALMS and last year, there
were only two of us. I guess there’s some
added pressure because people will always remember
if you mess up. But hopefully not much more than
for anyone else.
Is there a general feeling of respect within
drivers in endurance racing?
I think so, yes. I think that, if you’ve
proved yourself on the track, they accept you as a
driver in your own right. There are a few drivers
out there with less experience who are still
learning and the more experienced drivers pick up
on that pretty fast. But I feel I’ve held my
own and done my best to run my own race and not
give anyone any hassle. And I think you get respect
for that.
Looking ahead to the weekend, the weather
forecast looks undecided. Do you have a preference
for the weather?
For a really long race, I usually prefer it to
be dry because otherwise, there can be so many ups
and downs. Le Mans is such a long track that if you
get stuck out there on slicks in a downpour, you
can be in trouble. Also, because it’s so long,
you can have rain on half the circuit and dry on
the other half, which makes for a real tyre issue -
far more than it would on a short track. But
I’ve driven the car in the wet now and
it’s good, so I think we’d be OK. But
obviously it would be easier in the dry,
definitely. It also wouldn’t be much fun in
the wet in an open-top car – the driver would
get pretty wet.
Liz Halliday - First (and
only) Lady of Le Mans - 6/6/06
Racing driver and equestrian Liz Halliday will be
the only lady driver taking part in this
year’s running of the most famous endurance
race in the world, the Le Mans 24 Hours.
UK-based Liz will compete against 149 male
drivers in the race in front of 230,000 spectators
and 230 million TV viewers and she is relishing the
challenge. At Sunday’s official test day for
the event, she and team mate Clint Field made their
preparations and completed a successful day’s
running on the 8-mile circuit in La Sarthe, France
(3min 43.408sec, 3rd in LMP2 class and 13th
overall).
Clint and Liz are regular co-drivers in the
American Le Mans Series and following their
exceptionally victorious start to the season they
are currently leading the American Le Mans Series
LMP2 Drivers’ championship. For Le Mans, they
will be joined by new team mate and veteran
sportscar driver, Duncan Dayton, who returns to the
Intersport team having driven for them in 2004.
Following the test Liz felt encouraged, well
prepared and delighted to be back in Le Mans:
“The beginning of the day was not too bad and
our car ran better than most. Clint and I were both
quick and I was thrilled to instantly find a 6
second improvement (3min 49sec) from my best lap
last year. I know everything so well now compared
to back then - the team, the car, my team mate
– and it makes a huge difference to your
confidence. By the end of the day we had set the
third fastest overall LMP2 time which should put us
in good stead for the race – Ultimately, when
you’ve got 24 hours to run, the last thing you
need to worry yourself about is raw pace over one
lap, but it’s still nice to know that we are
quick. It is awesome to be back here again and I
just wish there wasn’t another whole week to
go before we get back to the circuit and start the
real race week!”
Liz’s team mate, Clint Field: “Today
was good except for the time we lost with an engine
problem. We had a misfire, came in, changed the
coils - but it missed again so we cam back in,
changed the waste gate and changed the coils again
and found out it was just a coils problem – a
bad batch. Either way, we had it all fixed at the
very end, so at least we needn’t be concerned
for the race.
“Overall though our performance was good -
we could have gone quicker at the end of the day
maybe and I am confident we will set a high
‘thirties time in qualifying time next week. I
managed to squeeze a few laps at the end of the day
to check the engine and it was back to normal. It
might sound frustrating but I am glad it happened
today and not next week!
Third driver, Duncan Dayton, had a previous
commitment in the US and was unable to attend the
test. Duncan will join Liz and Clint next week in
Le Mans in advance of the qualifying sessions on
Wednesday 14th and Thursday 15th, followed by the
race itself, starting at 5pm on Saturday 17th
June.
Tweseldown CIC -
5/24-28/06
UK based Californian sportswoman, Liz Halliday, who
competes both as an equestrian in Three Day
Eventing and as a racing driver in prestigious
international sportscar races such as the Le Mans
24 Hours, competed two horses in the recent
Tweseldown International Horse Trials last
weekend.
The first horse Harry (Silken Crisp) entered the
CCI**, finishing 17th from 108 entrants; while
Oscar (Arctic Knight II) took part in the
unaffiliated CIC* class and came home 6th out of
over 50 starters.
Harry (Silken Crisp)
Thursday’s CCI** dressage proved difficult
for Liz and Harry thanks to the damp and sodden
arena but they still placed a respectable 40th
position.
“Harry (Silken Crisp) warmed up really well
for the Dressage," said Liz, “and I was
feeling pretty optimistic for a good test. When I
entered the Dressage arena to start my test, I
realized that all along the edges of the arena was
really deep mud from all of the horses that done
their test on it already. Unfortunately, Harry has
never been a horse to go well in mud, and even
though he tried his best, I could feel that he
struggled through a lot of the movements to keep
his balance.”
Onto the CCI** Cross Country and Harry was
fabulous. “I knew that I had to go clear and
inside the time in order to have a shot at
finishing well in the event and Harry was
fantastic,” said Liz. “He made the course
feel easy and I am confident now that he will soon
be ready for Advanced level which we are hoping to
move him up to later in the year.” Liz and
Harry were clear and inside the time on the Cross
Country, just 2 second off the optimum time.
They started the show jumping phase in 25th
place, and the now tired horse really performed in
the arena. “Harry tried so hard to jump a
clear round today,” said Liz.
“Unfortunately I didn’t give him the best
ride to fence 4 and we got a bit too close and had
the one rail down, but I am confident that he would
have jumped clear otherwise.” Even with a rail
down, Liz moved up to 17th place and in the money
– overall a very good event for the pair.
Oscar (Arctic Knight II)
Oscar hadn’t competed since Portugal in
March due to an illness, but came out on fine form
with an impressive Dressage score in the CIC*,
placing 2nd at the start of the competition.
In the show jumping the next day, a phase that
was always hardest for Oscar, he was brilliant and
jumped a clear round for Liz, maintaining their 2nd
place as they went into Sunday’s Cross Country
phase.
Liz knew that to retain 2nd place she would have
to go clear and inside the time. But it was also
important to give the horse a good round given a
lack of Cross Country practice for him since
March.
Ultimately Oscar did a great job, but
unfortunately had 3 time faults, dropping he and
Liz to a still impressive 6th place.
“Oscar was fabulous this weekend and
I’m just kicking myself for having some time
faults!” said Liz, “However I knew that
Oscar hadn’t done Cross Country for a while
and is still a slightly inexperienced, big horse
that needs time to think on course. I suppose I
just made the option to give him a positive,
confidence giving round over pushing hard enough
for the 2nd place finish. I am very pleased with
him though and am confident that there will be
other chances to us to be at the top.”
Next event with Harry and Oscar is the Salperton
Park Horse Trials in Gloucestershire, England on
June 24th.
Liz Halliday on Le
Mans...
This weekend, Liz Halliday returns to Le Mans for
the official test day that forms the prelude to the
world’s most famous endurance sports car
race.
Liz and teammates Clint Field and Duncan Dayton
will each pilot the Intersport Racing Lola in their
bid to capture the LMP2 class victory at the famed
24 Hours of Le Mans.
The race, scheduled for June 17-18, will be
televised worldwide, with United States coverage
provided by SPEED Channel and throughout Europe by
MotorsTV.
Liz recently reflected on her first trip to Le
Mans a year ago, and several other Le Mans-related
topics:
What do you remember most about your debut at
Le Mans last year?
“Wow! It was truly amazing – Really
the most spectacular event I have ever been a part
of. I remember the awe of taking to the track for
the first time and thinking, ‘Wow, I’m
actually here!’ Also the fans were incredible
– it was totally unbelievable to be around the
hundreds of thousands of people who come to watch
the race. I really can’t wait to be there
again!”
You led the LMP2 class for quite some time
before a mechanical failure shelved the car. How
will this year be different, for you and the
team?
“Well, I think that we were a strong team
last year, but since then they have had more time
to get to know the car, and AER has done more work
on the engine reliability as well, so in theory we
are even better prepared this time.
Last year’s Le Mans was also my first race
ever in this car. Since then, I have had many more
races and wins with the team and the car. We have a
great driver lineup and crew, and hopefully we will
be on the podium at the end.”
You and Intersport go into Le Mans on the
strength of three straight American Le Mans Series
podium finishes. How important is this momentum
going to France?
“It’s great to go into a big race like
Le Mans knowing that you have had a strong start to
the year. The win at Sebring is especially
important because the car ran almost flawlessly for
the twelve hours – that’s a big boost for
the team.”
What’s the most difficult thing for a
driver in preparing for Le Mans?
“I think the mental and physical
preparation are both difficult. Because you are
sometimes doing three or four-hour stints at Le
Mans, you need to have a lot of endurance fitness,
as well as neck and upper body strength. The other
big factor at Le Mans is mental fitness. It’s
the biggest endurance race in the world and there
is a lot of pressure on the drivers to perform well
and get to the finish. If you’re well rested
and prepared, you can put everything [you
have] into the race.”
When will you travel to France, and what will
you be doing as soon as you arrive?
“I will be traveling to France on the
Sunday before the race [June 11]. There
will be a day of scrutineering, which is always
busy, but around that you want to have as much time
as possible to relax and settle in before the
driving starts on Wednesday.”
If you are to win Le Mans, what factors must
come into play?
“Well, most importantly there must be
reliability from the car and the drivers. We need
to be quick and consistent without taking too many
risks. Also, a good race strategy from the team
must be in place so as to keep the car running in
the best condition possible. It’s all a team
effort, and the main goal has to first be to
finish.”
What LMP2 cars will be your chief
competitors?
I think our main competitors will be the RML
car, which won last year; the Belmondo cars, as
they tend to be very reliable; and there are many
more competitors this year who we need to be wary
of such as Synergy, Rollcentre and Binnie
Motorsports.”
Third Straight Podium for
Halliday
Liz Halliday, the Californian racing driver and
international equestrian, secured her third
straight LMP2 class podium of the 2006 American Le
Mans Series on Sunday with a third-place finish
alongside her Intersport Racing team mate, Clint
Field, at the Mid-Ohio Sports Car Course.
Field and Halliday, who won the season-openers
at Sebring and Houston, overcame early race gearbox
problems to keep the car in podium contention on a
weekend when the entire field – even the
premier LMP1 category teams – were being shown
the way by the awesomely dominant factory Porsche
LMP2 cars who went on to finish 1st and 2nd
overall, 1st and 2nd in class.
Both Halliday and Field were especially
delighted with the result given that Halliday, who
took the opening stint for the team, was forced to
forfeit the car’s 4th place qualifying
position – secured in a ‘guest
appearance’ by local ace and father of Clint,
John Field - and begin from the pit-lane at the
rear of the field having lost operation of the
paddle-shift mechanism on the warm-up laps.
Having pitted for repairs, she rejoined the race
and carved her way back through the pack before
handing over to Field at the one hour mark.
Field’s outstanding stint continued the
car’s progress and at 2 hours he handed back
to Halliday for the final run to the flag.
Liz’s strong final stint and resultant podium
was more than enough to keep the two drivers at the
head of the LMP2 driver’s standings –
with an 8 point lead over the factory Porsche
drivers.
Halliday and Field, along with the rest of the
Intersport team, will now head to Le Mans for the
24 Hours [June 18-19, La Sarthe, France]
– their most important event of the year, and
one in which they hope to make up for the
disappointment of 2005, where the car submitted to
engine failure while enjoying a class lead of
nearly four laps at the 11 hour mark.
Liz Halliday: “I’d like to thank the
Intersport boys because they’ve worked hard
all weekend and did a great job to fix the car at
the start. Given that set back, I think we can be
pretty satisfied with today’s result. We
netted some extremely important championship points
and are still in the lead. Although I think
it’s hats-off to the Porsche guys today
because they did a stunning job.”
Clint Field: “We had a good, clean race
today although the paddle shift problem at the
start was unfortunate. But the crew did a great job
getting the manual transmission installed and we
didn’t lose too much time. The tires were
great for me from the start of my stint and I had a
quick car. Liz had never driven this car with a
manual shift before so she did a great job. I had a
great little battle with Dindo [Capello]
and [James] Weaver which I enjoyed
enormously. I seemed to have them in the esses and
carousel, but they could pull away in the
straights. The important thing for us today, is
that we came up with some good points going into
Lime Rock [July 1] and we’re still at
the top of the table.”
Liz Halliday and
Intersport Racing Score another Class Win in
Houston
American three-day eventing rider and sportscar
racing driver Liz Halliday continued her 2006
winning streak today, taking the LMP2 class of the
Lone Star Grand Prix with team mate Clint Field and
top privateer racing team Intersport Racing.
Following their LMP2 class success in Sebring in
March, Liz Halliday’s and Clint Field’s
second win in as many races, again beating the two
mighty works Porsches, mean that they have extended
their lead in the 2006 Drivers Championship whilst
Intersport Racing has also extended its lead in the
Teams’ Championship.
To complete her success of the day, the
organizers awarded Liz the Founders Trophy - an
award given to privateer drivers. Her fifth career
Series win means that she ties for the most
victories by a female driver in the American Le
Mans Series.
The number 37 Lola was running a strong third in
class, two hours into the race, when the car
suffered a cracked header – caused by an
extremely bumpy circuit - and lost a lot of power.
Clint drove back into the pits, the mechanics
worked on the car and he rejoined the race. Ten
minutes later, Clint was forced back into the pits
but this time the team were able to fix the problem
enough to get the car to the end. He rejoined the
race and could not believe his luck when the Penske
Porsches fell by the wayside during the last 30
minutes of the race! Field nursed the underpowered
Intersport Racing Lola over the final 20 minutes to
claim his second straight win of the season with
Liz Halliday.
After celebrating on the podium with her team
mate, Liz Halliday said: "This is just an awesome
result for the team, Clint and I – not bad for
my first street race! It shows that it is never
over until the chequered flag. We knew we could not
beat the works Porsche on performance – they
are in a league of their own and their speed this
weekend was unbelievable. But the circuit is
extremely bumpy and very hard on cars and drivers.
We knew some teams might try too hard and would
have mechanical problems towards the end of the
race and this is exactly what happened with both
Porsches. Third behind the two Porsches was already
a good result for us, but to beat them for the
second straight race is very sweet and fantastic
for the team. Today’s race was survival of the
fittest and we did!"
After the race, Clint Field added: “When I
passed the yellow Porsche, I thought this is too
good to be true! At the end of the race, power-wise
it was a quarter of the power, I could go flat out
in most of the corners that I shouldn't have been
able to. We seem to have a knack for holding the
car together and Porsche is developing the art of
losing the car with half and hour to go.”
This event also saw Liz continue her move up the
step ladder of endurance racing as the young
American qualified the Intersport Lola B05/40 AER
for the first time. Liz said: “This race has
been brilliant for me. I was very proud to qualify
the car for the team for the first time. It was not
the easiest circuit for a first but I think I did a
pretty good job and third in class behind the two
Porsches was not too bad! In the race, I was a bit
cautious at the start as I did not want to be in
the wrong place in the wrong time on a circuit with
no run off. I then drove a solid one hour stint and
then handed the car to Clint as planned. This new
win feels really good and I hope that we can score
a hat trick in Mid Ohio next weekend
Preview - Lone Star
Grand Prix - American Le Mans Series - # 2
Sebring 12 Hour P2 class winner and overall podium
finisher, Liz Halliday takes a step into the
unknown this weekend as she competes in her first
ever street circuit event at the downtown Reliant
Park circuit in Houston, Texas for round two of the
American Le Mans Series (ALMS).
Californian Liz, who alongside her race car
driving is also an international equestrian in
Three Day Eventing, was a three-time winner in last
year’s ALMS and continued that form into 2006
with her most important victory to date earlier
this year in Sebring. Not only did she and her
Intersport Racing team mates, Clint and Jon Field,
win their class, but they also finished second
overall – right behind the awesome new Audi
R10 and in front of arch P2 class rivals, the
mighty factory Porsche team.
Despite the long break since that race, the win
for Liz has yet to sink in: “I won’t
pretend that we didn’t have some serious
celebrations right afterwards, but once they were
out of the way it was straight back to business and
time to focus completely on the next race. If we
can repeat that success here in Houston it would be
fantastic and I am confident that the team will
give Clint and I a great race car for the job."
The awesome street circuit layout has been
created especially for this weekend’s Grand
Prix of Houston event and will be re-opened to the
public in time for their Monday morning
commute!
“Street circuits by their very nature are
not forgiving,” said Liz, “and I
don’t have much experience of them, so my plan
is to use the practice sessions to get myself
confident and settled in, making sure we get as
many laps as possible to arrive on race day fully
prepared.”
Uniquely, the Grand Prix of Houston will feature
TWO main events – the 2h45min American Le Mans
Series race on Friday night and the Champ Car World
Series race on Saturday night. This incredible
double-bill is sure to excite the fans and,
according to Liz, the competitors too:
“I’m really excited to be racing
alongside Champ Car – it’s a world-class
series and highly complimentary to the ALMS. My
only concern is how their rubber on the circuit may
affect our cars throughout the weekend, but
everyone’s in the same boat so we’ll just
deal with it as best we can.”
With her recent success and growing profile,
media interest in Liz this week is such that Grand
Prix of Houston organisers have arranged a special
Television Media Opportunity where both Liz and
another outstanding female driver, Katherine Legge
from the Champ Car World Series, will be available
for interviews. It will take place in the media
centre on Thursday, May 11th at 13:15. Both Liz and
Katherine will speak of their individual careers
and driving achievements and will be happy to
answer any questions from the media.
TV coverage: CBS Sports on May 13th, 1pm EDT
Racing Driver and
Equestrin, Liz Halliday, competes in
CCI** Event with New Horse, Harry (Silken
Crisp)
Shortly after returning from her win in the
prestigious Sebring 12 Hour motor race in Florida
(American Le Mans Series), Liz Halliday and her new
horse, Harry (Silken Crisp), headed to Compiegne,
France, for their first international CCI** event
together.
Although Liz has competed up to CCI*** level,
the horse had never competed beyond an intermediate
one day event, as Liz explains: “I have big
hopes for Harry and would like him to get up to
Advanced and CIC*** this year, so the CCI** is the
first step for his learning and
qualifications.”
In cold but clear weather Liz was drawn for an
8:45am Dressage and felt confident about their
chances. A nice start was soon marred by trouble in
the canter work of the test. Liz said: “ The
trot and walk work at the beginning of the test was
lovely, but when I went into canter and did my
first medium canter down the long side, Harry
suddenly got spooked and went totally nuts! From
then on I couldn’t get him anywhere near that
side of the dressage arena. It was very
disappointing and unexpected, and I was lucky to
get a qualifying score.”
It was later discovered that wild boar had been
in the woods to the side of the dressage area.
“Horses are known to be really funny with
pigs,” said Liz, “and just the smell is
enough to set them off. I guess I should be pleased
that there is at least an explanation for his
fright!”
After the Dressage, Liz just tried to focus on
completing the weekend with the necessary
qualifying result. On Cross Country day she was
really pleased with the horse, even though they had
to take a few long routes. “He was a good
boy,” said Liz. “Because we are still
learning each other and this is the biggest event
that he has done, we had a few steering issues on
occasion, and he also hung a leg into one
combination, meaning that I had to take the option
fence to ensure a clear round, but for the most
part I was really pleased and am confident with his
ability for the future.”
Show Jumping followed the Cross Country and
despite a good warm up, the horse had 4 rails down
in the competition arena. Luckily, this was still
within the parameters of qualifying, so Liz
completed the event with a result that she could
use for the future. Liz said: “ I was a bit
upset about having so many rails down on a horse
that I know is a good show jumper, but I know it
was a tough course and we are still learning each
other, so I think it is something we can work on
for the future. I let him get a bit flat in his
back and too quick at times which meant that he had
the rails down with his hind legs, but I think that
this is something that we can improve on before the
next competition.”
A qualifying score now secured, Liz is now
working toward her next big competition with Harry,
the Tweseldown CCI** May 25-28 in Hampshire,
England. She hopes this will give the horse enough
experience to move up to Advanced level at the
Gatcombe Park Horse Trials the first weekend of
August.
Racing Driver and
Equestrian, Liz Halliday, on Radio 5 Live!
Tune in to Radio 5 Live tomorrow morning, 10.15 UK
time to listen to racing driver and equestrian Liz
Halliday as she is interviewed by Eamonn
Holmes.
Liz is the most successful female driver in the
history of the American Le Mans Series with 4 class
wins within the past year, including victories at
the most prestigious events: Petit Le Mans and most
recently, the Sebring 12 Hours where she also
finished 2nd overall behind the factory Audi
team.
Liz’s international equestrian career is
equally important to her as she aims to one day
compete in the Olympics with the US team. After
returning from Sebring on 18th March, she and her
new horse, Harry, headed straight to Compiegne,
France, for their first international CCI** event
together on 6th-9th April
Liz is now back in the UK and is preparing for
her next two motor racing events (Houston Grand
Prix on 12th May and Mid-Ohio on 21st May) with
Intersport Racing.
Her next equestrian event will be the Tweseldown
CCI** on 25th / 28th May in Hampshire, England.
You can listen to BBC Radio 5 Live in the UK on
909 & 693 Medium Wave, on digital television
through Freeview, satellite and cable (Freeview:
channel 705, Satellite: channel 0105, NTL: channel
863 and Telewest: channel 905) or on line:
www.bbc.co.uk/fivelive
Intersport Still Relishing
'Enormous" Sebring Win
Intersport Racing's Lola B05/40-AER had a
monumental outing at Sebring last month. In the
offseason, Clint Field always said his Intersport
Racing crew wasn't going to back down from Penske
Racing and its factory Porsche effort in the
American Le Mans Series' LMP2 class.
Then, as if to prove a point, the Ohio-based
privateer team not only beat both Penske Porsches
at the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring but also
posted a runner-up finish in the 54th running of
America's oldest sports car race.
It was the highest finish ever for a P2 car at
Sebring with only Audi's new diesel-powered R10 TDI
LMP1 completing more laps. Sports car racing's
version of David and Goliath turned out to be one
of the biggest early season stories of the
Series.
"It was pretty huge. I don't think it has sunk
in yet," said Liz Halliday, who drove with Clint
and Jon Field in the No. 37 Lola B05/40-AER at
Sebring. "What the team has accomplished is
enormous. I don't think anyone expected us to
finish that high. It will probably take up until
Houston for me to realize what exactly
happened."
Perfect pit stops and reliability turned out to
be the difference. While the two Porsches spent
significant time in the pits, the Intersport team
performed flawlessly and the Lola had only a couple
of minor issues. It was exactly the kind of effort
the team knew it needed.
"We have the best crew in the paddock," Halliday
said. "We were all completely switched on. Our pit
stops were perfect, and that's what wins races.
Even though we don't have 87 people per car like
they do, we don't need it."
Source: americanlemans.com/News/Article.aspx?ID=1908
Intersport beat Porshe to
Claim Class Win and Second Overall in the 54th
Runnings of the 12 Hours of Sebring
The privateer Intersport Racing team, consisting of
Jon Field, Clint Field and Liz Halliday, enjoyed a
perfect start to the 2006 American Le Mans Series
yesterday when they beat the mighty Porsche factory
team to LMP2 class victory in the 54th running of
the Sebring 12 Hours; while at the same time
finishing a hugely impressive 2nd overall to the
awesome new Audi R10.
Intersport owner and lead driver, Jon Field was
forced to start from the back of the grid,
following a puncture on his out lap in qualifying.
Nevertheless, Jon, Clint and Liz drove a storming
race to scythe through the pack taking the lead of
the LMP2 class just two hours into the race. During
the fourth hour, they benefited from the retirement
of one of the works Audi’s to move up to
second overall whilst first in class. They held
that position comfortably until the middle of the
tenth hour when the Porsche overtook them for the
lead. The Intersport drivers kept their cool and
had their faith rewarded when, with 22 laps to go,
their Porsche rival stopped on the track with
mechanical problems. Intersport duly reclaimed the
lead and Liz Halliday took the car to the finish to
score the team’s best ever win.
After his exceptional drive, Jon Field said:
“I made a good start from the back of the
grid, overtaking as many people as possible but
making sure I stayed out of trouble at the same
time! It was an awesome race and I enjoyed every
minute of it! We drove our own race and we played
catch up with the number 1 Porsche all day. In the
end, they broke down trying to catch us. This is a
great win, probably the best that we’ve ever
had as a team. Liz also became the highest placing
woman driver ever at Sebring, beating Lynn St James
who had managed fifth overall in the past. We did
not have a trouble free race! We had some engine
issues from the seventh hour and every time we came
into the pits, AER engineers would download a new
mapping but it did not make any difference. We
think that problems started when Clint was forced
to go off the track at high speed when the Audi
spun in front of him. We think that some dirt got
into the injectors. Nevertheless, we made it to the
finish and the pleasure is even stronger!”
Jon’s son and team mate Clint Field added:
“At the beginning of the race, the weather was
so hot and the track so greasy that we decided to
be careful and make sure we looked after the car
and did not damage it. With the exception of a
scary moment avoiding a spinning Audi our plan
worked out and we were ready to push hard when dusk
arrived. We tried everything we could to keep the
Porsche behind but we had picked up a misfire and
they finally got by towards the end of the race. We
continued to push hard and then they broke down as
we were racing them. It was a great day and I am
delighted for the team, Jon and Liz. We now need to
capitalize on this result for the next race in
Houston on 13th May. To win our class and finish
second overall behind the works Audi team is a
major achievement and this is my personal best ever
overall finish in the ALMS. I would like also to
thank Goodyear - they gave us great tyres this
weekend and hopefully they can continue to do so
throughout the year. We should get some softer
compounds for Houston and hopefully they will be as
good as the tyres we had today.”
Jon and Clint’s team mate Liz Halliday
concluded the day by saying: “This is a magic
day for the team and I want to applaud Jon and
Clint for doing such an awesome job in giving
Porsche a run for their money. It wasn’t an
easy drive today, but I loved every second of it
– and what an honour to drive the car to the
chequered flag in the final stint of the race. The
team and the mechanics worked hard all week and
they really deserve this result. Today we beat
Porsche fair and square which, as a privateer team,
is a major achievement.”
Liz’s result is the highest ever finish for
a female driver in the history of the Sebring 12
Hours and she also holds the highest number of wins
for female drivers in the ALMS.
Puncture Halts
Intersport's Challenge for LMP2 Pole Position at
Sebring
Jon Field’s qualifying was abruptly stopped on
his out lap when his left front tyre deflated with
a puncture. The Intersport Racing lead driver drove
back to the pits but was forced to abandon the
session due to a regulation that states ‘no
tyre changes allowed under any
circumstances’.
As he got out of the car, Jon Field said:
“What a shame for the team and the fans! I
couldn’t even drive a single flying lap. The
bad news is that we will be starting from the back
of the grid on Saturday morning; the good news is
that it should be a good show for the fans as I
will be overtaking as many cars as I can to get
back to the front where we belong. We proved
yesterday that we have a very good chassis, engine
and tyre package and I was looking forward to a
strong battle with the two Porsches for LMP2 pole
position. It was not meant to be today and we will
have to do the talking in race conditions
now!”
Jon’s team mate Liz Halliday added:
“It is a shame that Jon couldn’t do a
single flying lap, but that’s motor racing for
you! We are well prepared as a team and we should
have a strong race. Jon will make the start, then
Clint will take over and I will join for the third
stint. We will all start with single stints so that
we all get a good rhythm and then we will are
planning to double sting depending on the way the
race unfolds. I am very pleased with the car and
the set-up that we have and I look forward to a fun
race.”
Clint Field said: “We are confident for the
race. This year will be different to last year for
us as we have been racing the Lola for a year now.
We know the car inside-out and we have a fast,
reliable package. If I know Jon, he will be back to
the front pretty quickly after the start. The race
will be challenging this year the competition is
really tough with many strong cars, teams and good
drivers.
The Intersport Racing team will now prepare for
a night practice session this evening, followed by
a practice session tomorrow, the race warm-up on
Saturday morning, and then the start of the
‘Sebring 12 Hours’ at precisely 10:43
local time.
Halliday's 2006 Season is
Go!
The Californian sportswoman, Liz Halliday, whose
endeavours include both race car driving and Three
Day Eventing, will kick off her intensive 2006
sporting schedule next weekend when she competes in
the opening round of the American Le Mans Series:
the Mobil 1, Twelve Hours of Sebring , to be held
in Florida on March 18th.
British-based Liz enjoyed tremendous success in
the American Le Mans Series last year where, in her
first season of international sportscar racing at
‘prototype’ level, she claimed three
impressive P2 class wins, finished 4th in class in
the final drivers’ standings, won the
Dailysportscar.com Rookie of the Year Award and
helped co-driver Clint Field lift the LMP2
drivers’ title.
This will be Liz’s second appearance in the
Sebring 12 Hours and she will use her previous
experience to ensure absolute preparation:
“A lot of things have changed since this
time last year,” said Liz, “and I’ll
be heading into this season better prepared than
ever before. For a start, I know the car intimately
now and have enjoyed a lot of success in it –
it feels like an old friend who I’m hugely
comfortable with, whereas a year ago I was just
tentatively making my first steps into
‘prototypes’ and it was a massive
jump.
“Secondly, I now know the team very well
and there’s a great dynamic between us.
I’ve been working really hard on my driving
and I’m closer than ever before to the pace of
my co-drivers, Clint and Jon Field – both of
whom are proven hot-shoes at this level!
“Finally, I’m a little more used to
the pressure and enormity of events like these.
When you first go to places like Sebring or Le Mans
you can’t help but be blown away by the size
of the crowds and the big fanfare that accompanies
the race. Events like these will always be a big
challenge, but I just feel more prepared for it
now.”
This Sunday, Liz will arrive at the famous
Floridian race track straight from Portugal, where
she has been pursuing her other major sporting
career as an international equestrian. So tight is
her schedule that she has had to request special
permission to go first in the show jumping section
of her International Three Day Event, so that she
has enough time to catch her flight from Lisbon to
Orlando!
“It doesn’t really worry me, the tight
schedule” said a typically calm Liz,
“I’m more than used to it now – and
really love being busy. Everyone tells me that I am
mad to have this twin sporting focus in my life,
but I find that one complements the other. The cars
demand focus, accuracy, and strength. The horses
require the same, but with a lighter touch. One is
a machine that is purely technical, while the bond
between horse and rider is a unique
relationship,” she adds.
Despite the challenge of competing in both
sports simultaneously, Liz is equally determined to
succeed both as a driver and an equestrian –
and if last year’s success on the track is
anything to go by, then Liz’s future in 2006
and beyond looks very bright indeed.
Stand By For Sebring -
2006!
ALMS front-runner Liz Halliday will be the special
guest on Midweek Motorsport this Wednesday at 8pm
UK time. Liz has just announced a full season of
LMP 2 partnering former Champion Clint Field in the
ALMS and will be adding the 24 Hours of Le Mans to
her busy racing schedule.
Midweek Motorsport one of the live show and
events covered by GlobeCast Radio. The station,
launched in September 2004, is the only motorsport
and automotive biased service in the UK.
Broadcasting 24-hours and day, free-to-air to 11.5
million homes via Sky Digital channel 907 and
across the world via the Internet at
www.radiolemans.com the channel has quickly
established itself as the home of motoring
broadcasting for an English-speaking audience.
Liz will be joining Radio Le Mans and ALMS Radio
regular John Hindhaugh who is the presenter of the
show. "It's great to have Liz as a studio guest"
said Hindhaugh. "Quite often we can only speak to
the stars on the phone, having Liz in means we can
take emails, text messages and even phone calls
from our listeners."
John is encouraging fans to get their questions
in early - email is the best way -
studio@radiolemans.com or by telephoning from
around 7pm UK time on the night +44 (0) 20 7753
3636. There will be prizes for some listeners!
Recent Midweek Motorsport guests have included
F1 stars Mark Webber and Michael Schumacher, Head
of Prodrive (and WRC rights holder) David Richards,
ChampCar supremo Kevin Kalkovan and stars from the
world of sportscars including Le Mans winners Tom
Kristenson, Allan McNish and Guy Smith.
On average GlobeCast attracts a weekly satellite
audience of around 100,000, however live event
coverage can attract more than half of that in a
single day.
Over 20,000 international listeners tune in live
each week. These figures are boosted by the
thousands of enthusiasts who use the
‘Podcast’ archive. Listeners can download
programmes on demand to computers or MP3 players
allowing them to hear their favourite station whist
in the gym, the car, indeed wherever they are.
Like the satellite audience, Internet listener
figures increase substantially during live event
coverage. During the live broadcast of Le Mans 24
Hours 2005, throughout Saturday and Sunday there
were an average of 63,000 individuals logged on to
the live coverage at any given time. Globecast
broadcast extensive coverage of every ALMS event.
Practice, qualifying and the whole race is
exclusively live. In addition the station covers
every British Rally Championship round, the UK WRC
event, Wales Rally GBand reports on a host of
national and international motorsport.
Globecast is free to air on Sky Channel 907,
available 24-7 via the Internet at www.radiolemans.com
and live shows are archived for
'download-on-demand' by searching for 'Globecast'
at www.iTunes.com and other podcasting sites such
as www.podcast.net
Encouraging Sebring Test
for Liz Halliday and the Intersport Team
The UK-based American sportswoman Liz Halliday
enjoyed a successful official test as she prepares
for the 54th Annual 12 Hours of Sebring, completing
three days at the circuit in the LMP2 Intersport
Racing AER Lola. She shared the driving with Clint
Field, whom she will partner throughout the 2006
American Le Mans Series, as well as Clint’s
father and team owner Jon, who will also drive at
Sebring.
The test began with Liz topping the time sheets
for the first morning session. She explains:
“There were several new cars there, including
the Audi R10s and the Lola LMP1 and they were
shaking down to start with. I thought that it was
quite funny, being quicker than the brand new works
Audis!”
Despite this early incentive, there was much
work to do in preparation for the opening round of
the ’06 ALMS season. “The AER Lola is
fundamentally the same specification as we used
last year but with a couple of developments carried
out over the winter,” explains Liz. “What
we wanted to achieve at the test was to come away
with a set-up that will give us a quick car that is
as easy to drive as possible for the long race.
“During the test, we made a range of
changes to various aspects of the car and made a
lot of improvements over the three days.” In
fact, the Intersport Racing Lola stayed at or close
to the top of the time sheets throughout the
test.
“Although we made good progress, there are
limits to what we could achieve at the circuit. So
now, the crew will continue with the development of
the car when they get back to the workshop and
introduce a few more changes, including a new
aerodynamics package from Lola. So I’m
positive that by the time we get to the start, we
will have a quick, well-handling and reliable race
car.
“In terms of lap times, I was quite pleased
with the test. I ended up just 0.5 seconds off
Clint’s laps, which was closer than I’ve
been before and closer to where I hoped to
be,” said Liz.
But it wasn’t just car settings and racing
lines that would prove beneficial from the test.
The Sebring circuit is particularly demanding and
understanding the physical loads on the driver is
as important as those on the car.
Liz explains: “Sebring is a tough track;
it’s very fast and bumpy and incredibly
physical. I realised that I need to improve my
endurance and upper body strength for the race, and
I want to make sure I am as well prepared as I can
be. So I have been speaking to a trainer and have
worked out a fitness plan to achieve this between
now and the race.
“It’s exactly this kind of thing that
you need to figure out at Sebring. It can make a
real difference to how you feel and how you
perform.”
Despite the arduous nature of the event,
Halliday is looking forward to the race:
“Sebring is unique because of its years of
history and heritage, but also because of its
bumpy, high speed corners and the technical nature
of the circuit. Doing the 12 Hours of Sebring is
harder than a 24 Hour race, like Le Mans, I think.
A lot of people find it the toughest event of the
year but that’s all part of what makes it
special. And after this test, I’m very excited
and looking forward to being back in the car with
Clint and Jon for the race.”
Interview
You have a background in riding - is there a
link between riding and cars?
LH : "I'm still competing in three-day eventing
-both last weekend and next weekend ! I'd like to
make the 2008 Olympic team - that is definitely my
goal. I'm trying to do both riding and driving this
year, so it's a very busy schedule. But I seem to
have found a way to separate it in my mind and it
is not too difficult to swap between the two. I
spend every hour when I'm not at the track, at the
yard. The two are similar - I think it's something
to do with the weight shift, and balance, and the
accuracy. Judging distances for jumps is quite
similar to the way you go into a corner.
How do you see the current situation of women
in motorsport ? Is the situation improving
?
LH : "You don't grow up as a young girl with
your family suggesting you try motorsport. But I
think it's coming up, especially with things like
Formula Woman which I am working for this year.
There are a lot of women who want to race. But they
don't know how to start. They feel in the dark and
behind the men. There are quite a few girls in
karting and the lower formulae, but not that many
in GTs so far. But it is changing. Lilian's been
there, she's really good, but we don't know how
good Liz is, without giving me a chance to prove.
This is my first year in GT1 cars, I won't be at
the front of the grid. You have to spend longer
building up a reputation than a man would in a
similar situation."
What about this season ?
LH : Spa was a great race for me too, it was
really special to finish the race in the Autorlando
Porsche. I hope this year will be good, as it's my
favourite circuit in Europe. Our aim for this year
is to keep working on the car, aiming for the
podium. The car is very good, the competition is
tough, but we need to keep on working. The Lister
is a nice car to drive, when you get used to the
fact that you can't see. Laurence Pearce has been
very supportive; I am very much the rookie driver
this year. But it's looking good.
Any final words to girls out there who are
thinking about getting started ?
LH : There is support from organisation and
other women out there. So be determined, get out
there and find the help. It is do-able.
Liz Halliday Heads East for
Season Finale
Following her recent race in Zhuhai, China, Liz
Halliday continues her world tour with the FIA GT
Championship, discovering new countries and tracks
on the way. This time, the 26-year old American
heads to the Middle East, for the last two rounds
of the 2005 FIA GT Championship in Dubai and
Bahrain. The GT circus will be returning to the
Dubai Autodrome between 16th and 18th November and
a week later (23rd-25th November), it will move for
the first time to Bahrain where a ‘GT
Festival’ was organised in 2004.
Lister driver Liz Halliday is delighted to
discover these new circuits and countries. Halliday
said: “I have never been to this part of the
world before and I am looking forward to it. Winter
is fast approaching in Europe, so it is going to be
great to spend some time in the sun, away from the
British gloom! Saying that, high temperatures can
make it hard work in the car, especially with Nomex
underwear, overalls, gloves, boots, balaclavas and
helmet on! I have been riding a lot and preparing
in the gym as well as one can do in the British
climate but I’m sure it will still be hard
work once I arrive!”
Dubai and Bahrain will be the last two races of
the year for the American Sportswoman, after an
extremely busy 2005 season. Liz commented:
“2005 has been a great year for me. I have
raced and learned a lot, in the American Le Mans
Series, the FIA GT Championship, the Le Mans 24
Hours and also the Britcar/Silverstone 24 Hours in
the UK. The racing experience I have gained since
the beginning of the year is invaluable and I now
have a strong foundation for next year’s
programmes.”
It is also a hectic time of year for the Lister
team, with all the required equipment traveling
straight from Zhuhai to Dubai. Liz Halliday said:
“This is a busy period for the team who will
be racing the LMP1 car at Vallelunga near Rome this
Saturday before flying to Dubai! I hope that luck
will be on our side this time and that we can
finish the season with two strong results for
Lister.”
Liz continued: “These two races will also
be new ones for the Lister team, so it will be a
learning curve for all of us. I have heard good
things about these two circuits. They look
interesting and challenging and they both have
large asphalt run-offs, which can only help in an
endurance race. So we’re crossing our fingers
for these two events, as I would love to end the GT
season on a high.”
Although racing is the top priority of
Liz’s programme in the Middle East, she is
also excited about discovering two new countries:
“My schedule this year, between motor racing
and horse riding, has been so hectic that I am
looking forward to a few days off in Dubai, with my
team-mate Justin Keen, in between the two
races.”
The 5.39km track at the Dubai Autodrome is one
of the most modern in the world; it is also one of
the most challenging, with its combination of
high-speed straights and technical corners. The
layout, which contains six different
configurations, is designed to allow three circuits
to operate simultaneously, safely and independently
from each other. The result presents circuit users
with unparalleled options.
The 5.417 km Bahrain circuit, which hosted its
first Grand Prix in 2004, is located in the south
of the country, in Sakhir, 30 minutes from the
airport. It was designed by the famous circuit
specialist Hermann Tilke, and provides teams and
fans with modern facilities and hi-tech amenities.
The circuit design is unique, as it comprises six
individual tracks, four of which can be used at the
same time. The Grand Prix circuit uses both the
Outer and Inner tracks, and features 16 corners.
One of its characteristics, which can have a large
influence on the cars’ set-up, are the nearby
desert sands, which can blow across the circuit
itself and reduce the cars’ grip.
TV coverage: Please visit www.eurosport.com
for more information
Liz Halliday Ends Alms
Season on a High as Intersport Claims Team
Championship Victory
Liz Halliday and Intersport Racing continued their
impressive performance in the 2005 American Le Mans
Series (ALMS), overcoming hurdles on a challenging
final race of the season at Laguna Seca,
California, with Intersport clinching the Team
Championship and team-mate Clint Field wrapping up
the LMP2 class Drivers Championship.
Liz and regular team-mate Clint Field were once
again joined by Clint’s father and team owner
Jon Field and the Halliday/Flint partnership
continued its successful journey. Engine troubles
during qualifying meant the Intersport Racing
Lola-AER started the race from the back of the
grid, leaving the trio an even bigger challenge
ahead. But Jon took control of the wheel initially
and powered through the field to reach seventh by
lap six and second in class. Liz took over to
continue the hot pace and by the end of the second
hour of the four-hour race, Clint had brought the
Lola-AER LMP2 even further up the order.
But the Intersport machine suddenly hit trouble
as there were problems with a battery cable,
forcing it into the pits where it remained for the
best part of half an hour while the team anxiously
worked to rectify the problem. Liz Halliday
explained: ‘The team worked so hard to find
the problem and we were in the pits for ages. What
was difficult was knowing that we had to complete
70% of the race in order for Clint to be able to
win the Drivers’ championship and everyone was
very conscious of that for every minute we were in
the pits. But the team did a stirling job and got
us back out there so we could finish the job we set
out to do: to help Clint take the LMP2
Drivers’ title.’
Thinking about the race, Liz said: ‘As
Laguna Seca is so close to home it was great to
have my family here and one of my friends who I
haven’t seen in two years drove down to
support me as well, which makes the race even more
special. Compared to the last race at Petit Le Mans
where we won, this race was more of a challenge but
I guess that makes our overall success taste even
more sweet. It’s an awesome track and even
though we only finished fifth in class I was happy
that we completed the race as I didn’t manage
that last year.’
Despite having only contested five races of the
10-race series, Liz Halliday’s three ALMS
victories with Clint counted heavily towards her
own drivers’ points tally which put her in a
well deserved sixth overall in the Drivers’
standings. ‘I’m surprised that I’ve
finished so high up the standings but I’m
really happy I have! At the beginning of 2005 I
truly didn’t expect to get the opportunity to
drive an LMP2 prototype, let alone compete in Le
Mans but I’ve been very lucky this
year.’
Clint Field took the Drivers’ title 22
points clear of nearest rivals, team-mates Jamie
Bach and Guy Cosmo of B-K Motorsports. The young
American finished the season with five victories in
the Intersport Racing Lola-AER, the most of any
driver in the class. Halliday’s delighted
team-mate Clint Field said ‘This is a good
year to say the least. I came close to the
championship on the other ones but it was a tough
year for us with problems ranging from gearbox
issues to a fire at Road America, and they are
difficult issues to overcome for a small team like
ours. We only have two full-time employees and
seven or eight team members in total. For this race
we really just did what we planned, which was just
to run enough laps. We wanted to compete with
Penske [Porsche] but after the first stint
we knew we really couldn’t match their pace. I
think this is the best fifth place finish
we’ve ever had!’
Echoeing her team-mate’s thoughts, Liz
added ‘Intersport are an awesome team to work
with and the crew dealt with issues better than
anyone in that pit lane would have done. I know
it’s always the drivers who are seen to be
winning races but the team has certainly helped us
take a lot of our good results this season and I
raise my hat to them.’
I have learned a huge amount this year,’
said the 26-year-old Californian, reflecting on the
season. ‘I was given a great opportunity and
we’ve had some great results but it’s
actually quite depressing reaching the end of a
season you have really enjoyed. Now we’re in
discussions for plans for 2006. Personally I would
love the opportunity to drive an LMP2 car in ALMS
again as I’ve learned so much and it’s
been very enjoyable, it’s an excellent
championship and it would be great for my parents
to be able to see me race more. I’m hoping for
the opportunity to drive at Le Mans again next year
and I’m also planning a competitive year in
equestrian eventing, my other passion, and strange
though it may sound, the two sports complement each
other perfectly.’
With no time to spare in her busy schedule, Liz
now jumps on a plane to China for the first of the
last three rounds of the 2005 FIA GT Championship
in Zhuhai with the Lister Storm team October 23,
2005.
Liz Halliday Aims to End
Alms Season on a High
After her Petit le Mans victory last week, American
sportswoman Liz Halliday is aiming for another
victory at the wheel of her Lola-AER LMP2 prototype
with Intersport Racing, to end the season on a high
and clinch the Drivers’ title for team-mate
Clint Field.
Heading into the final round of the American Le
Mans series season, Liz Halliday comments:
“I’ve had a great time in the ALMS this
year and taken three wins. I really hope that Clint
and I can win our fourth race of the season
together which will make sure Clint wins the
Drivers’ Championship. He leads by 22 points
but it’s not over yet and anything can
happen.”
Remembering the last race, the 26-year-old Liz
said: “Petit Le Mans was a great achievement
for Jon Field, Clint Field and I so we want to
continue the good work and finish the season on a
high. As it is a four hour race Jon will be back
with us and he is a great asset to the team. We
know each other well and we work well
together.”
“The Lola AER car is very fast, as we
proved again at Petit Le Mans, and we should be
fighting at the front,” Halliday added.
“The great news is that the Porsche LMP2 works
team will be there for their first race and it will
be interesting to see how we compare to them as
they prepare for their assault on the 2006
championship. They’ll be our biggest
competition I think and it will be ideal if we can
beat them.”
Looking forward to heading back to home ground,
the Californian said: “I have been to Laguna
Seca before as I raced there last year in the GT2
class with the Porsche of the PK Racing team. It
was a good race even though the differential failed
with an hour still to go, but on such a difficult
race the two stints I drove were useful experience
to take back there this year.”
“I can’t wait to discover the circuit
again but this time at the wheel of a competitive
prototype,” said Liz. “The main
difference is that the LMP2 is a much quicker car
with a lot more down force. It should be awesome
with the Lola AER, especially on corners like the
cork screw!”
For a sportsperson who lives in the UK and
spends the lion’s share of her time competing
in Europe, Liz is looking forward to being able to
race in front of a home crowd: “I’m
excited to be racing in front of my family who will
be there this year. Most of my family lives in San
Francisco but they will make the trip south. I love
Monterey, it is a great town and it’s always a
pleasure to go back there. I’m travelling to
California from the UK early as I have some press
commitments the week before but it is a great track
that I really enjoy going back to each year. With
the added bonus of racing in front of my family, it
will be a great atmosphere and a very special
moment for me.”
Liz was back in action this weekend with her
other passion, three-day eventing, for an important
three-star equestrian event in Boekelo, Holland. As
the only American competitor of 120 from 24
nations, she and her horse ‘Foxy’ were
happy to be among the 84 riders who completed the
event. “It was a great event considering my
horse is young and relatively inexperienced and
quite daunting considering it’s a selection
trial for the World Games,” said Liz. “We
arrived back from Holland at four o’clock this
morning and I’m now about to jump on a plane
to California for this weekend’s
race.”
Laguna Seca is the most spectacular permanent
racing circuit on the West Coast of America. It is
3.602 kilometers long with eleven turns running
anti-clockwise and is hidden away in a natural bowl
in the hills which overlook Monterey Bay. It is two
hours drive south of San Francisco but the
beautiful and rugged Monterey Peninsular provides a
wonderful place to spend some time in quaint
Carmel, along Cannery Row or in among the cypress
trees at Pebble Beach and along Seventeen Mile
Drive. Laguna Seca is conveniently located halfway
between Monterey and Salinas on Highway 68.
Victory for Liz Halliday at
Petit le Mans
Liz Halliday and Intersport have continued their
impressive performance in the 2005 American Le Mans
Series (ALMS), winning the LMP2 class of the blue
ribbon Petit Le Mans endurance race with flying
colours.
Liz and regular team-mate Clint Field were
joined by Clint’s father and team owner Jon
Field and the Halliday/Flint partnership continued
its successful path. The Intersport Racing Lola-AER
car was the class of the LMP2 field during the week
and started the race from class pole position. Jon
Field was at the wheel and following a first lap
accident involving some of the leading LMP1 cars,
the Intersport machine was running an impressive
second overall and first in class for most of the
first half of the 10-hour/1000 mile race. Clint
took over from Jon’s first stint and then Liz
was on board for her first stint, the car still
lying second overall and first in class.
As Liz was reaching the end of her stint, the
GT1 Maserati spun right in front of her in turn
ten. Liz Halliday said: “I got in the car
after Jon and Clint had done their first stints. It
was running well and amazingly we were in second
position overall, ahead of most of the LMP1 cars. I
had a good first stint despite difficult track
conditions with a lot of debris and traffic. The
objective was to maintain our second position
overall and first in class but at the same time
making sure we didn’t make any mistakes that
would jeopardise the race which was very important
for the team and for Clint in the Drivers’
Championship.
“As I was coming to the end of my first
stint I was right behind the Maserati, up its
bumper and ready to overtake it, when it spun in
front of me at the exit of turn ten,”
continued Halliday. “Despite quickly yanking
the wheel to the right, I could not avoid contact
and we collided. There was a big noise and I was
worried that my car was damaged. In a split second,
I decided to go straight back into the pits and get
the boys to check the front end of the car. The
front splitter was slightly damaged but nothing
major, so I was able to carry on for a while longer
before Jon jumped in the car for a double stint as
planned.”
Although the final result might have looked like
an easy cruise for car number 37, the team had a
few engine issues during the race which makes the
victory even sweeter. Liz described what happened:
“We started to have turbo problems with an
over boost – putting the car into safety mode
- quite early in the race, but it sorted itself
out. Then we had an issue with the engine
management system which worsened during my second
stint and I was down on power. I had to keep
swapping the mapping of the engine around, so that
the car kept going and that isn’t easy when
you are racing and overtaking other cars at the
same time! After Jon took over for his final stint,
the team decided to change the coils and plugs, and
this seemed to improve the car.”
An ecstatic Liz Halliday said: “This result
is fantastic and I am delighted for my team-mates
and the team. Petit Le Mans is a major event and to
win it on my first attempt in a prototype is pretty
special. It was a tough race, really tough, and we
were under pressure as we needed a good result for
the 2005 Championship. We were running second or
third overall for most of the race and we only
really dropped to fifth overall when we decided to
change the coils and plugs. With this new win,
Clint now leads the Drivers’ Championship by
22 points. It’s not over yet however; the
title will be decided at Laguna Seca in a
fortnight. This win also secures an LMP2 entry to
Intersport Racing for the 2006 Le Mans 24 Hours,
which is great news for the future.”
Jon Field said after the race: “That was a
lot of fun, the car was fast and the problems we
had at the end gave us a bit of a fright but
I’m really delighted with that.”
Clint Field added: “That was a great race
and we had very few problems. The car was fast, all
three drivers were fast and the Lola is now looking
like a real endurance car.”
Liz Halliday’s busy schedule continues
despite her win. No time for celebrations as she
flew back to the UK on Sunday and went straight to
Holland on Monday for an important three star
three-day equestrian event in Boekelo.
Liz concluded: “I will go straight home
from Gatwick, swap my bags and then leave again for
Holland. This is the first time that I will take my
horse ‘Foxy’ to this level of competition
and it will be the second time I’ll ride at
this level. So it is an important competition for
both of us! As soon as I get back from Holland, I
will fly to Laguna Seca in California for the last
round of the ALMS championship.”
Monterey Sports Car Championships Fri,
10/14/2005 - Sun, 10/16/2005 provides a dramatic
conclusion to the 2005 season with a Saturday
afternoon-into-evening four-hour race featuring the
season finale for the prestigious American Le Mans
Series. The series features Le Mans prototypes and
GT cars, many of which compete in the world-famous
24 Hours of Le Mans. www.laguna-seca.com
For more information, please visit: www.lizhalliday.com
www.intersportracing.com
,
www.americanlemans.com
,www.roadatlanta.com
For further information on Liz Halliday, please
contact Vincent Franceschini: M: + 44 (0) 7860 410
950, T: + 44 (0) 20 8543 2101, F: + 44 (0) 20 8543
4134, or vincent@pole.uk.com
Source: www.lizhalliday.com
Photo by John Waugh johnwaugh.com
WomenInRacing.org
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