Pro-Am Podium finish for Cindy Gudet at Circuit Paul Ricard in Ligier European Series
- LIAM REDFORD
- May 4
- 6 min read
French racer Cindy Gudet acheived a ProAm class podium finish as she returned to the JS2 R class of the Ligier European Series at Circuit Paul Ricard, where the M Racing duo achieved a best result of third position in class.
French racer Cindy Gudet acheived a ProAm class podium finish as she returned to the JS2 R class of the Ligier European Series at Circuit Paul Ricard. Teaming up with Nathan Huet, the M Racing duo achieved a best result of third position in class, while securing a seventh-place overall finish in the JS2 R division during race two.
Gudet returned to the JS2 R class of the Ligier European Series for her home race at Circuit Paul Ricard. In the season opening event at Circuit de Barcelona, Gudet claimed a pair of ProAm class victories which achieving a highest finish of sixth overall in the JS P4 class. Driving alongside Danish racer August Therbo, the M Racing duo impressed on their first start in the top-level prototype category.
Gudet remained with M Racing as she switched back to a Ligier JS2 R machine alongside Nathan Huet for the second round of the championship. Now with extensive experience in this category, Gudet was aiming to once again fight for ProAm honours as she teamed up with her fellow French racer. At Circuit de Barcelona, Huet raced alongside Lawrence Herbots as they claimed a best finish of fifth overall in the JS2 R class.
Gudet brought extensive experience to the team having only last weekend competed in the opening round of the European Endurance Prototype Cup at Circuit Paul Ricard. From the opening practice session on Friday morning, Cindy was setting the pace in the #75 M Racing machine. Ending the session in third position within the JS2 R division, Gudet topped the times in the ProAm class with a fastest lap of a 2:17.408.
Free practice two followed on Friday afternoon with the M Racing duo completing a total of 14 laps with Gudet improving by four tenths of a second from her earlier time. The pair once again topped the ProAm class while setting the fifth fastest time within the overall JS2 R class with a quickest lap of a 2:17.032.
Qualifying rounded out Friday’s action with both sessions held back-to-back. Huet drove in the first session which was red flagged on three separate occasions. Following issues for Noah Rosser and Scott Marsh, the drivers were then able to complete one flying lap.
Huet set a quickest time of a 2:20.870 before Christian Garduno’s car stopped out on circuit with less than two minutes remaining, bringing a premature end to qualifying. Huet qualified in ninth position within the JS2 R division while setting the fourth fastest time in the ProAm class.
Gudet got behind the wheel for the second session which was held directly ahead. The lap times throughout the field improved significantly compared to free practice and the French racer also took a sizeable step forward. Setting her quickest lap of the event to date, Gudet’s fastest time of a 2:15.374 placed her in sixth position overall while claiming pole position in the ProAm class.
Race one at Circuit Paul Ricard took place on Saturday morning with Huet starting the car from ninth position in the JS2 R class, fourth within Pro/Am. It was a clean start for Huet who fell to the rear of the field at the end of the opening lap while he remained in contention with Martin Tabery ahead. On lap two, the yellow flags were displayed after the JS P4 machine of Scott Marsh had twice stopped out on circuit.
After briefly getting back up to speed, Marsh stopped for a third time which resulted in the safety car being deployed to retrieve his stricken Petrogold machine. The safety car period enabled Huet to catch the rear of the JS2 R field with the race resuming on lap seven.
On the restart lap, Huet set a personal best time as he looked to move forward from 11th position overall, fourth within the ProAm class. Huet did a nice job to stay out of trouble during his stint and unlike many of his rivals, the M Racing driver had not been warned for exceeding track limits.
On lap 11, Huet brought the Ligier JS2 R machine into the pits for the driver change with Gudet getting behind the wheel. It was a good stop by the M Racing crew and Gudet immediately passed the Veloso Motorsport machine of Jose Marreiros following the conclusion of the pit cycle with Cindy up to tenth overall, fourth in the ProAm class. Gudet’s pace in the early stages of her stint was strong as she quickly improved upon Huet’s fastest time from the first stint.
This enabled her to begin catching the Pegasus Racing machine of Jordan Meyer who was the next car directly ahead, however Gudet had a 15 second margin to overcome. On lap 16, Gudet ran a personal best time of a 2:18.993 before Marreiros began to close in. By the start of lap 19, the Portuguese racer was just a quarter of a second behind as the drivers battled for the final step on the ProAm class podium.
Gudet defended her position well before Marreiros made further inroads as the faster JS P4 cars began making their way trhough. After drawing level with Gudet down the back straight, Marreiros made a move on lap 21 with Cindy now in 11th position overall, fourth in ProAm.
Gudet remained within a second of Marreiros in the closing stages of the race before the JS2 R class leading car of Markus Terkildsen encountered a technical failure with just two minutes remaining. With fluid on the circuit and Terkildsen’s car requiring recovery, the race entered a safety car period and ended at a reduced pace with Gudet taking the chequered flag in 10th position overall following Terkildsen’s retirement, while securing a fourth-place finish in the ProAm class. Following a post-race penalty assessed to the #83 Trajectus Motorsport machine, Gudet and Huet were officially classified in ninth position overall.
Race two of the weekend was held later on Saturday with Gudet starting the race from sixth in the JS2 R class, while she led the way among the ProAm class entries. The M Racing driver made a superb start and used her experience to navigate a number of close battles around her to complete lap one in fourth position overall. Gudet also maintained her ProAm class lead and she held a comfortable margin over second-place driver Jose Marreiros.
On lap two, an incident behind Gudet at turn eight extended her margin further while she was now up to third position overall. By the end of lap three, Cindy was already lapping faster than in race one as she remained both fast and consistent. This allowed her to gain further time on Marreiros who was beginning to defend from a group of drivers behind who were engaged in a close fight for position.
Gudet continued to lap in the 2:17 range during the middle portion of the stint and by lap 10, her lead in the ProAm class reached six seconds. Daniel Dallakyan then began closing in on Gudet and this resulted in a good battle between the two drivers. After a good defence, Dallakyan made his way through on lap 12 and this coincided with the pit window opening. While some of her rivals pitted at the first opportunity, Gudet remained on the circuit for one additional lap before handing over to Huet on lap 13.
Another good stop saw Huet initially rejoin the race ahead of his class rivals before time was lost while the M Racing driver got up to speed. Following the conclusion of the pit cycle, Huet ran in eighth position overall, while holding down a ProAm class podium position in third spot. The margin to Huet’s nearest rival Pedro Marreiros stood at twenty seconds and therefore his main goal was to resist the challenge from the Veloso Motorsport driver.
Although Marreiros was slowly catching Huet, the Portuguese driver was handed a stop-and-go penalty with five minutes of the race remaining due to not respecting the minimum pit stop time. This was a good break for Huet who was also improving his pace and running some of his best times of the event to date.
As the race entered the closing stages, Markus Terkildsen encountered another technical issue and with his 23Events Racing machine coming to a halt, the safety car was deployed. The misfortune for Terkildsen promoted Huet to seventh position and with the race finishing behind the safety car, no further position changes were possible. Therefore, Gudet and Huet claimed a podium finish in the ProAm class to round out their weekend with a third-place result, while the duo finished in seventh position within the overall JS2 R class.
It was a positive end to the weekend for Gudet who did a nice job to readapt to the Ligier JS2 R machine. Gudet secured a class pole position in race one and she was consistently among the fastest bronze rated drivers. The next round of the Ligier European Series takes place at the legendary Circuit de la Sarthe on Sunday 7th June in support of the official 24 Hours of Le Mans test day.
