A Win, A Class Victory and Plenty of Drama.
Estoril · September 2026
Legacy Outlaws Racing headed to Estoril for the penultimate round of the Peter Auto season with a slightly different driver line-up, as Portuguese driver Gonçalo Gomes stepped in for Chris Ward alongside Jan Magnussen in the Lola T292, while Jan would take on the Lola T70 MkIIIb solo.
It proved to be a weekend that had a little bit of everything – impressive pace, a couple of unexpected fire-extinguisher tests, some fantastic wheel-to-wheel racing and, ultimately, two excellent results for the team.
Friday – Wet Track, Strong Pace
Friday brought a very different Paul Ricard. Temperatures were still reaching around 25°C, but the circuit was wet.
First out was the T70 and the signs were immediately encouraging. It topped the practice timesheets with a 2:32.143, ahead of Bruno Pereira and Charlie Hyatt on a 2:35.474.
Things were starting to look very good.
The T292 was out later in the day, with Chris taking the wheel first. He was fastest during the early part of the session before the heavens opened and he brought the car back into the pits.
There was simply no point taking unnecessary risks in a practice session.
Jan waited in the car in case conditions improved, but with nothing to gain from running in the heavy rain, the decision was made to stay in the pits. Most importantly, the repaired gearbox had been tested and everything was working exactly as it should.
The session eventually continued as the circuit dried, allowing others to improve their times and leaving the T292 fifth on the final timesheets.
The important thing was that we had two healthy cars ready for qualifying.
CER2 – Lola T292
With Gonçalo joining the Outlaws for his home round, Thursday's testing was his first opportunity to drive the T292. He settled into the car remarkably quickly and by Friday practice the pace was already there, with the T292 finishing the session fastest.
Qualifying confirmed just how competitive the combination would be.
Jan produced a 1:40.68, with Gonçalo recording a 1:42.26, putting the pair third overall on the combined grid. Ahead were Maxime Guenat, following an impressive 1:39.68, and Stéphane Nguyen.
There was, however, a small amount of unexpected drama during the session.
Gonçalo accidentally deployed the car's onboard fire extinguisher. Not exactly part of the qualifying programme, but on the plus side it provided a very thorough test of the system – and we can confirm it worked extremely well!
The team set about sourcing and installing a replacement ahead of the race. Enter Ben...
During installation, the replacement system was accidentally triggered too.
Two fire extinguishers. Zero fires.
Once the dramas were finally over, attention turned to the race.
Starting third, Gonçalo did an excellent job in the opening stint, hanging onto the leading cars despite the performance advantage of their larger DFV engines, while our T292 continued to punch above its weight with its little 2.0-litre engine.
The team's 35-second pit-stop penalty inevitably made the task considerably harder, but Gonçalo and Jan continued to push.
At the flag, the T292 came home fourth overall and first in the 2.0-litre class – remarkably, the only 2-litre car to finish on the lead lap and just eight seconds away from third overall.
A fantastic performance from Gonçalo on his debut weekend with Legacy Outlaws and a very strong result for the team.
Congratulations to the overall podium of Maxime Guenat, Stéphane Nguyen and Yves Scemama.
P4 Overall | P1 in Class
CER1 – Lola T70 MkIIIb
For Estoril, Jan would take on the T70 solo.
Testing highlighted a few relatively straightforward gearbox issues, but the team quickly identified and rectified them ahead of qualifying.
Then Jan went to work.
A blistering 1:42.760 put the Legacy Outlaws T70 on pole position, a clear 1.5 seconds ahead of the combined time of Gemperle/de Siebenthal and 1.6 seconds clear of Claudio Roddaro in the Porsche 917.
From pole, Jan immediately began to build an advantage.
By the time the scheduled pit stop approached, he had stretched the lead to almost 14 seconds. The team elected to bring him in fairly early in the pit window and everything went exactly to plan, including serving the additional 40-second professional-driver penalty.
Jan emerged from the pits in P15 on lap 15.
The charge back through the field began immediately.
By lap 20, the T70 was already back up to fourth when a safety car was called following an incident on track. After a couple of laps behind the safety car, the field was released – and what followed was one of the most entertaining moments of the weekend.
Jan and Claudio Roddaro went wheel-to-wheel in a fantastic battle for position, the T70 and Porsche 917 even rubbing bodywork as neither driver was prepared to give an inch.
Jan eventually came out on top and immediately began stretching the gap.
By lap 24, once the remaining pit stops had played out, the T70 was back in the lead.
From there, Jan continued to push and opened the advantage to around 13 seconds, bringing the Lola home for a clear overall victory.
P1 – Jan Magnussen / Legacy Outlaws Racing
P2 – Claudio Roddaro
P3 – Emile Breitmeyer
A superb result for Jan, the T70 and the entire Legacy Outlaws crew.
Estoril leaves us with plenty to smile about: an outright victory in CER1, a class victory and fourth overall in CER2, a brilliant debut with the team for Gonçalo – and two successfully tested fire-extinguisher systems!
Now there is just one weekend remaining.
Everything heads to Imola, 16–18 October, for the final round of the Peter Auto season – and the championship finale.
One last push. Let’s get to Imola.
BUILT ON HERITAGE. DRIVEN TO WIN.
