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Diesels have dominated Le Mans over the last few years so when I heard PistonHeads was supporting an oil-burner at this year’s Britcar24hr I started clearing some space in our trophy cabinet. What I wasn’t expecting was that the car in question was a rather old-looking diesel Golf, a MK4 in fact.

It doesn’t sound like the recipe for an all-conquering race car, so the best I could hope for was that Team Sporting Hornet had tuned the VW hatch to within an inch of its life. To find out what tricks it had up it sleeves, how many turbos, that sort of thing, I approached team boss Dan Wheeler.

‘Not much really, we wanted it to be pretty much standard so that it would be reliable,’ said Wheeler. Right. Luckily Wheeler was being a little sparing with the truth and the reality is the Golf had been lightened to 1060kg, power had been boosted to 186bhp, thanks to tweaked injectors, turbo, intercooler, inlet and exhaust. Oh, and it now has Audi S6 suspension parts.

At the wheel of the Golf would be Andy Hack, Tim Stanbridge, Nick Swift, and Wheeler. Because the car was a diesel the drivers could manage three-hour stints and this would give them time on the petrol cars. Team PH was in attendance – i.e. me and Garlick – and despite the fact fire duty or the title of ‘wheel man’ was on offer we decided that moral support would be a far better use of our time.

Hack set the fastest lap for the team and also the fastest in the group, with a time of 2’15.961, which was less than 20mph slower over the 3.198 mile long Silverstone circuit than the fastest lap of the day set by a Mosler GT3. I was starting to wonder whether I may have misjudged this little VW hatch. Other cars in the class were BMW 3 Series diesels and a VW Lupo that we had been assured could be hustled at an extraordinary rate.

Even though Britcar has a long way to go to match the atmosphere and crowds of an event like Le Mans (there was virtually no-one there), being inside a working pit is still suitably exciting. Just before the race I decided to head to one of the grandstands to catch the action, which turned out to be an almighty crash in a completely different area of the track.

Once numerous pace cars had been deployed the race finally began and with Team Sporting Hornet in 43rd position out of a field of 50, which was encouraging considering the other hardware on the track. Then Hack decided to show us what the car could do. While Garlick and I were put on essential duties such as sweeping the team garage, Hack was working his way up the field.

By the time he swapped over to Stanbridge, Team Sporting Hornet was 17th overall, having been at 12th at one point. Then disaster struck.

After an hour into Stanbridge’s stint, with a lead of three laps over the second placed Lupo, the Golf suffered CV joint failure, leaving the car stranded out on the circuit. 

By the time the Golf had been recovered to the pit and repaired, our three lap lead had become a four lap deficit. Stanbridge handed over a two lap deficit to Swift, who apart from getting tagged on the rear wheel when being overtaken by a faster car, had a trouble free session and handed over an 11 lap lead to Wheeler. Despite suffering chronic oversteer from the rearranged rear suspension geometry, an uneventful stint saw the team in 22nd overall at the halfway point.

Not only this but the car was 1st in class and enjoying an 11 lap advantage over the now second place BMW 330. Back in the car, Hack continued to lead the class throughout his stint and handed over to Stanbridge at 7.30am, having risen to 18th overall and maintained the commanding lead in class. 

Unfortunately two hours into his stint, the re-arranged rear suspension had had enough and the offside wheel decided to leave the car, taking caliper and hub assembly with it. Having communicated the extent of the damage back to the pits, Stanbridge was recovered, with the Golf carried back.  While the car was being returned the mechanics were grabbing bits off of a donor car and by the time the car was back in the garage, only 20 minutes were needed to fix it.

Soon it was time to send it back out with Swift on board.  Despite losing 18 laps to the nearest rival, the team was still leading its class, albeit by greatly reduced margin of two laps. It was up to Wheeler to maintain the advantage - and that’s exactly what he did.

The Lupo was never allowed to come back and after 24 hours of mayhem Wheeler brought the yellow and black Golf over the line first in its class and 18th overall, and this was its first ever race. The team was ecstatic and while I was relieved, it had come as no surprise. I always knew the Golf could do it…