Discussion
I've received this from Witt Gamski, and thought it was worth sharing.
3 Litres of oil and a windscreen wiper blade !
That was all we added and changed on the car throughout the gruelling 2010 Britcar 24hr race at Silverstone.
I will attempt to put into words all the emotions, hard work and everything it took to get to the event and ultimately win the race.
I received a telephone call from Keith on the morning of Tuesday 21st September advising me that I will receive another telephone call from John Gaw. Ok, an hour or so later John calls, asking me if we want to enter the Britcar 24hr race which was to take place in ten days time! Well, at first my reply was no, not enough time to prepare among other things. By the end of that same day, we decided to go for it.
Panic stations, Neil Cooke threatened to leave the country, Darren Handley just went silent, Peter Livesey just smiled and shouted ' YES' .
Cristiano Michelotto told us we are absolutely crazy, although he said ' I love crazy ' and gave us all the possible advise he could to get us to the race, Cristiano also sent us a small package containing minor parts he felt were necessary for reliability, these being front light brackets, accelerator cable, oil filters. Also, his strict advise to our crew was ' stop talking and get to work on the car! ' They did just that and the car was ready for the Thursday 30th September testing. And, very importantly, we had to postpone Agis (my wife) mums birthday party after all the arrangements were made. Luckily, they are both great fans and I didn't get into trouble!
On Thursday morning, John Gaw, Phil Dryburgh, Keith Robinson, Sam, crew and friends were at Silverstone. All of us not having a clue what we had just started. We have never competed in a 24hr race before and not being very sure what was to come. Probably a good thing.
John and Phil had never driven the 430GT2 before, but by the end of the day, they were very comfortable behind the wheel and showing very good times, to be honest far better than any of us expected with such a short time behind the wheel, in not very nice track conditions. Fantastic!
Friday daytime qualifying session went well, again, damp conditions, the night session was also what we expected. Landing the car 7th for the start.
Saturday warm up, the track was dry and very enjoyable, 3rd quickest. OK, ready to go.
Race started, I was the usual starter. From this moment, all the nerves, anxiety, panic and everything else were forgotten. The race was the only thing on my mind.
Got the car up to 5th position by the first pit stop, Phil got in the car and on his way, Phil regained the position following the pit stop, brought the car back in great shape ( by the way, Phil has eyes like a cat ) ready for Keith, amazing stint by Phil on slicks in the wet.
Keith did his stint as the weather deteriorated, keeping fantastic pace. Again, brought the car back for John, same again with a fantastic performance. I must mention that Keith was behind the safety car for more than 2 hours, this must have been so demoralising, just imagine, cold, dark, raining, foggy, tired, adrenaline not there to help out.
I think we were at around 11pm or so and all this began to dawn on me. My God, this is going to be one of the hardest tasks I have ever been involved in and at my age, not easy!!
Looking at the leader board, it was clear that the JetAlliance Porsche was the car to worry about. By around 12.30am the Porsche was in the lead with us following very closely in second. Now, this configuration, with the occasional changes at the lead went on until 16.30 Sunday! This was the most stressful time we have ever had in racing. This became a 16 hour sprint race, unbelievable. We decided that Keith and John were the ones to be able to take the fight to the Porsche to the finish albeit 2nd place looked more and more of a reality. Don't forget we had suffered two 1 lap penalties. Together with their professional drivers and crew the JetAlliance team are not new to this game. The Porsche was also prepared beautifully.
JetAlliance were copying all our moves, pit stops, tyres , etc. However, they didn't realise that we were doing the same, keeping a close eye on their tactics. The final hour of the race was amazing, John got ahead and kept the Porsche a controlled distance behind, right up to the chequered flag.
What a finish, a 24hr race with GT cars decided by 55 seconds.
It may be a very long time or if ever, will this sort of result and race be repeated.
My unreserved gratitude goes to all the team, family and friends who made this possible. Their support was outstanding. Everybody involved showed total passion and commitment which can only be described as amazing. And of course the car, it performed like no other, what a machine!
We should all be proud.
Thank you all.
Witt Gamski
3 Litres of oil and a windscreen wiper blade !
That was all we added and changed on the car throughout the gruelling 2010 Britcar 24hr race at Silverstone.
I will attempt to put into words all the emotions, hard work and everything it took to get to the event and ultimately win the race.
I received a telephone call from Keith on the morning of Tuesday 21st September advising me that I will receive another telephone call from John Gaw. Ok, an hour or so later John calls, asking me if we want to enter the Britcar 24hr race which was to take place in ten days time! Well, at first my reply was no, not enough time to prepare among other things. By the end of that same day, we decided to go for it.
Panic stations, Neil Cooke threatened to leave the country, Darren Handley just went silent, Peter Livesey just smiled and shouted ' YES' .
Cristiano Michelotto told us we are absolutely crazy, although he said ' I love crazy ' and gave us all the possible advise he could to get us to the race, Cristiano also sent us a small package containing minor parts he felt were necessary for reliability, these being front light brackets, accelerator cable, oil filters. Also, his strict advise to our crew was ' stop talking and get to work on the car! ' They did just that and the car was ready for the Thursday 30th September testing. And, very importantly, we had to postpone Agis (my wife) mums birthday party after all the arrangements were made. Luckily, they are both great fans and I didn't get into trouble!
On Thursday morning, John Gaw, Phil Dryburgh, Keith Robinson, Sam, crew and friends were at Silverstone. All of us not having a clue what we had just started. We have never competed in a 24hr race before and not being very sure what was to come. Probably a good thing.
John and Phil had never driven the 430GT2 before, but by the end of the day, they were very comfortable behind the wheel and showing very good times, to be honest far better than any of us expected with such a short time behind the wheel, in not very nice track conditions. Fantastic!
Friday daytime qualifying session went well, again, damp conditions, the night session was also what we expected. Landing the car 7th for the start.
Saturday warm up, the track was dry and very enjoyable, 3rd quickest. OK, ready to go.
Race started, I was the usual starter. From this moment, all the nerves, anxiety, panic and everything else were forgotten. The race was the only thing on my mind.
Got the car up to 5th position by the first pit stop, Phil got in the car and on his way, Phil regained the position following the pit stop, brought the car back in great shape ( by the way, Phil has eyes like a cat ) ready for Keith, amazing stint by Phil on slicks in the wet.
Keith did his stint as the weather deteriorated, keeping fantastic pace. Again, brought the car back for John, same again with a fantastic performance. I must mention that Keith was behind the safety car for more than 2 hours, this must have been so demoralising, just imagine, cold, dark, raining, foggy, tired, adrenaline not there to help out.
I think we were at around 11pm or so and all this began to dawn on me. My God, this is going to be one of the hardest tasks I have ever been involved in and at my age, not easy!!
Looking at the leader board, it was clear that the JetAlliance Porsche was the car to worry about. By around 12.30am the Porsche was in the lead with us following very closely in second. Now, this configuration, with the occasional changes at the lead went on until 16.30 Sunday! This was the most stressful time we have ever had in racing. This became a 16 hour sprint race, unbelievable. We decided that Keith and John were the ones to be able to take the fight to the Porsche to the finish albeit 2nd place looked more and more of a reality. Don't forget we had suffered two 1 lap penalties. Together with their professional drivers and crew the JetAlliance team are not new to this game. The Porsche was also prepared beautifully.
JetAlliance were copying all our moves, pit stops, tyres , etc. However, they didn't realise that we were doing the same, keeping a close eye on their tactics. The final hour of the race was amazing, John got ahead and kept the Porsche a controlled distance behind, right up to the chequered flag.
What a finish, a 24hr race with GT cars decided by 55 seconds.
It may be a very long time or if ever, will this sort of result and race be repeated.
My unreserved gratitude goes to all the team, family and friends who made this possible. Their support was outstanding. Everybody involved showed total passion and commitment which can only be described as amazing. And of course the car, it performed like no other, what a machine!
We should all be proud.
Thank you all.
Witt Gamski
That's one amazing story, well done!
We watched you with some detail over the weekend and was amazed by the speed and noise of the car, at times we thought this car will never finish in one piece. Reliablity...wow, driving was very precise and all us guys just watch you chase down the Porsche. Absolutely fantastic to watch, you guys plus others deserve medals for what you did in terrible conditions. Thanks for a great end entertaining end to Britcar 2010.
I hope you can do it all again next year.
Cheers!
P.S. We watched the final hours in the grandstands the the crowd were buzzing watching you guys battle it out.
We watched you with some detail over the weekend and was amazed by the speed and noise of the car, at times we thought this car will never finish in one piece. Reliablity...wow, driving was very precise and all us guys just watch you chase down the Porsche. Absolutely fantastic to watch, you guys plus others deserve medals for what you did in terrible conditions. Thanks for a great end entertaining end to Britcar 2010.
I hope you can do it all again next year.
Cheers!
P.S. We watched the final hours in the grandstands the the crowd were buzzing watching you guys battle it out.
Once I had finiched my last stint inthe marcos, my wife and I headed out to club for some spectating and once the safety car came in at about 2.30pm on Sunday (ish) it was game on between the Porsche and Ferrari, an incredible sprint ending to an amazing race. You should be proud, great result for the team.
Well done Witt and crew. A well judged and executed win. You looked like seasoned campaigners and the car looked a treat every time it lapped me 
Kudos to you and your drivers for pressing on so hard in such a valuable car.
Nice to see a Britcar regular win.
Ferraris aren't supposed to be THAT good....I bet the Jet alliance boys were waiting for it to break! One of the Austrians in that Porsche was a seriously talented pedaller in the wet.
Kudos to you and your drivers for pressing on so hard in such a valuable car. Nice to see a Britcar regular win.
Ferraris aren't supposed to be THAT good....I bet the Jet alliance boys were waiting for it to break! One of the Austrians in that Porsche was a seriously talented pedaller in the wet.
Had a very nice e-mail from the Porsche boys who shared Witts car, they enjoyed themselves immensely and on this occasion were happy to beat the no#22 Porsche which according to information received was, apart from the body, an RSR, or a 997 in wool. 
What had stunned them was how a bog standard 2004, 6 year old 996 with an "H" box and nothing added, worth £40/45k on a good day, managed to take third overall,and match lap times on several occasions when very wet, against the 1st and 2nd placed cars, " An absolutely staggering achievement", their words, not mine.
Neil,the team,and the drivers may not get too many comments on their efforts as coming 3rd overall doesn't make the headlines, those of us involved are very proud and pleased with what we managed to achieve, but when you get congratulations from very well respected top level drivers who were part of the overall winning team, those are the accolades that mean something. Thanks chaps, much appreciated.
What had stunned them was how a bog standard 2004, 6 year old 996 with an "H" box and nothing added, worth £40/45k on a good day, managed to take third overall,and match lap times on several occasions when very wet, against the 1st and 2nd placed cars, " An absolutely staggering achievement", their words, not mine.
Neil,the team,and the drivers may not get too many comments on their efforts as coming 3rd overall doesn't make the headlines, those of us involved are very proud and pleased with what we managed to achieve, but when you get congratulations from very well respected top level drivers who were part of the overall winning team, those are the accolades that mean something. Thanks chaps, much appreciated.
Mega Rod well done you guys were great out there , we strugggled with an engine issue which limited us although we did do 22 in the wet, Gut besides the shunt at 1 hour ran reliably .
JG is and always has been a driver of great skill and the end showed that it was great to witness even when watching your own progresss , thanks and well done.
we only used 4 sets of tyres so no inters them....but the lead chase was fantastic
JG is and always has been a driver of great skill and the end showed that it was great to witness even when watching your own progresss , thanks and well done.
we only used 4 sets of tyres so no inters them....but the lead chase was fantastic
Top stuff Witt and Keith (plus the rest of the team involved) you guys have ran a good championship in Britcar, but sadly class 1 has been fairly vacant this year, but with a full on professional near as damn it works Porsche and drivers you showed you could do the business against all comers. Sitting watching the timing screens from the pit wall and seeing the gaps ebb and flow was what GT racing was all about, to be doing that at 23hr into the race was fantastic, well deserved winners.
Oh and thanks for the sticker guys, looks good under the rear wing, glad the Topcats sticker brought you luck under yours
Cheers
Darren Topcats Racing
Oh and thanks for the sticker guys, looks good under the rear wing, glad the Topcats sticker brought you luck under yours
Cheers
Darren Topcats Racing
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