Britcar 24 hour race
Discussion
I did this with an ARDS B - my second race, AND a fairly small wallet - finished third in class 2 - result for me wasn't as important as the fun involved doing it all - the night drive was cracking!
Henry - who was driving at 2-4am-ish - overtook me several times but always as courteously as on a track day!
Congrats to ALL involved - what a fantastic few days!!!
EDIT - PS - That's a 968CS ('tho I was in car 70 - also a 968CS but road legal & taxed!)
Henry - who was driving at 2-4am-ish - overtook me several times but always as courteously as on a track day!
Congrats to ALL involved - what a fantastic few days!!!
EDIT - PS - That's a 968CS ('tho I was in car 70 - also a 968CS but road legal & taxed!)
Edited by steil on Sunday 9th September 22:17
Edited by steil on Sunday 9th September 22:19
Henry, I understand you chivalrously and kindly "lent" the simply team an engine for their super 964RS, that went on to win the class (and got close to you guys 
). Nice one. This from your own personal car...
Hmmmm.
You haven't got a 380bhp M3 motor anywhere I can "borrow", have you?
). Nice one. This from your own personal car... Hmmmm.
You haven't got a 380bhp M3 motor anywhere I can "borrow", have you?
Edited by phatgixer on Monday 10th September 00:17
Great credit to both 968s - drivers and the entire teams
. They cars were only just finished being built in time for the event. The paint was finished on the orange one at 5am on Thursday, the green one had driven "only 11 foot before arriving at Silverstone", so the fact they kept putting in consistent times with drivers of mixed experience & ability, kept out of trouble and brought the cars home in one piece 3rd & 4th in class is one heck of an achievement!! Says a lot for Porsches too (they were among the oldest cars of the entire field). The only incident was a couple of punctures (including damaged rims) on the orange car gained whilst avoiding contact with a faster 911 lapping them. Other than that they just kept going.Just gone midnight on Friday I wandered along all the garages, a few closed up for the night, lots with teams working frantically through the night, and then came across 911virgin's with Henry eagerly beavering away - finishing off the huge sign for the front of the pit garage
. Needless to say he roped me in to helping erect it. They did seem very organised (having done this all before of course) and the car also ran almost faultlessly. The only incident was a stone flicking up and rupturing a clutch hydraulic line somewhere around the wheelarch/floor area. The team were quick to diagnose it and then dive on the spares car out the back to rape the required part off it. I helped a little too by holding the small torch for the first guy stripping the part off - I did my best to have a steady hand after a few pints of Guiness 
but I'm sure he was relieved once someone brought some decent fluorescent lights over (allowing me to return my attention to said Guiness )I was in and out of their garages all weekend (when I wasn't racing myself in the Porsche races) - hopefully thay saw me as support not a nuisance!
Unlike some of the teams I did get a few hours sleep and waking up in the tent (just inside the exit of Copse) at 7am and realising there was NO noise at all (i.e. no-one was on circuit, no safety car period, nothing) was really eerie. It was later I found out there'd been fog and as the safety car went off twice in fog last year
, they parked everyone on the grid until it cleared. Boring but safe. There's lots more to tell and I'm sure Henry'll be doing it when he's recovered. I just hope no-one asks me if I want to take part next year cos I may not be able to stand the temptation!
phatgixer said:
Henry, I understand you chivalrously and kindly "lent" the simply team an engine for their super 964RS, that went on to win the class (and got close to you guys ). Nice one. This from your own personal car...
Hmmmm.
You haven't got a 380bhp M3 motor anywhere I can "borrow", have you?
How did your race go? Engine problems?). Nice one. This from your own personal car... Hmmmm.
You haven't got a 380bhp M3 motor anywhere I can "borrow", have you?
Edited by phatgixer on Monday 10th September 00:17
The 25 hours of Britcar:
sorry it`s a bit long.
Arrived at the circuit on Wednesday for a quick shake down to make sure there were no issues following a fairly extensive rebuild. Hadn`t touched the engine but gearbox and chassis all stripped and rebuilt. All went well with no issues at all.
Thursday was the official test day and the rest of the drivers arrived. Myself & Craig went out in the morning session, Pete and Steve (Rance) went out in the afternoon. We weren`t pushing the car at all, just a few laps to make sure everyone was familiar with the car. I`d already set the car up and we weren`t looking to work further on that, a nice friendly car that wasn`t going to eat tyres. We were a little down on power compared to some of the other cars but our fuel burn was great. I was hoping for a minimum 1.40 hours per tank and in reality we managed to better that my longest single fuel leg was over 2 hours. Once again no issues with the car at all. All the other teams had obviously arrived by now and it was very tempting to pop round for a couple of beers but on a strictly no booze, tea, coffee or sugar diet. Loads of water.
Friday and the official qualifying. We put Pete out on new tyres and gave him 4 or 5 laps to put in a time, nothing mad just a safe quick lap. We saw a 2.03 and called it a day. Then it was the necessary 3 laps per driver and park the old girl up. I went round for a lap at the end of the session to make sure nothing had altered on the car and finished up with a re-fueling run to give everyone a chance to see how things went at the pumps. 8.00pm and night time qualifying. Once again we put everyone in the car for the required 3 laps and then once it was properly dark I did a couple of runs to set the lights up. Then the car was handed over to Craig & Steve so they could get used to night time driving, it`s a whole different skill and as they hadn`t raced in the dark they needed to get used to the car. The night qualifying is probably one of the most dangerous times as loads of people are trying to put their cars round the track in the pitch back with varying degrees of success. Lots of spins and journeys into the undergrowth, you just need to make sure you have room to avoid them. We weren`t bothered about any times and went off the first page of the timing screen to 35th position ! (The grid positions were determined by the fastest time from either session so we were on slot 20 from the morning).
Saturday warm up & I did a few laps to bed in some brakes and scrub the last of the tyres in. A quick stop to fill up with fuel and then we parked up for the 4.30pm kick off. 3.45pm off to the assembly area to be formed up ready to take to the circuit. A bit of banter with some of the other teams. I was starting and I noticed most of the larger teams had fielded their bigger guns to make a good impression from the off - just what I needed! We had slightly different plans. For sure we needed to keep up with the pack but not at any cost. It was going to be a long race and we didn`t want any heros just yet. Onto the grid and the mood changed from drivers and banter to a frenzy of activity with cameras, crew, lightly clothed women, officials and a plethora of other folk. A final handshake with a couple of fellow drivers and then into the car as the grid was cleared. I`ve finished a 24 hour race before but never started one.
Obviously a grid of 60 cars means you need to have your wits about you if you are to avoid opening lap dramas. It`s not just people trying to get past you, they can be managed, the biggest danger is from cars collecting each other in front of you, not only do you have to avoid the accident you also have to make sure the guys behind don`t barrel into you. As it was I could see there was a waved yellow on the grid which turned out to be a TVR that had stalled. We all drove round him and set off on the green flag lap. Once rolling as a driver at least you`ve got something to think about. It was a painfully slow green flag lap which meant it was hard to get any temperature in the tyres. We were using Dunlop rubber as is the norm on these occasions and they do take a bit of time to wake up, certainly compared to the Michelin`s which come in quickly and welcome you with a few laps of invincibility the Dunlops are a stubborn old bugger which never really come on in a blaze of glory. Eventually they start to work but when the grip goes you feel the tyre sliding away and it doesn`t bust it`s balls trying to regain acquaintance with the tarmac certainly they lack the Michelin`s elasticity when they decide to call time out.
As it was the opening lap of the race was fine, there was a bit of jostling around but eventually things settled down and I managed to find a clean bit of the track. I wasn`t long before we started to lap slower cars and from then on the race was on. I`d spent the past month trying to make sure all the drivers approached their driving from the right angle. It wasn`t about ultimate lap times, more about looking after the car and taking care when you were overtaking so I was going to look a right prat if I collected someone myself. I`m happy to say there were no alarming moments. The only problem was a very slippy circuit from the previous races. Club corner was like an ice rink and even as we started there was loads of debris which caused quite bad pick-up. What happens is you drive over a lump of rubber which sticks to your tyre, there is a big bang and you lose grip as well as feeling a vibration through the car which can take a couple of laps to drive off, not a huge problem other than the fact a puncture gives exactly the same results so you have to make your mind up which one it is!
As my couple of hours came to an end I was starting to ache a bit in the car and used the hanger straight to stretch out a bit. I got out of the car around 6.30 and handed over to Steve. There was the usual de-brief with the crew and then it was off for a bite to eat and a rest. It`s important to try and relax in between stints otherwise you suffer next time in the car. According to my master plan I was going to get in the car next around 11.30, out just after 1.00am grab some sleep and hop in again in the morning. Things never go to plan though do they! A combination of safety cars & better fuel consumption meant it was going to be 1.00am before I got in. We had managed to claw our way up to 4th place and were jostling the Paragon Porsche for 4th & 5th spot based on fuel stops. We could run longer than them on a tank though and ultimately would win the battle based on 3 stops for every one of their 4. Unfortunately just as we were going to pull Steve in for fuel they threw a safety car. He was on reserve and so we didn`t dare run him until it pulled in, the rules say you are only allowed to take on 25 litres of fuel during a safety car (rather than our usual 105 litres) so we were forced into an extra stop. Steve actually caused us a small heart attack when he radioed in to say the pumps were shut and there were no lights on. It turns out he`d come off after bridge and rather than turn behind the barriers into the refueling bay he`d driven down the national straight back onto the circuit. Eventually he found his way to the pumps and normal order resumed.
As I got ready to get in the car for my second stint we had our bit of bad luck. Pete was driving and must have driven over some debris left over from a BMW rolling on the Hanger straight. The debris penetrated the wheel arch liner and ripped the steel hydraulic clutch pipe wide open. Obviously he had no clutch and was forced to pit. He managed to take on fuel before driving into the garage. As I sat waiting in the car the crew took another pipe from the spares car we had brought along, they also used the stoppage to carry out our planned maintenance which we were going to do around hour 16, this was basically a front pad change, fingers crossed they would last. My biggest fear driving 1.00am - 3.00am was that I would fall asleep. This would be one of the most dangerous sessions with drivers loosing concentration and not paying attention.
Eventually I made it out onto the circuit and was relieved to find it a lot less oily than my first session at the start of the race. It takes a while to bring in tyres at night, the lights of the cars behind are dis-orientating and it`s hard to judge speed as they close on you whilst your tyres are cold. Eventually you get some heat into the rubber, get on the pace and then it`s not too bad. The odd car passes you but the closing speeds are ok, mostly it`s making your way past slower cars and you make you own luck there. Loads of people complain about the cars they are overtaking "turning in on them" whilst they are trying to get past, it`s a simple thing to avoid just make doubly sure the bloke`s seen you and use your car`s body language to let the other chap know exactly what you`re planning on doing. My overalls were still damp from my first session in the car and that coupled with a bit of air flow meant the cabin temp was lovely, a GT3 is normally like a furnace but this was gorgeous.
Some people struggle a bit at night but it doesn`t effect me too badly, I use timing and peripheral vision to place the car on track rather than distant objects (which you obviously can`t see at night). It`s a fair bet to assume the tarmac will be in roughly the same place so whilst you can`t always see exactly where you`re going you just trust your timing and imagine where the exit points are, sure enough they usually come into view eventually. There were a lot of cars missing the tarmac and throwing up dust & grass, at one stage someone ran through the gravel at Brooklands and you couldn`t see a thing, I slowed right down just in case the car was still stationary somewhere in the cloud of dust, luckily it wasn`t. After an hour or so transmission oil (funnily enough you can tell which type of oil it is from within the car), went down on 3 corners. It`s hard to spot at first but the slide lets you know!! Just as that was clearing it went down on 3 more corners. Lap times went right down but I managed to get back on the ball as soon as was practical. The stint came to an end, I popped in for a re-fuel and handed the car over to Steve again. Another de-brief then off to bed after a quick snack.
My final drive started around mid day as the race had been neutralised during the early morning following fog. This was a most bizarre stint. The GTS BMW of David Leslie, Rob Wilson, Jo Macari & Stuart Wright was just ahead of us but had to pit following a mechanical problem, we passed it and I was told to drive economically so we avoided the need for a splash & dash at the end. We were going to need around 25 litres of fuel but If I drove at half throttle and shifted gears early I thought I could make that up during my drive. Radio messages passed between myself and the pit wall, I was then told to ignore the fuel message and drive normally again. It was a strange thing, I was shooting round the track passing cars and all the time I was discussing tactics and various re-fueling strategies with Peter on the pit wall. He suggested a solution, I disagreed and we had a debate at 120 miles an hour. I came very close to a fixed penalty notice and 3 points for driving whilst on the phone! Eventually my argument won through and I finished my drive.
All that remained was for Steve to hop in and take us to the end. My plan came good when a safety car was thrown to clear up debris from the track. This allowed Steve to have a splash of fuel, some new tyres and rejoin the safety car only 1 lap down. We were now on the same lap just 9 seconds behind the GTS car. Unfortunately it was just a bit quicker than us and eventually passed us to finish a lap ahead. Steve drove his heart out and nearly collapsed as he got out of the car through lack of fluid. I got told off for passing him a beer and we all lived happily ever after. 7th overall in such a class field was a hell of a result but if I`m honest it was slightly tinged. Had it not have been for the 1 in a million hit on the clutch pipe we`d have taken 3rd overall and 1st in class. Ah well that`s racing.
The more observant of you might have noticed I said at the start the 25 hours of Britcar and so far we`ve only covered 24 of them. On Sunday night we went out for a bite to eat and a few beers with a load of reprobates we met at the circuit and I awoke the next morning to the sound of engines being warmed up in readiness to take to the circuit. It was a BRDC member`s track day. I just couldn`t resist it. A BRDC member who shall remain anonymous (thanks John), invited me on as a guest. I borrowed a spanner to torque up the wheels (with workshop tyres on!!!), popped round to the fuel station to slip in a bit of petrol and hit the track. A truly wonderful hour or so spent throwing the old girl round a circuit that was now an old friend only this time without the pressure of letting a side down in a 24 hour team event. I left Silverstone a happy bunny that evening. The car didn`t have a single mark on it, it drove as well in the final hour as it did the first, all be it with one of the tyres down to the canvas and it was all done in the company of good friends.
Well done to everyone who took part, you all have your special memories and will be more rounded drivers as a result.
Simply racing did have a bit of a problem with a leaky engine in their RS, they asked me if I knew anyone with an RS for sale so I loaned them the one from own 964 RS. A testament to Porsche`s build quality the car had laid dormant for probably 18 months then went out and won it`s class
All the best - Henry
sorry it`s a bit long.
Arrived at the circuit on Wednesday for a quick shake down to make sure there were no issues following a fairly extensive rebuild. Hadn`t touched the engine but gearbox and chassis all stripped and rebuilt. All went well with no issues at all.
Thursday was the official test day and the rest of the drivers arrived. Myself & Craig went out in the morning session, Pete and Steve (Rance) went out in the afternoon. We weren`t pushing the car at all, just a few laps to make sure everyone was familiar with the car. I`d already set the car up and we weren`t looking to work further on that, a nice friendly car that wasn`t going to eat tyres. We were a little down on power compared to some of the other cars but our fuel burn was great. I was hoping for a minimum 1.40 hours per tank and in reality we managed to better that my longest single fuel leg was over 2 hours. Once again no issues with the car at all. All the other teams had obviously arrived by now and it was very tempting to pop round for a couple of beers but on a strictly no booze, tea, coffee or sugar diet. Loads of water.
Friday and the official qualifying. We put Pete out on new tyres and gave him 4 or 5 laps to put in a time, nothing mad just a safe quick lap. We saw a 2.03 and called it a day. Then it was the necessary 3 laps per driver and park the old girl up. I went round for a lap at the end of the session to make sure nothing had altered on the car and finished up with a re-fueling run to give everyone a chance to see how things went at the pumps. 8.00pm and night time qualifying. Once again we put everyone in the car for the required 3 laps and then once it was properly dark I did a couple of runs to set the lights up. Then the car was handed over to Craig & Steve so they could get used to night time driving, it`s a whole different skill and as they hadn`t raced in the dark they needed to get used to the car. The night qualifying is probably one of the most dangerous times as loads of people are trying to put their cars round the track in the pitch back with varying degrees of success. Lots of spins and journeys into the undergrowth, you just need to make sure you have room to avoid them. We weren`t bothered about any times and went off the first page of the timing screen to 35th position ! (The grid positions were determined by the fastest time from either session so we were on slot 20 from the morning).
Saturday warm up & I did a few laps to bed in some brakes and scrub the last of the tyres in. A quick stop to fill up with fuel and then we parked up for the 4.30pm kick off. 3.45pm off to the assembly area to be formed up ready to take to the circuit. A bit of banter with some of the other teams. I was starting and I noticed most of the larger teams had fielded their bigger guns to make a good impression from the off - just what I needed! We had slightly different plans. For sure we needed to keep up with the pack but not at any cost. It was going to be a long race and we didn`t want any heros just yet. Onto the grid and the mood changed from drivers and banter to a frenzy of activity with cameras, crew, lightly clothed women, officials and a plethora of other folk. A final handshake with a couple of fellow drivers and then into the car as the grid was cleared. I`ve finished a 24 hour race before but never started one.
Obviously a grid of 60 cars means you need to have your wits about you if you are to avoid opening lap dramas. It`s not just people trying to get past you, they can be managed, the biggest danger is from cars collecting each other in front of you, not only do you have to avoid the accident you also have to make sure the guys behind don`t barrel into you. As it was I could see there was a waved yellow on the grid which turned out to be a TVR that had stalled. We all drove round him and set off on the green flag lap. Once rolling as a driver at least you`ve got something to think about. It was a painfully slow green flag lap which meant it was hard to get any temperature in the tyres. We were using Dunlop rubber as is the norm on these occasions and they do take a bit of time to wake up, certainly compared to the Michelin`s which come in quickly and welcome you with a few laps of invincibility the Dunlops are a stubborn old bugger which never really come on in a blaze of glory. Eventually they start to work but when the grip goes you feel the tyre sliding away and it doesn`t bust it`s balls trying to regain acquaintance with the tarmac certainly they lack the Michelin`s elasticity when they decide to call time out.
As it was the opening lap of the race was fine, there was a bit of jostling around but eventually things settled down and I managed to find a clean bit of the track. I wasn`t long before we started to lap slower cars and from then on the race was on. I`d spent the past month trying to make sure all the drivers approached their driving from the right angle. It wasn`t about ultimate lap times, more about looking after the car and taking care when you were overtaking so I was going to look a right prat if I collected someone myself. I`m happy to say there were no alarming moments. The only problem was a very slippy circuit from the previous races. Club corner was like an ice rink and even as we started there was loads of debris which caused quite bad pick-up. What happens is you drive over a lump of rubber which sticks to your tyre, there is a big bang and you lose grip as well as feeling a vibration through the car which can take a couple of laps to drive off, not a huge problem other than the fact a puncture gives exactly the same results so you have to make your mind up which one it is!
As my couple of hours came to an end I was starting to ache a bit in the car and used the hanger straight to stretch out a bit. I got out of the car around 6.30 and handed over to Steve. There was the usual de-brief with the crew and then it was off for a bite to eat and a rest. It`s important to try and relax in between stints otherwise you suffer next time in the car. According to my master plan I was going to get in the car next around 11.30, out just after 1.00am grab some sleep and hop in again in the morning. Things never go to plan though do they! A combination of safety cars & better fuel consumption meant it was going to be 1.00am before I got in. We had managed to claw our way up to 4th place and were jostling the Paragon Porsche for 4th & 5th spot based on fuel stops. We could run longer than them on a tank though and ultimately would win the battle based on 3 stops for every one of their 4. Unfortunately just as we were going to pull Steve in for fuel they threw a safety car. He was on reserve and so we didn`t dare run him until it pulled in, the rules say you are only allowed to take on 25 litres of fuel during a safety car (rather than our usual 105 litres) so we were forced into an extra stop. Steve actually caused us a small heart attack when he radioed in to say the pumps were shut and there were no lights on. It turns out he`d come off after bridge and rather than turn behind the barriers into the refueling bay he`d driven down the national straight back onto the circuit. Eventually he found his way to the pumps and normal order resumed.
As I got ready to get in the car for my second stint we had our bit of bad luck. Pete was driving and must have driven over some debris left over from a BMW rolling on the Hanger straight. The debris penetrated the wheel arch liner and ripped the steel hydraulic clutch pipe wide open. Obviously he had no clutch and was forced to pit. He managed to take on fuel before driving into the garage. As I sat waiting in the car the crew took another pipe from the spares car we had brought along, they also used the stoppage to carry out our planned maintenance which we were going to do around hour 16, this was basically a front pad change, fingers crossed they would last. My biggest fear driving 1.00am - 3.00am was that I would fall asleep. This would be one of the most dangerous sessions with drivers loosing concentration and not paying attention.
Eventually I made it out onto the circuit and was relieved to find it a lot less oily than my first session at the start of the race. It takes a while to bring in tyres at night, the lights of the cars behind are dis-orientating and it`s hard to judge speed as they close on you whilst your tyres are cold. Eventually you get some heat into the rubber, get on the pace and then it`s not too bad. The odd car passes you but the closing speeds are ok, mostly it`s making your way past slower cars and you make you own luck there. Loads of people complain about the cars they are overtaking "turning in on them" whilst they are trying to get past, it`s a simple thing to avoid just make doubly sure the bloke`s seen you and use your car`s body language to let the other chap know exactly what you`re planning on doing. My overalls were still damp from my first session in the car and that coupled with a bit of air flow meant the cabin temp was lovely, a GT3 is normally like a furnace but this was gorgeous.
Some people struggle a bit at night but it doesn`t effect me too badly, I use timing and peripheral vision to place the car on track rather than distant objects (which you obviously can`t see at night). It`s a fair bet to assume the tarmac will be in roughly the same place so whilst you can`t always see exactly where you`re going you just trust your timing and imagine where the exit points are, sure enough they usually come into view eventually. There were a lot of cars missing the tarmac and throwing up dust & grass, at one stage someone ran through the gravel at Brooklands and you couldn`t see a thing, I slowed right down just in case the car was still stationary somewhere in the cloud of dust, luckily it wasn`t. After an hour or so transmission oil (funnily enough you can tell which type of oil it is from within the car), went down on 3 corners. It`s hard to spot at first but the slide lets you know!! Just as that was clearing it went down on 3 more corners. Lap times went right down but I managed to get back on the ball as soon as was practical. The stint came to an end, I popped in for a re-fuel and handed the car over to Steve again. Another de-brief then off to bed after a quick snack.
My final drive started around mid day as the race had been neutralised during the early morning following fog. This was a most bizarre stint. The GTS BMW of David Leslie, Rob Wilson, Jo Macari & Stuart Wright was just ahead of us but had to pit following a mechanical problem, we passed it and I was told to drive economically so we avoided the need for a splash & dash at the end. We were going to need around 25 litres of fuel but If I drove at half throttle and shifted gears early I thought I could make that up during my drive. Radio messages passed between myself and the pit wall, I was then told to ignore the fuel message and drive normally again. It was a strange thing, I was shooting round the track passing cars and all the time I was discussing tactics and various re-fueling strategies with Peter on the pit wall. He suggested a solution, I disagreed and we had a debate at 120 miles an hour. I came very close to a fixed penalty notice and 3 points for driving whilst on the phone! Eventually my argument won through and I finished my drive.
All that remained was for Steve to hop in and take us to the end. My plan came good when a safety car was thrown to clear up debris from the track. This allowed Steve to have a splash of fuel, some new tyres and rejoin the safety car only 1 lap down. We were now on the same lap just 9 seconds behind the GTS car. Unfortunately it was just a bit quicker than us and eventually passed us to finish a lap ahead. Steve drove his heart out and nearly collapsed as he got out of the car through lack of fluid. I got told off for passing him a beer and we all lived happily ever after. 7th overall in such a class field was a hell of a result but if I`m honest it was slightly tinged. Had it not have been for the 1 in a million hit on the clutch pipe we`d have taken 3rd overall and 1st in class. Ah well that`s racing.
The more observant of you might have noticed I said at the start the 25 hours of Britcar and so far we`ve only covered 24 of them. On Sunday night we went out for a bite to eat and a few beers with a load of reprobates we met at the circuit and I awoke the next morning to the sound of engines being warmed up in readiness to take to the circuit. It was a BRDC member`s track day. I just couldn`t resist it. A BRDC member who shall remain anonymous (thanks John), invited me on as a guest. I borrowed a spanner to torque up the wheels (with workshop tyres on!!!), popped round to the fuel station to slip in a bit of petrol and hit the track. A truly wonderful hour or so spent throwing the old girl round a circuit that was now an old friend only this time without the pressure of letting a side down in a 24 hour team event. I left Silverstone a happy bunny that evening. The car didn`t have a single mark on it, it drove as well in the final hour as it did the first, all be it with one of the tyres down to the canvas
and it was all done in the company of good friends.Well done to everyone who took part, you all have your special memories and will be more rounded drivers as a result.
Simply racing did have a bit of a problem with a leaky engine in their RS, they asked me if I knew anyone with an RS for sale so I loaned them the one from own 964 RS. A testament to Porsche`s build quality the car had laid dormant for probably 18 months then went out and won it`s class
All the best - Henry
DanH said:
phatgixer said:
Henry, I understand you chivalrously and kindly "lent" the simply team an engine for their super 964RS, that went on to win the class (and got close to you guys ). Nice one. This from your own personal car...
Hmmmm.
You haven't got a 380bhp M3 motor anywhere I can "borrow", have you?
How did your race go? Engine problems?). Nice one. This from your own personal car... Hmmmm.
You haven't got a 380bhp M3 motor anywhere I can "borrow", have you?
Edited by phatgixer on Monday 10th September 00:17
Next year...
An absolutely fantastic experience for me as a driver. The 911 Virgin team were brilliant and each driver did his job perfectly. Henry drove a great frist stint bringing the car back in 12th over all. I took over for the evening stint which was perfect for me as I haddn't done any night driving before and the twilight transition was a great help. I absolutely loved the night stints, it is difficult to describe what it's like but your subconcious just seems to find tiny little reference points that help you maintain a decent pace. I tried to lap within about 1 - 2 seconds off my day pace which i found pretty comfortable. Lots of yellow flag incidents but the end of the stint, a BMW barrel rolled at Club and was on fire so the safety car came out. As I passed the scene it looked like an air crash site. there were flashing lights and rescue vehicle everywhere and an ambulance in the middle of the circuit. Just then my feul light came on and I had to switch to the reserve pump which gives about 2 laps of feul. Basically it had gone tits up for us as it was obvious that the safety car was going to be out for some time and - under race rules - I couldn't refeul until the pit lane re opened. I had to pit for a 25 litre splash and dash - the max you can take on during a safety car - and go back out. That turned into a disaster as the marshals at the refuelling pit waved me away and up the National circuit straight in the pitch darkness. I got back on the circuit and was told to go round again and run them over if they stepped back out! Handed the car over to Craig and at that point we were in 5th place over all. Henry and Pete put some great night stints in. My second stint was about 3.00am, a crappy lonely time but i really enjoyed it until the fog came down and then it got a bit difficult. Eventually half of the circuit was envelopped in a fog that in some places - particularly the Hanger straight - was quite thick. I carried on at race pace using the corner sign at the end of the straight as my braking point as my lights seemed to pick it up quite clearly. The turn in and apex points were more difficult to pick out but I stumbled round about 5 seconds off of the pace until the pace car was deployed and we were eventually lined up oon the grid and the race stopped. For me that was a killer as my first stint had been lenghtened by the safety car and I needed sleep after my second stint. Since we were all waiting for a restart at any minute I couldn't really sleep. Finally we restarted at about 8.40am on a greasy track only to find that a car had almost immediately dropped oil everywhere making the restart quite trecherous. After about 20 minutes I handed the car over to Craig but found it hard to sleep as it was light and I was running on adrenilin. The lads put some great stints in, Particularly Pete who put a great stint in mid morning and by early afternoon we had recovered to P8 after cluch problems during the night lost us 35 minutes and down from P4 to P17 over all. By 1.30 pm we were racing a BMW for P3 in class and P6 over all. I had the last stint but the feul situation haddent fallen for us due to the various saftey car incidents and we knew that we needed one more fuel stop to finish the race. Henry Brought the car in at about 2.oopm and I went out for the last stint. I was careful to bring the tyres in properly and not to push too hard too quickly. My aim was to run at a pace approximately 1 second off Pete's qualifying pace for the whole stint. The times were good and I settled into a groove when the safety car was deployed after about 20 minutes. That was our chance to feul to the end of the race so the Team called me in and we feuled and changed tyres loosing little time. There was 2 hours to go and it was a straight fight to the end. Again I aimed at the same times but the BMW - driven by Bob Wilson and David Leslie - was matching us almost to the tenth. I maintained the same pace for about an hour and a half by which time it was a lot harder to exract from the tyres. Then I started feeling dizzy and found it increasingly difficult to focus. With 20 minutes to go I knew that unless the BMW developed a problem it had us as I could not eat into his lead. The dizzyness got worse and my peripheral vision started to blurr. The last 5 minutes seemed like a month and as I started the final lap the engine stuttered and the feul light came on. I switched to reserve and coasted to the line. What an incredible experience, it seemed like everybody at the circuit was standing on the pit wall cheering and waving just incredible.
One of the most rewarding experiences a driver can have is to finish a 24 hour race. Our team, a combination of ABG Motorsport and Jazz were absolutely fantastic and the driver line up drove brilliantly. Not one incident or any contact in 24 hours. Little Mandy stayed with me throughout the race refusing the oportunity to sleep when she could. A driver couldn't ask for any more support from his team, his co drivers or his partner. I sincerely hope that I gave them the same in return.
Steve R
One of the most rewarding experiences a driver can have is to finish a 24 hour race. Our team, a combination of ABG Motorsport and Jazz were absolutely fantastic and the driver line up drove brilliantly. Not one incident or any contact in 24 hours. Little Mandy stayed with me throughout the race refusing the oportunity to sleep when she could. A driver couldn't ask for any more support from his team, his co drivers or his partner. I sincerely hope that I gave them the same in return.
Steve R
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