A tail of highs and lows for the TopCats Marcos
Discussion
Firstly to say that the whole team is thinking of the drivers, familes and teams for the cars involved in the starting lap accident. For Andy (in the TVR) and his family, hope that very the serious injuries don't keep you. Think the entire pitlane held their breath during the initial hour post accident and are still all hoping Andy all the best
For those on the forums that have bantered about who/what caused the accident and the nature of any penalties etc. This really should be left to those closely involved and not speculated about. You have lives and families involved that are dealing with this as well as official sporting bodies, lets leave it all to them eh?
Secondly and to the subject of the posting, the tail (yes the pun is intentional!!
) of highs and lows…… The #29 Marcos had a fantastic run and an unbelievable race, leading for a total of over 11 hours, with 4 drivers who’d never ran together below, nor sat in the drivers seat of the car until 2 days before the race. Only after 18.5hrs did the car miss a beat with a LR hub failure – as luck conspired the failure occurred just as the car went over the line, coasting to a halt at the Magots/Becketts complex so took over 30mins to recover the car, 11mins to replace the rear hub and get the car back on track. The 11mins to get the car back out was a frankly billiant turnaround by all the mechanics and engineers working on the car
The high of leading over 300 laps of the 4th Britcar 24hr race (leading on merit, pace and strategy) running through the night and into the morning in 1st place was replaced with the ultimate low with only 4 hours remaining of engine failure. The team worked on engine trying everything possible to get the car out but it was too badly damaged to get the car back out. This was a cruel blow to a team of drivers who had done everything asked of them; running long stints, maintaining a steady pace, pushing when needed and easing off to help the team’s race strategy.
From refuelling, to engineering, team management, catering, drivers and support personel, EVERYONE did a fantastic job!!!
Cheers
Darren (Topcats Racing www.topcatsracing.com)
[edited to correct some typos]
For those on the forums that have bantered about who/what caused the accident and the nature of any penalties etc. This really should be left to those closely involved and not speculated about. You have lives and families involved that are dealing with this as well as official sporting bodies, lets leave it all to them eh?
Secondly and to the subject of the posting, the tail (yes the pun is intentional!!
) of highs and lows…… The #29 Marcos had a fantastic run and an unbelievable race, leading for a total of over 11 hours, with 4 drivers who’d never ran together below, nor sat in the drivers seat of the car until 2 days before the race. Only after 18.5hrs did the car miss a beat with a LR hub failure – as luck conspired the failure occurred just as the car went over the line, coasting to a halt at the Magots/Becketts complex so took over 30mins to recover the car, 11mins to replace the rear hub and get the car back on track. The 11mins to get the car back out was a frankly billiant turnaround by all the mechanics and engineers working on the carThe high of leading over 300 laps of the 4th Britcar 24hr race (leading on merit, pace and strategy) running through the night and into the morning in 1st place was replaced with the ultimate low with only 4 hours remaining of engine failure. The team worked on engine trying everything possible to get the car out but it was too badly damaged to get the car back out. This was a cruel blow to a team of drivers who had done everything asked of them; running long stints, maintaining a steady pace, pushing when needed and easing off to help the team’s race strategy.
From refuelling, to engineering, team management, catering, drivers and support personel, EVERYONE did a fantastic job!!!
Cheers
Darren (Topcats Racing www.topcatsracing.com)
[edited to correct some typos]
Edited by d_drinks on Monday 22 September 11:23
I will second that, as the rookie in the team, I was made to feel very welcome by everyone.
Warren and Charlotte are rightly proud of a fantastic team at TopCats, and Darren and Geoff and the guys did a brilliant job of running the car to keep us in such a brilliant ( and frankly unexpected position) for such a long time.
It was a terrible shame that the car didnt make it, I know that absolutlely everything was done to get it over the line but it was not to be. This was componded a short while later with the Mosler also not finishing.
From all the hard work the team put in, this was a harsh way to finish the weekend.
Thanks again to Darren and all at Topcats - Brilliant effort and worthy of a better result.
Owen
Warren and Charlotte are rightly proud of a fantastic team at TopCats, and Darren and Geoff and the guys did a brilliant job of running the car to keep us in such a brilliant ( and frankly unexpected position) for such a long time.
It was a terrible shame that the car didnt make it, I know that absolutlely everything was done to get it over the line but it was not to be. This was componded a short while later with the Mosler also not finishing.
From all the hard work the team put in, this was a harsh way to finish the weekend.
Thanks again to Darren and all at Topcats - Brilliant effort and worthy of a better result.
Owen
well done guys, was rooting for you, i was flagging at maggots for the race, i got off post on saturday night and switched on the commentry just rachel had got out the car and sounded on a high while she was talking to them, then the next morning seeing the car grinding to a halt in front of us.
better luck next year
better luck next year
Cheers Mark!! Thanks to all those that were working at the event, without all of your suporting us teams we'd not be able to race at all, so cheers again
Darren
Darren
lord summerisle said:
well done guys, was rooting for you, i was flagging at maggots for the race, i got off post on saturday night and switched on the commentry just rachel had got out the car and sounded on a high while she was talking to them, then the next morning seeing the car grinding to a halt in front of us.
better luck next year
better luck next year
As friends of Rachel, Jo & I were there in full support of the Topcat Marcos.
We left on Saturday night with the team holding their own quite strongly. We were even more surprised/impressed/happy when we returned on Sunday morning and heard of the teams standing
We also managed to get to the garage just as the hub issue was resolved in time to wish Rachel luck for her next stint.
We managed to watch her remaining laps and were very impressed with the times she was putting in. 2:03's or something - brilliant!
To say how we felt for all the team when we heard of the engine failure was nothing compared to what we saw when we made it back to the garage. Rachel in tears and the team manager (had Hi-vis on saying manager - sorry don't know your name) also understandably in tears. So, so gutted for you all
The only photo I got of Rachel & the car was this one:
Good effort though by the whole team. I'm sure next year you will be back in force
We left on Saturday night with the team holding their own quite strongly. We were even more surprised/impressed/happy when we returned on Sunday morning and heard of the teams standing
We also managed to get to the garage just as the hub issue was resolved in time to wish Rachel luck for her next stint.
We managed to watch her remaining laps and were very impressed with the times she was putting in. 2:03's or something - brilliant!
To say how we felt for all the team when we heard of the engine failure was nothing compared to what we saw when we made it back to the garage. Rachel in tears and the team manager (had Hi-vis on saying manager - sorry don't know your name) also understandably in tears. So, so gutted for you all
The only photo I got of Rachel & the car was this one:
Good effort though by the whole team. I'm sure next year you will be back in force
hi darren, it was very unlucky about the topcats marcos, me my brother and dad come over all the time and have a chat with you kind lot and you deserved to finish the race. it was good to see you leading all that time. that engine has lasted alot longer than i expected but unlucky to give in at a time like that. congratulations on the team for a very interesting weekend and see you at brands hatch for the night race 
.
.Thanks to everyone at TopCats for doing such a great job all weekend and giving us a great car to drive, it just wasn't to be this year. The team are professional and well prepared and all the drivers did a seriously good job.
As Darren mentioned we hadn't sat in the car before Thursday and we did very little running leading up to the race including only doing three laps each in the dark. Owen's first stint was in the dark and I was a little apprehensive for him as he has only done seven races in his life! However, before long he was on the pace and putting in 2.08s which was our planned race pace and dealing with traffic out there, good job boy! Dax has never driven anything like the Marcos before either as he races Caterhams and he too found the speed in the car very easily and was running a great pace. Rachel was mega and after our hub failure and game plan had gone out the window she was banging in consistent 2.03s which was great but I guess the car had finally had enough. I was running a good pace without stressing the car at all, short shifting at 5k and using higher gears everywhere including 4th all the way through the complex and 5th and 6th just about everywhere else, which was using little fuel but producing 2.06s consistently. It was such a shame as we had the pace, the economy and the level headedness to run to the end for a podium finish (think the Parragon car would have passed us anyway) but it was wasn't to be.
Anyway well done us for running at the front for so long I couldn't believe it when i pitted after my opening stint and was told "Well done P1". I thought oh thats great we are first in class but no it was P1 overall! To be leading by 6laps at dawn was amazing and was just beginning to look like it might be possible but with 9 hours still to go it was a big call.
Still we were 29th over all and 8th in class. Next year we can try again.
Henry Fletcher
As Darren mentioned we hadn't sat in the car before Thursday and we did very little running leading up to the race including only doing three laps each in the dark. Owen's first stint was in the dark and I was a little apprehensive for him as he has only done seven races in his life! However, before long he was on the pace and putting in 2.08s which was our planned race pace and dealing with traffic out there, good job boy! Dax has never driven anything like the Marcos before either as he races Caterhams and he too found the speed in the car very easily and was running a great pace. Rachel was mega and after our hub failure and game plan had gone out the window she was banging in consistent 2.03s which was great but I guess the car had finally had enough. I was running a good pace without stressing the car at all, short shifting at 5k and using higher gears everywhere including 4th all the way through the complex and 5th and 6th just about everywhere else, which was using little fuel but producing 2.06s consistently. It was such a shame as we had the pace, the economy and the level headedness to run to the end for a podium finish (think the Parragon car would have passed us anyway) but it was wasn't to be.
Anyway well done us for running at the front for so long I couldn't believe it when i pitted after my opening stint and was told "Well done P1". I thought oh thats great we are first in class but no it was P1 overall! To be leading by 6laps at dawn was amazing and was just beginning to look like it might be possible but with 9 hours still to go it was a big call.
Still we were 29th over all and 8th in class. Next year we can try again.
Henry Fletcher
How safe is the "Sagaris"? Are we not talking an early '90s chassis? This is just off the back of the 24hr....
At 3am on the hanger straight in the dark I was thinking "what if"? I want something that can crash, but i'll risk it all for a free drive!
At 3am on the hanger straight in the dark I was thinking "what if"? I want something that can crash, but i'll risk it all for a free drive!
Edited by yearoneracing on Friday 10th October 00:08
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