Britcar racing's first 24-hour race happens this weekend at Silverstone. Costing just £20 to get in, the race starts on Saturday at 5pm.
But you don't have to go there to find out what's happening on the race-track. Our own Graham Walden, star of the TVRCC Tuscan Challenge, will be providing hourly updates throughout the race, together with an introduction before the start plus emergency bulletins as events happen. He'll also be helping out as pit crew for Moore Racing, which is racing a team-prepared M3, which means you'll read it as it happens, from the pitlane.
PHer Graham will be using specially developed wet-string technology, and updating to a forum right here on PistonHeads (see Comments link below). Meanwhile, Moore Racing's Paul Fenton provides a background to the race.
An obsession with the 24 Heures Du Mans eventually resulted in my introduction to racing five years ago in a TVR and the co-founding of Moore Racing. It finally seems as if some progress is being made in the right direction, as after a year's interlude with a Radical, and another year in a production saloon, our first 24-hour race looms large.
Two years ago, Britcar definitely seemed to be the place to race in the UK. It offers long races for your money, a very eclectic mix of cars and already had a few familiar names on the entry list of the Rouse, Reid, Lockie and Leslie category which marked the series out as a bit different from the average club competition. At the time, a BMW M3 seemed the obvious choice of car for the series and it still holds its own, given a long enough race, against newer arrivals in the shape of Porsche 911 Cups, Ferrari 360 Challenge/GTs, Nobles and Aussie V8s.
In our two years of Britcar racing in our Moore Racing-prepared M3, we have won our class and run in the race top five. Now, after a long wait, the Willhire has been returned to its 24-hour format, necessitating a move to the Silverstone GP circuit and forming the highlight of the Britcar calendar.
Additionally Britcar competition has been turned up to 11 with the arrival of Le Mans style Porsche 911 RSs, a Mosler and some serious German-run endurance machinery in the shape of BMW M3 GTRs. Looking down the list of drivers, along with the usual collection of ex-touring car drivers, a few other familiar names stand out: Guy Smith (Bentley '03 at Le Mans), Martin Short (Rollcentre TVRs/Moslers/Dallaras), Dietor Questor (F1 and European touring cars), Robin Liddell and Marino Franchitti (Panoz works driver). The support package is also impressive with, amongst others, the Ferrari 360 Challenge series and the Dutch Supercup.
It's when you start to plan your participation at an event like this that the enormity of what you have taken on hits you. The never-ending driving rota, the amount of fuel required (nearly 1,500 litres), eight sets of tyres, a crew of 20 (the normal Moore Racing crew plus valued reinforcements), feeding and watering all of these people, and pretty much a spare car standing by in pieces ready to go. The Moore Racing team transporter seems too small for everyone and everything that we need, even though it's as large an artic as European law allows.
All this to drive for 24 hours and ending up where you started.
At the start of the planning I envisioned the target of a glorious finish on the podium, with many much more expensive cars parked up prematurely, clearing our way to the front. With a few days to go we realise that just getting to the finish without any serious problems will be an achievement, both for the team and the drivers. It's best put by one of the American ALMS/Le Mans Porsche teams who claim to say a team prayer before each 24 hour race and which seems very apt at this point: "God, if you are going to take us, take us in the first hour and then we can go to the bar".
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