Britcar 24 Hours - Hours 4-6
Settling Down On the hour the leader pits, and a couple of laps later, with the long pitstop still underway, the #32 car retakes the lead as the timing screen flashes up the message “It is now dark – Use lights” together with a call for the team mangers of #1, #2, and #10 to come to Race Control. #32 pits, #1, JC-W now at the wheel, retakes the lead, with the GTS Motorsport BMW 17 seconds back and the Rollcentre Mosler a further 19 seconds astray. The Safety Car is mobilised as the TVR is seen off the circuit at Maggots, possibly having made contact with the barrier: 15 minutes or so later and with the Sagaris recovered we’re back to green flag racing. The visit to Race Control for the team manager of the #10 Chad Mosler has resulted in a stop/go penalty. The yellow flag period has helped the third placed Rollcentre Mosler, the gap to the GTS Motorsport BMW is down to under 10 seconds with the leader 20 seconds ahead of the GTS machine. But now the leader gets a stop/go too, is this for overtaking under yellow flags? JC-W has got that message and is racing to take what advantage he can of a clear track ahead. A 1:56 is followed by the stop/go and when the Z4M comes around again it retains the lead, albeit now by just 5 seconds with Andy Neate still in touch back in third. Gardel is now flying along in the fourth placed #32 car, but still 2 laps off the leader. Neate has got by the GTS car to take second place, the Mosler now 35 seconds behind the leader, JC-W comfortably the quickest man in the race at the moment. The Rollcentre car then pits immediately for fuel and an injection of Martin Short for a double stint and some hammer action on the exhausts. The Jaguar gets warning flags for noise and should pit immediately. In other noise related news Jeremy Clarkson has taken over the wheel of the Top Gear BMW. Other cars having strong runs at this point are the fifth overall 911virgin.com Porsche, and the similar #39 Paragon car in seventh (this pair sandwiching the Eclipse Mosler). The CWS and EDM BMWs are eighth and ninth with the Topcats Marcos tenth. 4 minutes to the 4 hour mark and the Safety Car is out for the second time, but it’s so dark we can’t see the reason why! It seems likely to be the #43 Geoff Steel Racing BMW which had been well up in the top ten but is now plummeting down the order. It seems also to involve one of the Racing Box BMWs, with oil down at Stowe. Stuart Hall: “It’s actually my first time ever in a GT car apart from my dad’s 1969 Chevy Camaro. We’ve dropped back a bit with this Safety Car but there’s plenty in reserve in the car, I reckon I could do 1:54s if I had to and the boss is in the car now so we should be up to speed again soon.” Nigel Greensall: “I was having a great time trying to keep to a 2 minute / 1.9 litres per lap average on the dash display. The wheel nut problem was a bit of a downer but there’s an awfully long way to go. The only problem now is that it is a long way to come back up the order for Iain (Dockerill) to keep up his average this weekend of a trophy in every race he starts.” Iain Dockerill: “He’s right, I’m considering not getting into the car so that I can keep my record! (with tongue rammed firmly in cheek) Confirmed that the stop/gos for #1 and #10 were for overtaking under yellow flags. 25 minutes after the Safety Car period began the race resumes, the GTS BMW must be due to stop immediately, no car being allowed to take a full tank under caution. Indeed it does after one racing lap and emerges back in fourth place. We’ve finally reached a period of relative stability, with the leading four cars cycling through their pit routines, the two Duller Motorsport cars, Rollcentre Mosler and GTS Motorsport BMW exchanging positions regularly. Behind this quartet there is a further closely matched group, led at present by the Paragon Porsche, but with the Topcat Marcos, #65 TJH Honda Civic, Eclipse Mosler and 911virgins 996 all well in touch, with the top ten rounded out by the #54 Simply Racing Porsche. With almost 5 hours completed the #65 car’s performance is a real stand-out, the Honda Civic Type R more than 3 laps ahead of its nearest class rival. Time for an update on some of the fan favourites – the Chad Mosler is still running strongly, 12th overall at the moment and closing in fast on the car ahead. The Evo boys are now into the top 20 in the #57 RJN Nissan, with the #40 car recovering now from its earlier delay, now up to 22nd. The little Morgan is going very well too, 27th and the Jaguar is still in the top 30, its noise issues solved and ahead of another car on a recovery drive, the #15 Chad Porsche is in 32nd slot, one position ahead of the Rob Barff / Steve Warburton crewed Torquespeed BMW. Trouble for the Topcats Marcos as the rear lights are out, a pit stop will be required for the 6th placed car – it drops the plucky Marcos down out of the top ten. Possible further trouble for the leading car as the Duller team manager is summoned to race control again. Guy Povey, just out of the GP Motorsport BMW, reports that the car had managed 5 hours and 15 minutes with just one fuel stop, the car up to 12th before its second stop. Dramas for two of the leading cars - as the #32 Duller BMW M3 loses around 13 laps for repairs to a broken left rear hub. At Chad Racing meanwhile Michael Vergers pits with smoke coming from the engine bay of the #10 Mosler: “We had a small localised fire which we thought at first was some stray rubber but the boys have just found some oil so we’re looking into that now.” That cost the team around six laps before the Mosler rejoined the fray back in 16th position. The top 4 then as the 5 hour and 30 minutes mark is passed were the #1 Duller Z4M, Johannes Stuck now at the wheel, the #26 GTS Motorsport BMW M3, the #1 Rollcentre and #8 Eclipse Mosler. The #22 EDM Motorsports BMW M3 GTR had had a great run until it lost 30 minutes to a broken seat mount, but had made its way back up into the top ten before a further problem knocked it back again, Christian Vann expressing the frustration that this sort of boom-bust race can bring. Another BMW in trouble is the #55 Torquespeed car, the team taking around 25 minutes to replace a broken front strut and leaking differential, Rob Barff waiting as patiently as he could to rejoin. The #31 ISL Motorsport Marcos has had a good steady run, bobbing about just outside the top 20 until its last fuel stop where the car has required human assistance (ie. a push back down the pit lane).
GG Hour 6 Positions | 
