Britcar 24 Hours - Hours 19-21
Duller Drama – For No. 32 Another brief Safety Car for the recovery of the unfortunate #24 Topcats Mantis, stranded at Brooklands. Immediately after the race went green once again, Martin Short grabbed back one of the 27 laps deficit that the Rollcentre car has to the leading Duller Z4M, Dieter Quester at the wheel. The Jaguar is still going strong, a full 1600 racing kilometres now under the wheels of the XKR GT3, a gearbox change costing the Apex Motorsport team a chunk of time overnight but the team learning plenty of very useful lessons about the niggling problems that only ever show themselves in true racing conditions, the Jag one of a number of cars too that have required attention to noise problems overnight. At Duller Motorsport Jamie Campbell-Walter can hardly believe the shape of the race: “To have not had one single problem is something I have never experienced in my career so far. It must be what it’s like at Audi! We have been told (after the front pad change with 8 hours or so to go) to ease off a little, lapping just over 2 minutes will do now but in some ways that’s more difficult.” Marcel Fassler pronounced himself well pleased too with the second placed #32 Duller M3: “We had our early problems but the car has been very strong since then and we just have to stick to our pace now and bring it home.” Unfortunately the very affable, and very quick, Swiss driver won’t be back at Silverstone next weekend, the Swiss Spirit Lola Audi effort still to reach a final solution on a way forward. A big spin for the #10 Chad Mosler on the exit of the Vale, no damage to either the MT900R or the closely following traffic. The #22 EDM BMW pits after contact, Nick Leventis suffering a damaged exhaust after a clash with a backmarker (the #76 Mardi Gras Honda). Christian Vann summed up a frustrating raced for the crew as they first tried to source and fix a big vibration (changing the propshaft had no effect.) “The frustrating thing is that in testing we were right on the pace of the Duller M3 but they seem to have got it sorted with meeting the noise limit whilst we are way down on power, about 10%, as a result.” Good news for Morgan fans, the #29 Roadster is into the top 20 and climbing further up the order, Richard Thorne pointing out that with the recent woes for the Topcats Marcos, the Morgan is now the leading British built car and is in the exclusive club of cars that (so far) has not had a single unscheduled pit visit. Drama for the second placed Duller BMW M3, the car crawls over the start finish line, coasting, before pulling off onto the outside of the circuit, Steve Warburton reporting to Rob Barff over the team radio at Torquespeed that the #32 has blown up in a big way with 4 hours 20 minutes to go. The Rollcentre Mosler will inherit second place within two laps as the Paragon Porsche looking set to inherit third if, as seems likely, the Duller damage is serious or terminal. The Torquespeed BMW is the latest car to hit trouble, Steve Warburton is aboard as the car smokes heavily, with licks of flame scarring the rear of the car. The #55 car pulls off but restarts later and makes it back under its own steam, with no smoke visible. Down at RJN Nissan, the quick but troubled #40 350Z is having its gearbox removed for the second time, “the earlier job was to replace the clutch but this time we’ve lost fifth gear, third went some time ago but now we need to sort out the internals,” said a smiling Anthony Reid. “The reality is that this is very much a development exercise, look at what we are up against, BMW and Porsche who have years of experience of racing and winning in this sort of racing.” The #32 Duller M3 is brought back to the garage on a flatbed, Fabrizio Gollin seems to think that the problem is gearbox. The major battle on track featured the Chad Porsche chasing down the GTS Motorsport BMW for fifth place overall, the gap down to around 10 seconds at the 20 hour mark. This battle will of course be for fourth position if the #32 Duller car spends serious time in the pits. The leading Marcos runner is now the #31 ISL Motorsport machine now up into the top 20. Down at Duller Motorsport the team is working fast to replace what turns out to be a broken right driveshaft on the previously second placed #32 M3. The job is completed in double quick time and the car rejoins, now down in fourth position (five laps down on the Paragon Porsche), to spontaneous applause from the teams in the adjoining garages. The Eclipse Mosler has a lap or two of good news / bad news: a technical warning for a loose rear diffuser, but also making its way past the Chad Porsche up into fifth. The diffuser actually fell off at Maggots where, coincidentally, Eclipse co-owner Chris Pollard was watching: the slightly used part is now back in the team’s truck Jeremy Clarkson reports that he feels the Chad team were “full of righteous indignation” over the clash between Richard Hammond and Michael Vergers and that “it was entirely their fault.” The Jaguar has appeared on a flatbed looking down at heel with possible damage to the right rear suspension. Stuart Scott actually suffered a puncture and harmless spun as a result. He pitted, fuelled the car but then lost all drive on the short run down to his pit. Miles Hulford reports that the Moore Motorsport Honda Civic was into terminal engine damage but the team hope to bring it out for the final lap. The GTS Motorsport BMW is yet another BMW to have suffered a driveshaft failure. The #’32 Duller car has a big off, and recovery, as Marcel Fassler continues to push very hard indeed to make up for lost time. The #45 CWS BMW performs wonders in avoiding a possible collision and both continue: Fassler pits for a replacement for a shredded right rear, whether this was cause or effect of his moment is unknown. Dirk Werner climbs aboard the leading #1 Z4M, the advantage now 23 laps and 504 laps completed. The Jaguar returns to the fray after a very quick fix. The second in class #77 diesel BMW 120d has stopped on the Hangar Straight from 15th position overall, recovery is underway immediately.
GG Hour 21 Positions | 
