Wrapping Up That One - Jake Yorath On The 2012 Britcar 24 Hours

The 2012 Britcar 24 Hours was truly in the spirit of great endurance races.  It was not the fancied runners that triumphed, nor the fastest that topped the podium  - indeed, it was a humble class 2 car that won, though with more than a little help from the class 1 steeds and their unreliability and misfortune.

Congratulations, then, to Richard Abra, Clint Bardwell, Mark Poole and Michael Symons, who steered their Geoff Steel prepared MP Motorsport BMW E46 GTR to a commanding victory.  Their effort was as smooth and trouble free as it could possibly have been.

The other class victories went to MB Motorsports and their brand new Aston Martin Vantage, in class 1.  Dave West, Michael Brown, Jamie Wall and Paul Cripps survived a number of issues to finish second overall on the car's debut.  In class 3, Perfection Racing managed an overall podium with their Vantage GT4, driven by Kim Holmgaard, Paul Spires, Kasper Jensen, Mikkel Johanson and Michael Klostermann.  Class 4 was the hardest fought in the race, with victory going to one of the most intrepid teams on the grid - Red Camel Racing.  The team topped a year that featured the Dubai 24, Bathurst 12 and the Nürburgring 24 by winning their class with Ivo Breukers, Henk Thijssen and Bert de Heus steering their much travelled Seat Leon TDI.

The entry list was considered by many to be a little disappointing.  Strong GT3 runners featured on early lists disappeared from the final cut and just four class 1 cars were entered.  One was racing for the very first time (MB's Vantage), one had never run for more than three hours (LNT's Ginetta G55 GT3) and MacG's Ultima is notoriously unreliable.

All that put together left the intriguing possibility that a class 2 runner could prosper.  The class 2 field was mixed, ranging from ageing Porsches (GT Classics' 993 is an early '90s GT2 car) to strong GT4 cars - Optimum's G50 Ginetta had claimed class honours at Dubai.  It was this car, and the MP Motorsport BMW, that looked most likely.  The yellow car featured young chargers Joe Osborne and Jake Rattenbury alongside solid gentleman Lee Mowle and Emily Fletcher.  The white was stacked with Britcar experience, with Abra in particular a fast and reliable hand.

Further down the grid, there was a smattering of international interest.  From Australia came Racer Industries, their Holden Astra crewed by four Australians including rapid Ryan McLeod.  The team had already done Bathurst and Dubai, just like Dutch team Red Camel.  Of further interest were Rogue Motorsport, running two cars.  Their BMW ran a livery designed by players of Forza Motorsport, alongside a tie in with The Online Racing Association.  The tie in also included their MR2's progress being mirrored by a team of gamers, who planned to run the entire 24 hours entirely in sync with the real car.  The dedication went as far as weighting the simulator's wheel with help from drivers from up and down the pitlane - though how much of their help was an excuse to have a go on the game is anyone's guess.

The programme for the weekend was packed, with barely more than four hours' worth of official track (barring the Thursday test day) time to tune in the cars for the race.  That time was especially precious for Martin Short's Rollcentre team.  Having bought their Toyota GT86 just six weeks prior to the race, they endeavoured to get ready in time.  They did - just.  Rolling out on the Thursday test, the car managed a handful of laps before problems related to the car's almost stock engine and its racing brakes left a major headache.

Having completed single figure laps before the race weekend proper began, Short's team were left with a mammoth task.  That task became even larger when the car simply refused to fire - the team suspected immobiliser.  In a complicated story to be published at a later date (and it's a good one, so keep your eyes out for it), the team lost almost all of their Friday running having spent the day rebuilding the car, re-entering it as a Subaru and then eventually getting it started.  The two laps it completed on Friday night (the car left the garage at three minutes to session's finish) were its ninth and tenth.

One hour of track time (curiously, in the middle of Friday) would set the grid, with the added bonus of a watch courtesy of race sponsor Joseph Kaspar.  That watch was not as hotly contested as some had hoped - Mike Simpson, in the LNT Ginetta, set a 2:02.420 early in the session.  Despite the time being set on a lightly rain dusted track, the time would not be beaten.  Closest was Javier Morcillo, the Spaniard getting within half a second but no closer.  His car, the Mosler of Neil Garner Motorsport, was the only class 1 car to have been at every round of the Britcar Endurance Championship so far.  MB Motorsport's Vantage, in its first ever qualifying session, was third thanks to Jamie Wall's 2:04.546.

Top time in class 2 went to series stalwarts Team Tiger, their Marcos eclipsing the similar Topcats machine thanks to Jon Finnemore's rapid lap.  MB's BMW was third with Abra and Optimum fourth with Osborne.  Class 3 was topped by Intersport's BMW (ninth), from the Corum Chevron and Perfection's Aston Martin.  Racer Industries' Holden topped class 4.

It was far from a frantic session.  With so little time on track, most teams spent their hour getting drivers seat time (some cars carrying as many as six names on the door) rather than aiming for any sort of hot lap.  The trend continued into the evening session, with most teams running at a gentle pace to conserve their machinery and simply get their drivers the required three laps at night.

Two teams were given scares.  The first was MB Motorsport.  Their car, fresh from a round trip to Aylesbury to fit new silencers (more on that shortly), found itself having an ugly confrontation with the difficult wet/dry conditions.  The car's chromed bodywork would not be quite as shiny for the rest of the weekend, but more importantly its drivers were left short of experience in the dark.  With their previous racing records taken into account, Wall, West, Brown and Cripps were allowed to start.  They also topped the session.

For Rollcentre, the problems were not yet done.  With help from Subaru (and a little less help from their Japanese cousins) the team replaced five computers with those from a donor BRZ road car, rebuilt the dashboard and managed to get the car started.  Short put the car around the track just twice before the race.  Neither Clive nor Harvey Death had completed the required times but both were given a helping hand from an unlikely source.  With a spare Marcos in their garage, Topcats offered to allow the Deaths to drive their car - much to the relief of all involved. 

More troubles in the pits for Strata 21, whose Porsche had to endure an entire engine change - from 996 to 997.  The 997 donor motor was mated to 996 ancillaries and the car would complete its necessary laps.

The silencing issue was fast becoming a problem, and one the organisers were quick to stamp on.  With a 102dB limit, many teams had to adopt some fairly extreme methods of noise damping.  MB's solution was a pair of bafflers nailed to the back of their Vantage (which later developed an additional pair of smaller units on top).  LNT, meanwhile, very nearly withdrew for want of a fix.  The team were confused, with various decibel meters used in the garage reading below the limit but the on track unit registering a 3dB difference.  They resolved the issue to the satisfaction of the organisers, however, and were allowed to start.  The noise story, however, would not go away.

Race day dawned sunny, if chilly, and spirits around the paddock were high.  So high, in fact, that Short had had a change of heart and the red car was once again 'entered to reflect the product as purchased'.  Thus, it had gone from Toyota, to Subaru but would race as a Toyota, joining the Toyota GB entry from just a handful of garages away.

The open grid provided nervous times for those on it, as spectators were given free access to explore the cars amassed and the Silverstone track.  For those not on it however it was a rather more fraught experience.  One didn't make it at all and another was wheeled off for repair.  The MacG Ultima was living up to its reputation, in the garage with oil cooler issues, while the GT Classics Porsche had suffered starter motor failure on the grid.  Both would start from pitlane.

To describe a start as an anti climax may seem nonsensical, but Mike Simpson's swift getaway from Woodcote meant that by the time he reached Copse he had bolted from Morcillo in second, and the Spaniard in turn was untroubled from behind.  It was short of chaos and drama, but that was probably what every single team in the field had been praying for.

By the end of lap one, Simpson had three seconds over Morcillo - but the gap would fluctuate during the stint, particularly in traffic.  The Mosler pilot's greater experience meant he was able to close the gap when the going was a little more frantic with slower cars.  However, he later revealed that despite indications from Simpson that he should move into the lead, Morcillo had no intention of doing so and was happy to sit second.  By the end of hour one they had lapped every other car in the field.  The only trouble for the leading pair came when, towards the end of the hour, the LNT pit gantry fell off the pitwall, pouring its contents (laptops and tea, mainly) onto the pitlane. 

Less than half an hour in, the Ultima stopped on track - it was the start of a race short on laps and long on trouble, the yellow machine shearing bolts in its driveshafts.  It would not return for a considerable period of time.

Class 2 was a Marcos affair.  The Tiger and Topcats teams began in that order, before swapping midway through the first hour.  Optimum ran third for much of the stint.  Worse luck, though, for Cor Euser and Lotus, his car suffering a broken ball joint heading into Maggots.  That caused a fully locked front wheel and heavy damage to the rim, incurring a long delay.

In the third tier, Intersport's Kevin Clarke and Darron Anley of Corum fought hard throughout the hour.  Clarke's BMW had the edge for most, though Anley's smaller Chevron found gaps on occasion to sneak ahead.  In class 4, Piranha were largely dominant early on with their Ginetta G40, the little car surging ahead.  Racer Industries, though, suffered a very early delay as a turbo hose worked loose and left the Holden short of boost pressure - it cost them 15 minutes.

Mission Motorsport, running a Nissan 370Z and staffed almost entirely by ex servicemen injured in the line of duty, ran respectably in the early stages.  With three of the crew without a licence just two months before the race, the team had barely made it to the grid yet ran fourth in class.  Look out for their story on DSC in coming weeks.

The first round of stops came and went and, thanks to good pit work from LNT and a less than slick turnaround from Neil Garner's team (who inspected a lost rear light), the Mosler trailed by 50 seconds, despite the American machine managing six extra laps on its first stint.  However, having seen a puff of smoke, Lawrence Tomlinson (who had taken over from Simpson) pitted the G55 out of caution.  It was a small piece of debris in the arch and the car continued.

At the second stop the tail light on the Mosler was refitted and the car returned still leading, now from MB's Vantage.  After a blow out at Stowe, LNT lost further time and were now some laps down.  Returning to the track, some 21 laps down, was the Lotus, with a big task ahead of it.

More teams were soon in trouble.  In class 2, GT Classics first lost boost pressure to a cracked exhaust then suffered a gearbox problem - the box would have to be replaced.  The new unit was millimetres too long and it took some reworking to get everything into place.  It wouldn't be the last action for the Porsche's crew.  Joining them were Optimum (driveshaft failure), long time class 3 leaders Intersport (differential replacement), Mission Motorsport and Carvell Jaguar (punctures) and Synchro (throttle sticking issues).

Synchro's distinctive Honda Jazz ran with a mark of respect for Dave Allan, the team's boss who lost his life in the summer.  The Briton, who would have driven the car, was still named on the car's window.  It was a touching gesture from the team.

At half past six, three hours into the race, MB Motorsport lost a wheel.  The car returned to the pits for a replacement but, in something of an oversight, the team neglected to check the car for other issues.  It would be back shortly afterward, where the splitter would be removed from the car.  Though there was a spare available it was not fitted, and the drivers were told simply to deal with the issue.

The problems for MB gave LNT second place again, only for the orange car to have serious headlight issues.  It would be a recurring theme throughout the race.  When asked about the issue, driver Richard Dean simply quipped, "Do you know how much electricity is these days?"

Things were beginning to fall apart for all the class 1 runners, because by half past eight they'd all suffered issues - this time, Neil Garner's Mosler pitted with a sticking throttle.  They lost five minutes, but returned in the lead.  It didn't last, however, as the team then had to fix a broken driveshaft.

The first retirement came shortly before seven.  Tiger, who had led class 2 almost constantly from the start, were put into the barriers at Maggots by the Rogue (how apt) Toyota, ending their race with significant damage.  MP Motorsport/Geoff Steel soon inherited a lead it would rarely relinquish in the class, thanks to smooth running and no trouble.

There was more trouble for their competitors Optimum, who had to replace their fuel pump, and Topcats.  The Marcos shed all of its water and the problem would eventually mean an engine change for the sometime class leaders.  It meant that MP all but had the class to themselves.

The first car black flagged for noise was the Welch Seat.  It was not the last, but would eventually be black flagged in the darkness for continuous breaching of the decibel limit - a sad way to end their race.  Others given warnings before the end of hour six were MMC's BMW, Strata 21's Porsche, Carvel's diesel Jaguar (which also needed a gearbox change) and Synchro, who would be the first to be disqualified, sent home in the ninth hour.

Cutting it fine on the three hour drive time limit were Toyota GB - they were called to the stewards for exceeding the maximum stint length, but the team were eager to point out that they were just inside.  The stint was two hours, 59 minutes and 45 seconds long.  They would still be pinged minutes later, however, for speeding in pitlane.

Rogue's day did not get much better after their car had collected the Marcos - their BMW broke the first of its propshafts.  The car would eventually be retired in the early hours when the team ran out of spares while searching for their fourth part.  It was a remarkable, if ultimately futile effort from the team.

Shortly after nine o'clock the first safety car was deployed.  The full course yellow was caused by a driver 'abandoning' his car on the Wellington Straight - no more information was available at the time, but it was the first of a number of brief safety car periods that punctuated the night.

Further issues continued to plague Neil Garner's Mosler.  Minor headlight problems were soon followed by an alternator issue, losing them a hard earned second place and further sweetening the field for MP's class 2 BMW, which had found itself in the top three.  Dubbed by Radio Le Mans' Paul Truswell as 'the boring white BMW' thanks to its metronomic consistency, theirs was a stealth run to the top - they hadn't even been in the top three of class 2 until Optimum hit trouble.

The troubles for MB (as well as a lack of outright speed) and the Mosler left LNT back in the lead, despite having been as many as half a dozen laps thanks to their early problems.  Drivers Tomlinson, Simpson, Dean and LNT returnee Tom Kimber-Smith were all proving that experience counts, sticking to target times and reaping the reward.

The black flags, meanwhile, did not slow down - teams given a warning for their car's decibels then disqualified if they breached it too often.  In fact, by the end the winning BMW was just about the only car that had not been called, every other car requiring pit work for extra baffling on their exit pipes.  Even the two diesels, the Carvel Jaguar and the Insurance Store BMW 120D, were called in to be turned down.

In class 4, the Dutch were beginning to shine.  Ivo Breukkers, driving the Red Camel Seat, drove the stint of the race, pretty much every lap within a second of each other.  His consistency, and his Seat's mouse-like fuel consumption, meant that the Camel led the class.

The problems were not over at LNT.  This time, a driveshaft failed just after half past midnight, leaving the car stranded with a missing wheel - they would lose an hour.  At exactly the same moment, Optimum's Ginetta also lost a rear wheel - leaving both Ginettas on flatbeds heading to the pits and the safety car out.  There was also an accident simultaneously for GT Classics, the tired team now having to repair heavy frontal damage after changing two gearboxes.

All this handed the lead to the class 2 MP BMW.  Second place was inherited, thanks to avoiding issues more than outright pace, by MB, though their lack of a splitter had been partly helped by a switch of tyre compound (on Dunlop's recommendation) at dusk.

The troubles continued down the field, with Corum stopping on track with a mechanical problem, which induced a spin at Brooklands.  Another of the short but frequent overnight safety car periods ensued.  Cor Euser's Lotus could not shift gear, the team attempting a fix but soon finding the problem was unsolvable.  The car was retired.

The stand-out incident of the night came at quarter to four in the morning.  Coming round Copse having just been released by the safety car, Major Jim Cameron found himself in trouble - there was a sliding Marcos in his way.  Cameron's Nissan made huge contact with the rear of the Marcos, heavily damaging his left front corner.  The Marcos, spinning across the track after losing the rear on cold tyres out of the pits, suffered huge rear damage and though it returned to the pits, retired shortly afterwards.

The repair job at Mission was huge.  The team receive support from Nissan 'works' outfit RJN, and that became clear as the fix progressed.  Appearing stealthily at the back of the garage was team owner Bob Neville's road going 370Z - while he was asleep at home!  'Sorry Bob' was markered onto the front wheel arch removed from his car.  A supreme fix by the team, partly down to their military discipline, meant the car did return to the track.

Class 3 leaders Perfection Racing suffered their first hiccough of the race in the small hours.  Having run solidly (even into the overall top three), the car went into the box for a failure they couldn't source - the team lost some time diagnosing a battery failure but it was replaced and the car returned to continue its relentless metronome.  It was interrupted briefly again 90 minutes later with a puncture, but the team retained the lead in class.

The race continued to play out in a familiar pattern, largely until the end.  The BMW led, with MB's Aston Martin second and seemingly unable or unwilling to push hard enough to close the gap.  Though the Mosler was fast, its victory chances were largely neutered by a series of problems.  Class 3 continued to be dominated by perfection and, despite occasional competition from Brunswick BMW, Red Camel largely topped class 4.

18 hours in and we had lost only seven runners.  The Lotus, both Marcos to accident damage, the Welch Seat and the Synchro Honda disqualified for noise and two BMWs.  The #91 Rogue BMW team had finally run out of propshafts, while the #70 Povey BMW dropped out with engine issues.  Amazingly, despite being more than 100 laps down, the Ultima was not out - the team had gone to the factory to buy more spares for the hopelessly unreliable yellow car.

Continuing issues bugged LNT.  Tomlinson lost another wheel, pitching him into a slightly aerial moment, which he and the machine survived but it was more time lost.  They had also struggled with intermittent lights throughout the darkness and the electrical woes got worse in the morning.  Tomlinson brought the car in after he found it cutting out in right hand bends - hardly ideal at a clockwise circuit.  The car was parked but for a roll out to the flag.

At ten in the morning, a bizarre safety car - the Chevron left its rear body on the start finish line.  A brave marshal recovered it and the piece was carried down the pitlane (in amusing style) to be reunited with its chassis.  The car continued, with considerable extra racer tape.

The predicted rain finally came with four hours to go.  It started lightly but rapidly became a deluge.  Most of the teams, with the finish not too far away, took it easy.  MP stretched the lead as their closest rivals MB drove cautiously toward the finish.  However, Martin Short decided to have some fun and was among the fastest in class 4 in the untested Toyota. He was faster than the works car and it was a virtuoso wet weather performance that saw them threaten the top ten overall.

Not threatening any more were Neil Garner's team.  The Mosler had been struggling with sticking wheels for a few hours and eventually, having been unable to remove the left rear at a previous stop, had to go into the garage.  It took more than an hour to hack the rim from the car in one of the ugliest repairs imaginable.  It was a graft job but the car would at least return to take second in class at the finish.

It was in class 4 that the main drama came, Brunswick able to get in front of the Red Camel Seat.  The battle was not so much fought on track directly but on efficiency and pitstops.  In the end, the Dutch squad saved it thanks to more top drawer endurance driving from Bert de Heus and Breukers. 

As the finish neared, several cars that had previously been parked emerged to roll over the line.  Optimum, who had stopped on the circuit when their car became waterlogged, managed a handful of laps at the finish to cross the line with LNT.  Joe Osborne was set a conservative target time and set it in sixth gear...  The two cars were joined by Piranha's G40 over the line.

Both Toyotas finished in the top ten.  The works car was solidly reliable for 24 hours and the fact that it was barely mentioned by observers or journalists was to its credit - a quiet run was what was expected.  Having run as high as third in class, Mission Motorsport managed 17th overall having overcome their accident and run quickly to the flag.  Single leg amputee James Gillborn, who had earned his racing licence in less than a month, earned the driver of the day award and thus a sponsor's watch.

The honours, though, were all for MP Motorsport.  Richard Abra, Mark Poole, Clint Bardwell and Michael Symons were faultless throughout and thoroughly deserved to win overall.  For MB to manage a second overall while debuting their Vantage was equally impressive - there is much potential for that car and the team going forward.  Dave West, Jamie Wall, Michael Brown and Paul Cripps also won the class 1 title.

Crossing the line third overall and first in class 3 were Perfection Racing.  The Aston team were barely challenged in the race and ran out comfortable class victors.  As mentioned, Ivo Breukers, Bert de Heus and Henk Thijssen claimed class 4 for Red Camel, edging out Brunswick at the last.  Mark Griffiths, Willie Green, Bill Kirkpatrick and David Forsbery were unlucky not to claim victory as theirs was as clean and consistent a run as the overall winner,  but fell just short.

Honourable mentions must be made for those who didn't give up.  Rogue Motorsport repaired both their cars on numerous occasions and will no doubt be catching up on sleep for some weeks to come.  GT Classics repaired gearboxes, clutches and accident damage on their car but it crossed the line.  The MacG crew spent more time rebuilding their Ultima than racing it but the smiles on their faces belied the fact that they never lost their spirit.  Mission Motorsport, too, showed incredible spirit to continue against the odds.

Finally, a debt of gratitude is owed by all to the marshals who stuck to their task through thick and thin, and some horrid weather.

Jake Yorath