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Britcar 24 Hours -
Hour 1 There’s a problem on the grid for the TVR Sagaris, as Michael Caine raises his hand and the whole field passes the TVR.
The Top Gear crewed BMW makes a theatrically late trip down the pitlane to join at the back of the field, alongside Peter Cook’s Porsche. From the off it’s Vergers, up the inside of Hall to grab the race lead into Copse, as the Rollcentre man looks to fend off Dirk Werner.
It looks initially as if the Chad car will make a getaway but Hall reels Vergers in by the end of lap two to take the lead with a very gutsy move through Abbey, Vergers then falling behind the chasing Duller Z4M by lap 3. Early problems for the #35 Porsche 911 GT2 (fuel leak), #27 Mantis (clutch) and the #5 Porsche 911 GT2 (actually the first retirement with the second engine failure of the day). Lap 4 and Dirk Werner takes the lead in the Duller Z4M, 4th by now is Gollin in the second Duller car, grabbing the spot from Nigel Greensall’s Chad Porsche. Behind this quintet comes the GTS BMW and Eclipse Mosler.
The last minute engine change for the Chesterton Mantis appears to be successful so far, Ollie Bryant 11th in the early stages ahead of the Paragon Porsche and #40 RJN Nissan. The car though is reported smoking out on track and a pit call, engine cover off, reveals a smoking left front corner: it turns out to be rubber catching the inner wing but this early in a 24 hour race it’s better to be safe than sorry. The Jaguar is running strongly inside the top 20 and the big Viper, after starting from the back of the grid, is up to 16th place after 11 minutes! Also making great progress is the #54 Simply Racing Porsche 964 RS, this the car started by Piers Masarati, up to 30th from dead last within 15 minutes. The Duller Z4M’s charge had stretched the lead to around 4 seconds but Stuart Hall now moves to stop the rot, holding the gap as both of these cars pull away from the Chad Mosler. Still with Moslers, Martin Rich is speeding up in the Eclipse car, 6th overall and closing in on the Chad Porsche ahead. Lap 14 and Rich dives up the inside of the little Porsche for fifth.
Stuart Hall seems to have had a problem in the Rollcentre Mosler, a 4 second gap to the BMW becomes 8 and then next time around a 2:12 from the Kermit green machine (after a collision with a backmarker and a spin at Beckets) and down to third behind Vergers, the Chad car almost 20 seconds off the lead.
The TVR pits for Michael Caine to hand over to Richard Hay, the ex-TVR factory man waxing lyrical about the pace and potential of the Sagaris but commenting that the heat through the pedals was tremendous, his left foot now numb after 20 minutes! Early days though for this car’s development. Rob Huff’s charge up the order in the Viper has stalled at 8th overall, 90 seconds off the overall lead, but Martin Rich is now up to fourth in the Eclipse car for a Mosler 2/3/4. Others not mentioned so far but going great guns include the #11 Topper team Porsche of Graham Coomes, 10th overall at 35 minutes and the little team Scandal Lotus, screaming along in 12th Traffic will play a major part in this one and the lap times show that very clearly, the top cars yo-yoing from 1:56 to 2:02. In general though Werner is having the best of this, the lead stretching to 25 seconds at 45 minutes. Problems out on track for both the Tischner BMW (which makes it back to the pits) and the Clonis Porsche (which hasn’t!). Top Gear followers will be thrilled to hear that the TG BMW is up to 46th place. The early stop for the Chesterton Marcos dropped the car out of the top 50 – 50 minutes in and Oliver Bryant is back up into the top 30.
As the first hour is
completed Werner is still pulling away from the chasing Mosler trio, 40 seconds
clear with Hall beginning to close in on Vergers for second. |
