Spar 25 hours 2006

Qualifying :

Under twenty seven degrees of Ardennes sunshine, one hundred and fifty one VW Uniroyal Fun Cup "Beetles" gathered to contest the famous Spa 25 hours.
Though they may look it, these are no ordinary Volkswagen Beetles. The visual clues start with the tall rear aerofoil, and the enormous front air-dam or "splitter". Between these sits a tubular space frame chassis, clothed in a three piece lightweight composite body shell. Within the network of chassis bars is a mid-mounted 1.8 litre Audi engine, the combined power to weight ratio of the race car being in excess of 230bhp per tonne! The driving position is ideal, in the centre of the car ahead of the engine, which is just as well as the power is transmitted not through racing slick tyres but through Uniroyal all-weather treaded tyres!

"The tyres were a revelation!" Peter said. "I had thought they would be the Achilles heel but to be honest I am considering fitting them to my road car! They were just so durable and consistent..we could have run the same set of tyres for the entire race!”

The event started on Thursday, with an open test session to allow the teams to find a set up for the Spa Formula 1 circuit, which is notoriously challenging and typically unpredictable in terms of weather! The Belgian teams race on this track throughout the year and as such have a tremendous advantage in terms of car set up, which makes a good result for a non-Belgian team even more impressive. Cars from Germany, Italy, France and the UK were all going for glory as the test session kicked off.
From the start, it was clear the Cuisine de France car, prepared by Chad racing (#190) was certainly competitive, although a number of suspension tweaks had to be made to get the best out of the car. It was clear that Ian, Marc and Peter were all able to lap within one or two seconds of each other, unlike many of the other teams whose drivers were much less consistent.

"I had been told that towing (slip-streaming) is important to a quick lap in this series, especially here with so many high speed sections, but I didn't anticipate just how far these guys will go to get a lap, and to ruin yours! The quick guys literally push you along the straight, which makes a difference of around 15kmh just before you hit the brakes. Trouble is they then dive up the inside and spoil your line!"

Nevertheless, Peter was able to set a lap time of 3:12.868 to ensure a "reasonable but not what we are capable of if we got a proper tow" grid spot of 46th overall (of 151 cars) at the end of the second qualifying session the following day. However, he was not satisfied with the "very understeery" handling, and it transpired the front end set up was not quite as it should be. This was corrected in time for the morning warm up on Saturday and Marc reported a nice balance in the car as he scrubbed in new tyres for the race.

Race, 25 hours, Saturday/Sunday :

The race started slightly late, at 4:30pm, still in brilliant sunshine, with Marc taking the first one-and-a-half hour stint. With so many cars on track, chaos was bound to reign and sure enough, even on the green-flag lap prior to the start, cars were contacting each other as they jostled for position! Marc did an incredible job to stay out of trouble as the car streamed off through the awesome Eau Rouge and out into the forested countryside.
Ian and sponsor Deryk Young (Flair) were spectating from the Bus Stop chicane, and noted that "there were fifteen incidents in the first hour" at that famous corner. Marc however was progressing nicely through the carnage, hauling the car up to a very respectable 29th before handing over to Pete. This driver change was planned to be out of sequence with the main pack to avoid the pit lane refueling congestion. This strategy paid off as Pete was consequently able to climb up to eleventh overall before passing the driving duties to Ian shortly after 7pm.

Once again, the drivers' consistent speed was evident and it started to become clear to the team that a good result was perhaps on the cards, although it was unfortunate that whenever one of the many safety car periods slowed the field, the #190 car always seemed to have just refueled and could not take advantage of the slow pace to dive into the pits. Ian was also held in the pit lane for over a minute when a damaged car blocked the exit.
Marc took over for a double stint (over 3 hours!) during which of course a re-fuel must be carried out (the driver's responsibility - no team assistance permitted!), then Ian, and then Pete (once again on a double stint) by which time it was well after 2am.

"Ian and Marc had done a great job and we were running in the teens after the stops. It was clear and dry, the car was running like a train, the lights (which the team fitted as it became dark) were working well, and we really didn't drop any significant time versus our daylight laps."

Marc then took over for the dawn stint, followed by Ian, which gave Pete the chance to have a short doze in the paddock for a couple of hours, jumping back in mid-morning for another double stint.
Up to that point, there had been no major problems but shortly into the second half of Peter's run, a rogue driver speared into the #190 car at Rivage 2, pushing it wide and across the gravel trap on the exit. Although the damage from the impact was only cosmetic, the gravel ripped off the front air-dam which caused "big understeer" for the rest of the stint. Nevertheless the car came in twelfth position overall and second in the British class, behind the #131 car of JPR, the official importer of cars and spares for the UK Fun Cup, and a very hard car to beat, with all 4 drivers being very fast!
Steve, Colm and Adie leaped into action to replace the front air dam splitter, and also the front brake pads, sending the car on it's way within 6 minutes! Marc then set a blistering pace, including the team's fastest lap of the race (3:12.322) to set up a tremendously exciting finale versus JPR!
Peter was then asked to take the final stint, which started under yet another safety car. In the queue of race cars proceeding slowly around the track, the JPR car was just five places ahead of the Cuisine de France car!

"I could see the #131 car ahead, but I'm pretty sure they didn't realise were so close. I was trying to stay out of sight behind the other cars and when the safety car pulled in, I just went for it!"

Pete was able to slipstream up to the back of the #131 car, using the subsequent race-winning 46 car to get a "tow" and three laps later, on the run up through the very fast 5th gear left hander at Blanchimont, the 190 car moved into the class lead! It proved impossible to pull away however, and within two laps the 131 car slip-streamed ahead on the long uphill Kemel straight. The two cars were nose-to-tail around the rest of the lap and under braking for the Bus Stop Chicane, Paul Rose in the 131 car was forced to take a defensive line. Pete was able to dive around the outside of Rose, boxing him in behind a back-marker, and taking the lead through the following right hand portion of the chicane. Unfortunately the back-marker then moved across and the light contact with the 190 car ripped the valve from the front left tyre, which deflated just as Pete accelerated past the pit entry, forcing him to complete an entire lap with the punctured tyre.

With the battle for the class lead all but over, Pete rejoined still in second place in class, but with a mountain to climb. Despite putting in a series of quick laps, any recovery plans were thwarted by a second front left puncture (caused by the damaged front splitter finally slicing through the tyre just as Pete was powering through the flat-out Eau Rouge). With the tyre replaced for a second time, the goal was then to ensure a finish (although Pete had to be slowed down from the pit wall after setting another 3:12 lap minus half a front splitter!)

"The last stint was just crazy. It had rained a couple of times, a lot of cars were spinning, there was oil down at La Source and Les Combes, which the marshals’ didn't seem to notice, and as we got closer to the flag, everyone started driving like nutters! I had four impacts on the last lap alone and I wasn't even racing the guy who hit me!"

Ultimately the 190 car crossed the line in a fantastic ninth place overall, having maintained second in class, Pete enjoying a spray of Stella Artois through his open door as he passed the ecstatic team on the pitwall! The natural reward for the team's superb result was a full trophy presentation and champagne shower on the Spa F1 podium, above a delighted team amongst the crowd below.

"I was absolutely shattered," Peter said afterwards. "When I first drove the car, I thought the team were taking the p**s and had turned off the power steering but that's what these cars are like - very physical! But they are amazing fun to drive, very competitive and I really want to thank Ian and Marc for the opportunity to drive, and of course the excellent pit crew of of Steve, Colm, Adie, Deryk, the three Nicks, Mike and Lars for making our result possible. I've done a lot of endurance racing in my career but I can tell you this one is one I won't forget easily! I'd love to do it all over again, minus the punctures of course!” .

Race Lap Times:

Peter Cate: 3.12.41

Marc Connell: 3.12.32

Ian Connell: 3.12.84