Spar 25 hours 2005

Qualifying :

minously we were struggling from the start with a serious power loss of top end power in 5th gear. The car would not rev over 5200 on both long straights, which was a severe handicap.
As a result, we only qualified 72nd out of 129 qualifiers.
Colm and Adie, with Chris and Richard worked well into the night with help from Laurent and the other Dubois racing engineers. Despite removing the cylinder head due to low compression in one cylinder, nothing obvious was found. Various ancillary parts were also renewed including new carburettors.
Finally at 1.30 on Saturday morning the guys went to bed, but a doubt still remained about what was wrong with the car.

The Race:

Richard started…immediately confirmed the problem was still present.
At the first pit stop after 90 minutes 30 minutes replacing the coil and fitting new fuel lines………out again but still the problem persisted and we were being blasted on the straights by all and sundry, running about 6 seconds a lap off the pace,
At that stage we decided to just plod on and get to the finish as the car was handing well in the twisty bits. Amazingly by about 6am in the morning, after 14 hours racing we had clawed our way up to 58th place and on the same lap as the 3rd placed British car.
However later in the morning, we had a few more problem with a split water pipe and then at about 10am the alternator disintegrated like a hand grenade, destroying the water reservoir to the engine as the car disappeared on clouds of steam.
The repairs took 90 minutes, but on restarting the engine, it became obvious that the engine had been damaged by the sudden problem. So that was it pack up and go home time, after 19 of the 25 hours.

Race Summary:

Pretty poor really, but overall the weekend was enjoyed by all, particularly as we were able to entertain guests from SPAR UK, AW, Premier Foods and Flair. I think they all had a good time!
Thanks to the team, Colm, Adie, Chris, Mark, Nick, Mike and Becky.
The car will now go to JRP Motorsport to try and get to the root of our problems with the engine.