The tenth hour of the 2012 Britcar 24 Hours ended with a new team at the top of the leaderboard, MP Motorsport being the first Class Two team to lead this year’s race.
The car – shared between Richard Abra, Mark Poole, Clint Bardwell and Michael Symons – took the lead after a flurry of incidents that together caused the race’s fourth safety car period. Only just out of the bits after a second gearbox change the GT Classics Porsche 993 lost a wheel at pit exit, smacking the wall causing significant front damage to the white machine.
Similarly on three wheels were the Ginettas of both Optimum Motorsport and Team LNT, the latter missing a right-left, the other the right-rear.
The Team LNT Ginetta, with Richard Dean in the cockpit was left stranded at the apex of Stowe, the journey alone long enough to give MP Motorsport the lead, even before the time taken in the garage to repair the damage was taken into account, the car still in the garage at the end of the hour, dropping from the lead to fifth overall.
Their problems allowed Neil Garner Motorsport to retake second place and the lead in Class One.
Perfection Racing continue to lead Class Three in the #60 GT4 Aston Martin with Cor Euser Racing’s Lotus Evora now second in class recovering from the suspension ball joint failure in the very first hours of the race. MMC Motorsport’s two entries hold third and fourth in class, the SEAT Supercopa leading the BMW M3.
The Brunswick Automotive BMW and the Red Camel.nl SEAT continue to hold the top two places in Class Four, the Team Toyota GB GT86 third in class and tenth overall.
2012 Britcar 24 Standings After 10 Hours:
Class One:
1 – Neil Garner Motorsport – White/Cintrano/Morcillo/Sharpe
2 – MB Racing – West/Wall/Brown/Cripps
3 – Team LNT – Tomlinson/Kimber-Smith/Dean/Simpson
Class Two:
1 –
MP Motorsport – Poole/Symons/Bardwell/Abra
2 – Optimum Motorsport – Osborne/Mowle/Fletcher/Rattenbury
3 – Topcats Racing – Huggins/Bankhurst/Black/Solivellas
Class Three
1 – Perfection Racing – Spires/Jensen/Johanson/Holmgaard/Klosterman
2- Cor Euser Racing – Euser/Briody/Prewitt/Rich/McKinnon
3 – MMC Motorsport – Spencer/Cassar/Lewis/Pettit
Class Four
1 – Brunswick Automotive – Griffiths/Green/Kirkpatrick/Forsbrey
2 – Red Camel.nl – Breukers/Thijssen/de Heus
3 – Team Toyota GB – Hodgetts/Hodgetts/Primrose/Meaden
