Hour twenty-one of the 2012 Britcar 24 Hours ended up changing the situation for all those still going around Silverstone. The MP Motorsport BMW E46 GTR keeping its grip on the overall lead by just a couple of laps as well as the lead in Class 2, with Neil Garner Motosport’s #17 Mosler running into major problems just a short while ago, with the car having an ongoing issue with the stuck wheel nut on the left rear, which involved the whole team to try to get the wheel off the hub.
Even Neil Garner himself used a hammer and chisel to try to loosen the wheel mut, even with a power drill and then an angle grinder finally made an impact, as the mechanics cut through the spokes. The MP Motorsport BMW was given a 10-second Stop Go Penalty for speeding in the pit lane, and quickly took it, assuring that it would remain in the lead.
The Mosler was quickly falling behind in terms of laps, but still kept its third place overall, and second in Class 1, behind the MB Racing #16 Aston Martin Vantage GT3, who leads the class, with Team LNT and their #6 Ginetta G55 still in third, but was falling down the leaderboard.
Intersport Racing, now 3rd in Class 3, and dropping into 8th place, suffered with clutch issues, with the MMC Motorsport’s E46 CSL now ahead at 2nd in class and 6th overall, with Perfection Racing still leading in their Aston Martin, who had now benefitted of the misfortune of others, to 3rd place overall.
The Rogue Motorsport MR2 finally emerged from the pits after the team starting to change the engine at 5.15am this morning about 45 minutes into the hour, with the rain now coming into play as the car was having its final checks. There was a flurry of activity, as the remaining cars filtered into the pits to put on full wet tyres, and just shortly after, the rain intensified. We spoke to Mark Radcliffe of Intersport Racing earlier yesterday, who was hoping for it to rain at about midday, so they could have a good chance of getting up the field.
Class 4’s top three was staying the same, as the Dutch Red Camel.nl still lead the class, with Brunswick Automotive’s M3 having an unscheduled pit stop for a split hose, dropping them 7 laps behind the Dutch team, with Team Toyota GB ‘s GT86 having steady progress to stay third in Class.
The rain continued to get more intense, with another challenge for the remaining drivers to deal with, just as we are in the final stretch towards the checkered flag, with a possibility of standing water adding a new dimension to the race itself.
2012 Britcar 24 Standings After 21 Hours:
Class One:
1 -MB Racing – West/Wall/Brown/Cripps
2 -Neil Garner Motorsport – White/Cintrano/Morcillo/Sharp
3 – Team LNT – Tomlinson/Kimber-Smith/Dean/Simpson
Class Two:
1 – MP Motorsport – Poole/Symons/Bardwell/Abra (Overall Leaders)
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 – MMC Motorsport – Cox/Borness/Cox/Cox
3 – Intersport Racing – Clarke/Radcliffe/Hayes/Gibson
Class Four :
1 – RedCamel.nl – Thijssen/De Heus/Breukers
2 – Brunswick Automotive – Griffiths/Green/Kirkpatrick/Forsbrey
3 – Team Toyota GB – Hodgetts/Death/Death