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Britcar 24 Hours: Hour 14 Update

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Hour 14 saw another hour spent almost entirely under the safety car, only the very closing minutes of the 60 being conducted under green flags.

It was, of course, the expected Silverstone fog that caused the deployment the remaining 50 cars lining up behind the safety car – the split of the field benefitting the Jet Alliance Porsche – putting it nearly a full lap ahead of the MJC Ferrari.

There was, briefly, the chance that close combat may recommence for the lead, the team manager from Jet Alliance the latest to be called to race control control. However, unlike their Ferrari driving rivals (and many others over the course of the race so far) there was no penalty levied after the meeting, the team allowed to keep their lead.

The safety car also allowed teams to deploy some strategy several team opting to pit several times to fill their fuel tanks 25 litres at a time, as that is the Britcar rules place a limit on refuelling under safety car conditions. It also betrayed the tactics of the top two team, staying more or less in lock step with each other through the various rounds of pitstops.

Unsurprisingly the top runners in the classes remained unchanged during the safety – the only notable change being the re-appearance of the Strata 21 Mosler in tenth place at the expense of the No.45 Welch Motorsport SEAT, Archie Hamilton finishing his stint in the car during the 60 minutes to 6:30am.

Some drivers bemoaned the duration of the safety car – claiming that visibility remained good enough to stay racing – but, almost with obedience the fog lifted towards the end of the hours, bringing to a halt two hours of nearly continuous safety car running.

The field were given one final warning to claim their comparatively free pitstop, it's withdrawal being announced two laps in advance – heralding a final wave of pit stops before the field was turned loose around Silverstone as the first vestiges of dawn began to appear.

Class Standings After Thirteen Hours

Class 1
1 No.8 MJC Limited – Ferrari 430 GTC
2 No.1 Topcat Racing – Mosler MT900R GT2
3 No.4 Strata 21 – Mosler MT900R GT2

Class 2
1 No.22 Jet Alliance – Porsche 997
2 No.21 Topcat Racing – Marcos Mantis GT3
3 No.19 Chesterton Commercial Holdings – Marcos Mantis GT3

Class 3
1 No.42 Neil Garner Racing – Porsche 996 GT3 Cup
2 No.38 AMR Jota Sport – Aston Martin N24 GT4
3 No.32 KG Racing – BMW M3 E46

Class 4
1 No.83 Team LNT – Ginetta G40
2 No.91 Mardi Gras Motorsport – Honda Integra
3 No.86 Mazda Motors UK – Mazda MX5

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James is our Diet-Coke fuelled writer and has been with TCF pretty much since day 1, he can be found frequenting twitter at @_JBroomhead
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