If the early stages of the race were action and those hours around the midpoint were about consolidation, the latter hours were all about strategy. It wasn't the battle on track that delivered the excitement and anticipation; it was the tactical sparring of MJC and Jet Alliance.
The hour started with Jet Alliance maintaining the gap between themselves and MJC to around the 50 second mark. For the previous ninety minutes, the Ferrari 430 GTC was eating in to the Porsche's huge lead, but a late pit stop at the top of hour 21 changed the dynamics and saw the prancing horse resembling a lame donkey.
As the Porsche exited the pits, the safety car was deployed because of the weather conditions – heavy rain similar to that from late last night, came down again at a rapid rate. This meant that not only was the safety car on track and thus the Porsche was unable to pass, but the Ferrari now had a seven second lead over the Porsche too.
The safety car remained on track for approximately forty minutes and within two laps of the restart, on what will be the new pit straight, the Porsche of Marco Seefield blasted past the Ferrari to re-take the lead.
Elsewhere, positions remained the same, aside from the RJN Nissan spinning at the exit of Vale. The 370z was giving a helping hand back to the pits and it remained in the garage for the rest of the hour.
Class Standings After Twenty One 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.44 Welch Motorsport – Seat Leon Supercopa
Class 4
1 No.83 Team LNT – Ginetta G40
2 No.81 Saxon Motorsport – Honda Civic Type R
3 No.73 Dave Cox Motorsport – Ford Escort Cosworth
