The Aquila continues to stretch its leg through the third hour of the Britcar 24 Hours, Rob Huff handing the car over with a two lap advantage. However, the stop betrayed a problem for the early pace setters as the team were forced to push the car away from its stall, the car seeming to take an eternity to fire up on its way down the pitlane. It was the first sign of weakness from the team.
“At the moment beautiful,” said Rob Huff minutes after climbing from the car. “Everything seems to be working really well, for sure it's going to be real heavy on the three drivers as there's no power steering and we've settled on double stints and for sure it's starting to get heavy.”
“The safety car came out [at the end of the first hour] and Phil and Kelvin were nowhere to be seen so I had to jump back in. I said that I'd call it for the others. I think we're going to double stint and start with the single stint in the night. On the basis we've got to get out of the car it make sense to change every hour at night.”
Huff, and the chunk of rubber that had adhered itself to one of the car's rear tyres also gave away one of the common problems of endurance racing, appearing early at Silverstone. “Tyres are problems but everyone's going to struggle,” he explained. “Just look out in the pit lane and look at the pick up . For sure you can see the amount of rubber, the surface seems to be very, very abrasive and it's just destroying tyres. We're going to change every hour and get through 24 sets of tyres.”
Second place overall, and in the premier class was the Rollcentre Mosler, but the no.22 Jet Alliance Porsche had pushed into third place as the Mosler battle at the top had failed to materialise, the No.8 Ferrari in fourth ahead of the next Mosler – that of TopCat Racing. The Speedworks Ginetta continued to be plagued by problems, the electrics to the diff pump necessitating another stop in the garage while a pre-prepared wiring loom was installed in the car.
The Intersport BMW – a driving line-up that includes former BTCC-er Mike Jordan had moved into the lead among the Class 3 cars ahead of the no.42 Porsche of Neil Garner Motorsport and the In 2 Racing Ginetta, the top three all on the same lap.
Mardi Gras - leading Class 4
For the first time in the weekend the no.71 BPM Racing Limited was not leading the production cars, the honour going to the Honda Integra of Mardi Gras Racing, with a full lap lead over the ever present red SEAT.
Class Standings After Three Hours
Class 1
1 – No.3 Wessex Vehicle – Aquila CR1
2 – No.6 Rollcentre Racing – Mosler MT900R GT Cup
3 – No.8 MJC Limited – Ferrari 430 GTC
Class 2
1 – No.22 Jet Alliance – Porsche 997
2 – No.21 Topcat Racing – Marcos Mantis GT3
3 – No.19 Chesterton Commerical Holdings – Marcos Mantis GT3
Class 3
1 – No.39 Intersport – BMW M3 E46
2 – No.42 Neil Garner Motorsport – Porsche 996 GT3 Cup
3 – No.46 In 2 Racing – Ginetta G50 GT4
Class 4
1 – No.91 Mardi Gras Racing – Honda Integra
2 – No.71 BPM Racing – Lean Supercopa
3 – No.83 Team LNT – Ginetta G40
