Mazda MX5 (Photo Credit: Chris Gurton Photography)
With the night sky shadowing the Silverstone circuit, Eclipse Motorsport maintained its heady lead after ten hours of the Britcar 24 Hour race.
A stellar performance from the troupe in the Ferrari 430 held its three-lap lead over 2nd placed rivals Topcats Racing and their Mosler GT2 entry; however It was all change behind the leading pair.
Rising to third place were fellow Class 1 racers MJC. The squad, in their Ferrari 430 machine steadily climbed the order passing several Class Two and Three cars on its way to the podium position.
Having started the tenth hour in 6th place, the Gamski entry passed the Marcos Racing Lotus Evora (lap 225) and the Nicholas Mee Aston Martin (lap 232) to assume 4th place.
That would become 3rd due to a misfiring Topcats Racing Marcos Mantis GT3. The Class Two leaders lost several minutes repairing the issue, dropping to 4th upon release.
A routine stop helped Marcos International take the Class 3 lead and 5th overall ahead of the Nicholas Mee Aston.
Intersport's BMW M3 runs a credible 7th, three laps adrift of the leading half-dozen. There was little to worry the BMW from behind – Dorset Sports Car Porsche was a further three laps off of the BMW in 8th.
Nigel Mustill's Aquila CR1 entered the hour in 11th; however that became 9th as the Class 1 squad continue to recover their race, passing Pete Storey's Lotus Elise before the hour was out.
Richard Chamberlain's CTR Developments had also shown well. The Lotus Elise squad was sitting 8th for a time, until a wheel bearing failure threw the GT4 machine off circuit at Abbey. It was enough to bring out another safety car and drop the Class 4 squad to 20th overall.
Mardi Gras Motorsports were the biggest beneficiaries. CTR’s problem handed the Honda Integra team the Class 4 lead and 11th on the overall sheets.
2011 Britcar 24 Hours class leaders after hour ten
Class One:
1 – No.2 Ferrari – McInerney/McInerney/Keen
2 – No.3 Mosler – Beaumont/Fletcher/Draper/Hetherington
3 – No.1 Ferrari – Gamski/Robinson/Gaw/Dryburgh
Class Two:
1 – No.27 Marcos – Upton/Huggins/Fletcher/Orton
2 – No.5 Porsche – Konopka/O'Donnell/Myszkowski/Lewandowski/Edwards
Class Three:
1 – No.57 Lotus – Euser/Prewitt/Brody/Freebird/McKinnon
2 – No.49 Aston Martin – Le Blanc/Van Lanschot/De Zille/Nimkoff
3 – No.68 BMW – Clarke/Gibson/Radcliffe/Hayes
Class Four:
1 – No.88 Honda – Smail/Meins/Lillingston-Price/Harding
2 – No.89 BMW – Griffiths/Green/Forsbrey/Kirkpatrick
3 – N0.80 Honda – Stanbridge/Okumura/Wheeler/Hack
