The last moments of darkness at the Britcar 24 (Photo Credit: Chris Gurton Photography)
The fourteenth hour of the 2011 Britcar 24 Hours at Silverstone ended with the first promises of sunlight over Northamptonshire to bring warmth to the crowds who have braved the night.
The sunlight greets – a little aptly – the Eclipse Motorsport Ferrari which still holds a comfortable lead of three laps at the top of the overall standings and also Class One as the Topcats Racing Mosler and MJC Ferrari continue in second and third respectively. The MJC Ltd entry however is running with a cracked manifold, though Keith Robinson returned to the cockpit for a double stint .
The team have an eight lap advantage over the Nicholas Mee Racing Aston Martin in the overall standings, with the same margin standing between them and the Aquila in the Class One standings.
John Martin has returned to the cockpit of the Aquila, with the car's lap times being cut accordingly. Aided by a long stop by the Topcats Racing Marcos – replacing brake pads all round, the driveshaft and curing an oil leak – the Australian ended the hour in fifth overall. The Marcos ended the hour in eighth.
In Class Three the Intersport BMW have moved into second place behind the Nicholas Mee Aston, pushing the Marcos International entered Lotus Evora back to third after battling for the lead only a couple of hours ago.
Mark Griffiths' Brunswick Automotive BMW continues to lead on Class Four after benefitting during the night from the troubles for the CTR Developments Lotus. Behind them, the class order remains the same with Mardi Gras and Red Camel second and third ahead of the Journalist-driven Mazda MX5 – the team pitting the car during the hour, Autosport writer Ben Anderson making way for Andrew Frankel.
After fighting back from losing time in the pits after being adjudged too loud during Saturday's portion of the race the ARC Bratislava car has been knocked out due to terminal clutch problems after climbing back into the top 15 places overall.
2011 Britcar 24 Hours class leaders after hour fourteen
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.49 Aston Martin – Le Blanc/Van Lanschot/De Zille/Nimkoff
2 – No.68 BMW – Clarke/Gibson/Radcliffe/Hayes
3 – No.57 Lotus – Euser/Prewitt/Brody/Freebird/McKinnon
Class Four:
1 – No.89 BMW – Griffiths/Green/Forsbrey/Kirkpatrick
2 – No.88 Honda – Smail/Meins/Lillingston-Price/Harding
3 – N0.84 Seat – Breukers/Thijssen/Jensiew/Han
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