Eclipse Motorsport (Photo Credit: Chris Gurton Photography)
Eclipse Motorsport‘s Ferrari 430 leads the Britcar 24 Hour Race at Silverstone, as the event enters its final sixty minutes.
The McInerney trio slowed their pace once their last main rival – Topcats Racing Mosler – suffered a failure and accident at Brooklands early in the afternoon.
It left the Ferrari-powered squad with a lead of fifteen laps over the Nicholas Mee Aston Martin Racing team – a position that leaves the Aston top of the Class Three standings.
Another Class Three machine currently fills the final podium spot, with the number 57 Marcos Racing Lotus Evora clinging on admirably, just over a lap shy of second spot.
The second Topcats entry – the no.53 Marcos Mantis GT3 – was a good distance from its fellow Class Three competitors. The number 43 machine was a clear sixteen laps off of the podium, although with Kevin Clarke's BMW M3 a distant 5th, the Mantis crew were settling for a suitable reward.
Motionsport pulled themselves up to 6th with one hour remaining. The Lotus-driven team headed by Mark Griffiths BMW M3 (Class Four leaders) by a couple of tours, while the recovering no.27 Topcats assumed 8th overall and leading in Class 2.
Class victory is a foregone conclusion for the Topcats entry – the Marcos Mattis machine is the sole Class 2 machine still sunning in the race.
That's not to say the position is completely comfortable. Red Camel kept the Topcats team on their toes in their own Seat Leon, aided somewhat by only making twelve stops throughout.
Nigel Mustill's Class 1 Aquila CR1 completed the top ten, but is catching the 8th and 9th positions quickly and may have them before race end.
There was little action through the 23rd hour as cars and machines settle into the final stages; however the silence was broken somewhat by separate offs for the Piranha Motorsport Ginetta G40 (#91) and the Jet Black Renault Clio (#95) – both continued.
2011 Britcar 24 Hours class leaders after hour 23
Class One:
1 – No.2 Ferrari – McInerney/McInerney/Keen
2 – No.6 Aquila – Mustill/Berridge/Evans/Marti
3 – No.3 Mosler – Beaumont/Fletcher/Draper/Hetherington
Class Two:
1 – No.27 Marcos – Upton/Huggins/Fletcher/Orton
Class Three:
1 – No.49 Aston Martin – Le Blanc/Van Lanschot/De Zille/Nimkoff
2 – No.57 Lotus – Euser/Prewitt/Brody/Freebird/McKinnon
3 – No.53 Marcos – Shimojima/Seya/Kakiuchi/Kikuchi
Class Four:
1 – No.89 BMW – Griffiths/Green/Forsbrey/Kirkpatrick
2 – No.84 Seat – Breukers/Thijssen/Jensiew/Han
3 – No.77 BMW – Cox/Cox/Cox/Stubber
Follow live coverage from The Checkered Flag here: http://www.thecheckeredflag.co.uk/2011/10/2011-britcar-24-hours-live-coverage/
