MJC Ltd's Ferrari 430 prepares to pull away from pitlane (Photo Credit: Chris Gurton Photography)
Hour nine saw a few driver swaps but otherwise there was little incident as the race leader brought the lap tally to over 200.
The No. 2 Eclipse Ferrari made its eleventh stop of the race at the end of its 199th lap, pitting from a five lap lead. Phil Keen stepped out of the car to give Sean McInerney the opportunity to complete that double century of laps for the team.
Sporting a new piece of white race tape of the bonnet, but otherwise seeming to run beautifully, the blue and white Ferrari 430 emerged from the pits with a comfortable lead.
The No. 3 Topcats Mosler team also made their eleventh swap, using that opportunity to take Henry Fletcher out of the car and substitute him with Freddie Hetherington. The team continued to run in a comfortable second place.
Third in class one is still the No. 1 car – the MJC Ltd Ferrari 430 – which has steadily been recovering from some difficult opening hours to back up into sixth place overall. Fans of the Aquila will be pleased to know that John Martin was also back in the car and, if he can put in a stint as good as the last one, that yellow No. 6 car should once again be marching up the order in subsequent hours.
Other Class One cars were not fairing so well. The No.4 Strata 21 Mosler team, which a couple of hours ago seemed to be chipping away steadily at the huge gap between them and the leader cars, were now slipping back once again.
The No 7. BMW Z4 team are not having much to cheer either. They have encountered problem after problem with their brand new car this weekend and it was seen being pushed up the pit lane during the ninth hour. They were languishing some seventy laps behind the leaders, and the remaining fourteen hours will surely just be a test session for them.
2011 Britcar 24 Hours Class Leaders after Hour Nine:
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.57 Lotus – Euser/Prewitt/Brody/Freebird/McKinnon
3 – No.68 BMW – Clarke/Gibson/Radcliffe/Hayes
Class Four:
1 – No.83 Lotus – Chamberlain/Randeria/Fillingham/Webb
2 – No.88 Honda – Smail/Meins/Lillingston-Price/Harding
3 – No.89 BMW – Griffiths/Green/Forsbrey/Kirkpatrick
