All this week we have been looking ahead to the 2015 Dunlop 24 at Silverstone, going class by class though the entry and looking at the chances. Action gets underway tomorrow, when we will start to find out if our predictions come true but today we take a look at the final two classes. Classes four and five are the production based cars and are highly unlikely to produce an overall podium but the action will still be fierce.
The big story here comes in the form of a charity run from EMC Motorsport who have entered a returning Britcar favorite. The Porsche 969 last competed in 2007 and will run under the CHF500 banner in 2015. Team boss Alex Eacock will be joined by Paul Follett, Jonathan Evans and Ben Demitriou in the race, for which all sponsorship and proceeds will be donated to the Children’s Heart Federation. They will no doubt be a force in class 4 come Saturday.
The Bas Koeten Racing team will also be at the sharp end of the field no doubt. Equipped with the latest SEAT Leon Cup car the only question will be over the car’s ability to withstand a twice round the clock race. Experienced Dutchmen Karel Gils Bassem, Harry Hilders and Roger Grouwels should be hopeful of success but they will face challenges from Speedworks Motorsport among others.
Don’t worry about Speedworks being busy, they are a top class professional outfit who should have no problems running their battle proven Ginetta G50 alongside the class 3 Aston Martin we discussed yesterday. The team haven’t nominated any drivers as yet but there is little doubt that the chassis, a veteran of many Britcar rounds, Bathurst and Creventic’s 24 Hours Series, has the pace to take class victory.
In fact nearly all the entries in class 4 have extensive endurance racing experience. The Sub Zero & Wolf entered older SEAT, the Leon Supercopa, with Craig Davies, Sean McInerney, Paul Smith and James Thorpe has established longevity. The WEC Motorsport 1 BMW M3 of Dave Cox, Jason Cox and Michael Cox is a family effort with strong chances as is the similarly equipped JR Motorsport M3 GTR. Britons Steve Liquorish and Mark Jaffray will share the Dutch pairing of Martin Lanting and Eric van de Munkhof.
The final card in the class 4 deck is another new shape SEAT Leon. Entered under the SICL.com banner the all British driving line-up includes ex-BTCC racer Martin Byford. The former AmD Miltek man will be joined by Ashley Woodman, Rob Cullum and Jonny Cullum. The same stamina concerns about the car apply as for the Bas Koeten machine.
The need to pick a winner pushes in the direction of proven performance and the Speedworks team. The Ginetta G50 not only has impressive pace but has been racing for years. The Leon Supercopa could definitely put up a challenge though and the charitable side is rooting for a strong run for CHF500.
In class 5 the pickings are a little slimmer and there are no concerns about picking the three cars which will make up the class podium. In fact there are little concerns on the picking a winner front either. Barring accident or incident the Red Camel – Jordans.nl SEAT Leon is a shoe in for victory. Ivo Breukers, Sjaco Griffoen and Rik Breukers are highly experienced and the car wants for little when it comes for prep.
The scrap will probably be for second place, between Mensley Motorsport and WEC Motorsport 2. The Mensley outfit, headed up by Paul Mensley bring a Ford Fiesta to the party. The team boss will share with four other British drivers, Nick Boon, James Ashton, Mike Nash and Paul Anderton. The second WEC entered car, a SEAT Leon Supercopa, will also run an all British crew. Gavin Spencer, Frank Pettitt, Carey Lewis and Andy Ruthven seem to stand a stronger chance given the race proven history of the SEAT.
The Dunlop 24 at Silverstone gets underway in anger with a 40 minute practice and warm up session at 0930 tomorrow. Full coverage of the race weekend will be available on thecheckeredflag.co.uk.
