Spa 25 Hours

On the 9th and 10th July, the esteemed Spa Francorchamps circuit, played host for the fifteenth consecutive year, to the world’s longest race; the Fun Cup 25 hours.

Teams from Belgium, Italy, France, Germany and of course the UK, gathered at the world famous circuit, to fight for the honour of their nations.

The British TDI car 252, Happy Racing, driven by Jason Porter, Max Hunter and ex BTCC racer, James Pickford, set overall pole for the UK. It was Pickford who stole the show, with a 3:00:41 lap – over half a second faster than 2nd place.

Twenty UK cars had made the journey to the prestigious circuit and from the start it was clear that a battle for UK glory was emerging between Paul Rose, Steve Harris, Tim Wheeldon and Scott FitzGerald in JPR Motorsport, car 146 and Happy Racing, both TDIs.

The weather at the Ardennes Forest circuit is notoriously unpredictable and for the first time in many years, the rolling start was a wet one. Happy Racing settled down to 3rd place until the fuelling stops. By the end of the maximum 2 hour driver stint, JPR 146 had moved up to British P1 and the race was on.

During the night running, both teams suffered from brake problems and driveshaft failures, moving them up and down the leader board. JPR 146 pitted around 2.00 am with the rear right corner on fire also!

By mid afternoon and with three hours remaining on the clock, the two teams were separated by mere seconds. They both had one refuelling stop and one driver change to make, but a refuelling problem dropped Happy back by sixty seconds from JPR 146 and Hunter was unable to make an impression on JPR’s Rose in wet conditions, as he increased his lead to 2 minutes by the end.

After 25 hours, JPR 146 took the flag in 11th place overall, 1:45:3 seconds ahead of Happy Racing. They were 2nd for the UK and 13th overall. Meanwhile, in a last-minute dash to the flag on the final lap, CCS Media’s car 248 overhauled Track Torque’s car 211, who were plagued by mechanical issues and grabbed 3rd UK place by a mere 5 seconds, finishing 18th overall .

It was a bitter disappointment for the boys in 211, but the CCS car, prepared by Solutions Racing, just managed to take advantage of their misfortune and “pipped” them at the post.

CCS’s Alan Honarmand said: “It was a terrific team effort and a well deserved result for the CCS Media team. Let’s see if we can improve on it next year.”

JPR’s Tim Wheeldon said: “That was an incredible battle: 25 hours of wheel-to-wheel racing and less than two minutes between us and Happy Racing at the end – what a race!”

Happy Racing’s Jason Porter added: “We had a brilliant weekend, the car was fantastic the whole time. Thanks to some great work by the team before and during the race and even the ‘nuts’ behind the wheel didn't break it!”

He continued: “To get pole in the dying minutes was brilliant and shows the speed of James, plus the great set up of the car. Our strategy during the race kept us in contention even with failing brakes. A drive shaft breaking put us out of the main race, but

we were embroiled in a great battle with JPR to the end. A great team effort.”

Petrol Classification

In the petrol class, Will Pembroke, John Bullough, James Somerton, Mark Hope and Robin Parsons had much to smile about in the 88 JPR/Ecurie Escargot car, as they took home the trophy for overall petrol winners. They finished over ten laps ahead of 2^nd place UK petrol, car 105, Porsche Byfleet.

The JPR petrol boys were lucky; they stayed out of trouble, worked a clever fuel strategy and miraculously only succumbed to one unplanned pit stop, which was for a puncture. Congratulations to the team, who finished 23rd overall and described the event as

“epic”.

The 2nd placed petrol, team Porsche Byfleet, was driven by Scott Kavanagh, John Halestrap and Pete James. Congratulations to the trio on their superb drive!

Meanwhile, 3rd UK petrol was the Jolly Roger, 111 car, driven by Andrew Beverley, Mark Jaffrey and Mark Donaldson. The Jolly Roger team was running well, 2nd in class and 26^th overall, when it lost 40 minutes, being recovered to the pits twice because of alternator and battery problems. This knocked it right back to 88th overall and 8th in class. Its only way forward from there was by banging in the laps consistently, but this progress was stalled when it was recovered to the pits again with a broken drive shaft.

From then on, 111 ran free from any major incident, putting in consistently good times, and allowing them to push forward. The final session was tense with 111 taking over 3rd spot from the

British 334 car early in the session, with some superb pace in the wet from Mark Donaldson. He built a sufficient lead to ensure that the rapidly closing 334, Track Focused team, could not bridge the gap before the finish line, with 111 holding on for its first podium at Spa by 40 seconds, finishing 46th overall.

The team thanked Dave Didcock and the rest of Jolly Roger Racing’s pit crew for their great efforts in helping them reach the final step of the petrol podium.