Having entered the inaugral Silverstone 24 hour with the teams BMW M3, we returned in 2006 with the BMW and Honda Civic Type-R with the objective of getting two cars to the finish.
The BMW M3 enjoyed a strong start to the race and had reached the class lead and 6th Overall at the 6 hour mark. Shortly afterwards a clutch failure during a routine pitstop forced the car into the garage for a lengthy delay. The driving team of Sarah Reader, Michael Symons, Mike Gardiner and Paul Fenton then drove long stints to keep the car in the classification. A fuel contamination issue picked up from the on-site pumps hampered the car in the final few hours leading to a frustrating end to a great event 5th in class. The objective of completing the race had been achieved but having lead the class at one point against top class competition it was dissappointing to drop to 5th.
The Honda Civic enjoyed a far better run with a driver line up that had not met before the event. Gary Coulson, Jonathan Berney, Bob Rice and Ian Guest drove the car steadily and stayed out of trouble for the majority of the race. A short spell of rallycross during the night caused an unplanned pit vist to repair the oil cooler and assess for other damage. Aside from this the Civic kepy going around liek clockwork eventually finishing 3rd in class against touring car opposition with highly experienced driver line ups.
A very tired and emotional team had worked hard all through the race to keep the cars going and achieve a rare double finish fopr a team in a 24 hour event.
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Contact: Richard Moore - 07939 569027 or Paul Fenton - 07801 417931 |