The team has competed in all three Britcar Silverstone 24 hour races to date and after last year's double finish hopes were high. Civic regulars Gary Coulson and Hubert Hinklehoffer were joined by Myles Hufford and 24 hour returnee Jonathan Berney. In the team's M3 regular drivers Mike Gardiner and Paul Fenton were joined again by Sarah Reader and new team mate Will Curtis. In case a 24 hour race was not enough entertainment for the weekend Will raced this June in Britsports and led the air display in the Road Angel plane!
Qualifying is never a priority in 24 hour racing so the team rotated the drivers through the car and quite happily settled for the M3 in 26th (4th in class) and Civic 54th (9th in class) with no damage or breakages. Ominously the Civic qualified next to "The Stig" in the Top Gear car, fortunately they did not take up their grid slot preventing a first corner televised incident on BBC2.
The start as always was frenetic for many whilst the Moore Racing duo of Mike Gardiner and Gary Coulson stayed out of trouble and got on with it. It's impossible to describe all the highs and lows of a 24 hour race in a short article. At the end, after fog, a race suspension and a huge amount of hard work the M3 crossed the line in 33rd (8th in class) and the Civic 43rd (6th in class). The M3 had run in the top 10 and third in class as late as 17 and a half hours into the race when a diff failure caused a lengthy pit stop to replace. A subsequent wishbone issue also dropped the car down the order. For the Civic a number of excursions early in the race required running repairs and then most unusually the almost unheard of failure of a Honda issue at twenty hours. The Civic returned to the fray for the last four laps to classify as a finisher.
From a field of 60 cars one third did not finish. Once again Moore Racing had beaten the odds by getting two cars home as classified finishers, no repeat of last years podium but a strong result nonetheless. Once again proving the maxim that before you beat the competition, you have to beat the race. The 4th running of the Britcar 24hour will come around fast and the team will be back!
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Contact: Richard Moore - 07939 569027 or Paul Fenton - 07801 417931 |