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Uniroyal Team Challenge - Race 2

Silverstone 15^th May 2004

Car 41 - Team Prestige Motorsport: Trevor Gibbs, Heather Darwin, Alistair Stenhouse.

by Christopher Darwin

Our first race at Donington on 27^th March was a great beginning and we were very happy to finish ninth out of 19 starters. Silverstone would show whether this was a fluke. The four-hour race was scheduled for 3^rd May but was cancelled due to lack of marshals; however, a three-hour race was arranged for 15^th May.

Perhaps because the first time doing anything challenging is usually more exciting than the second, it was hard to have the same enthusiasm at Silverstone. This problem was exacerbated by the fact that Silverstone looks like a prison camp within an industrial estate – lots of wire fences and grey buildings. Furthermore the national circuit, although 1.64 miles, seemed like a go kart circuit with several near-hairpins and poor sight lines. The view from the pits was very limited – just a glimpse through the wire netting as the car passed; at Donington the pit crew had had an excellent view – and for the drivers the track there was more interesting with better sight lines. However, the Silverstone catering arrangements were good and the weather was fine and dry again.

Qualifying in the morning went well. We had decided on a different fuel policy from Donington and had practised pitstops. The draw for the grid put us at 13 out of 17 starters. Car 41 was as ready as it could be for the start at 1300.

Trevor was the first driver, followed by Heather and Alistair, and by half time we were ninth. Several faster cars had dropped out due to mechanical problems, and the slower cars were behind. Could we keep it going? We were having problems with slow refuelling – no fuel gauge for the 40 litre tank - and I was concerned that my calculations may be wrong. We ensured all the calculated amount for the last refuel was loaded despite the time taken during the pit stop as the last litres of Optimax glugged slowly in.

With half an hour to go we were 7^th, and the eighth car was 18 seconds behind and catching up. However, Alistair had got the hang of the circuit and was going faster than ever (three laps of his last six at his best: 1min 14.7secs) and easily kept the pursuer at bay – we finished seventh out of eleven finishers.

Reading the results it was interesting to see that six cars with faster best lap times finished behind us, three because they broke. We seem to have a good combination in the three drivers, the car has been reliable and the drivers have looked after it. We hope to improve our pit stop times.

The next race will be a four-hour event at Brands Hatch on Saturday 12^th June. If you are interested, the website has information and pictures - Car 41 features in the Donington ‘Photo Gallery’ - as well as details of the Sky Television coverage. We hope to keep the result in the first ten.

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