Lotus Exige Finishes 1st In Class

Lotus Exige finishes 1st in Class

Britcar 24 hour Race at Silverstone

20th & 21st September 2008

Lotus Exige entered by Red Motorsport

finishes 1st in Class3 and 5th overall

Drivers :

Martin Roos

Luc de Cock

Matthew Becker

Mark Fullalove

Gavan Kershaw

Summary:

Lotus Exige Cup260 prepared by RED Motorsport successfully finishes the Britcar 24hr race.

Winning "Class 3" by 44 laps

Finishing 5th place overall

Event won by an ex-ALMS Porsche 911 RSR GT2 in a 51 car field including Dodge Viper, Mosler GT2, BMW M3 GTR, Porsche 911 GT3 and Aston Martin Vantage N24

Day Qualifying: 2nd in Class 3 and 19th Overall

A one hour session in daylight on Friday, for each driver to complete a minimum of three timed laps to qualify for the race event. With five drivers to qualify in such a short time, each driver was allowed an "out" lap, a single "flying" lap and then back to the pitlane.

The car was first run by team owner Martin Roos setting a comfortable 2:21.5 laptime, declaring that "the car is perfect!" Having not even seen (or sat in) the car prior to Friday morning, the Lotus drivers then proceeded to qualify with each completing their allowed single 'flying' lap. The session ended with Gavan Kershaw setting the best laptime of 2:03.5. A comfortable, but quick lap under 0.5 second behind the class pole BMW M3 CSL. A successful first session with Martin Roos' broad smile underlining his feeling of "a good weekend to come".

Night Qualifying: 2nd in Class 3 and 16th Overall

A 2 hour session run in darkness on the Friday evening from 20:00 until 22:00. Again each driver was required to complete a minimum of three timed laps to qualify for the 24 hour race. The night session laptimes not being counted towards grid position, which was fixed by the daylight qualifying session earlier in the day. The session ended with Gavan Kershaw setting the best laptime of 2:04.4, again less than 0.5 second behind the class pole BMW M3 CSL. Apart from Martin Roos, none of the drivers had experienced race driving in the dark. Matthew Becker returning from his laps exclaiming "Totally different, but that was fun!"

Race day

Warm-up

A short 30 min session to make final checks 2 hours prior to the start of the race. Luc de Cock taking the opportunity for more track time before starting the race for the RED Motorsport team. After the session finished, the team were approached by the race officials with the message that the car was "a little noisy". So despite successfully completing technical scrutineering and the qualifying sessions, the team rapidly had to work on a solution. An exhaust tailpipe "elbow" (as worn by most of the rest of the competing cars) was fabricated and fitted just in time, so the car could take its place on the starting grid.

Race

Under an unusually sunny Northamptonshire sky, the 51 cars assembled on the Grand Prix grid. VIP guests from RED Motorsport's primary sponsors Evonik, joined the car on the grid to add to the atmosphere of anticipation. Evonik's Head of Automotive Industries team, Klaus Hedrich voiced his enthusiasm "I'm proud to be part of such an exciting event, with a great team".

With Luc de Cock driving the Red Motorsport Exige, the field of cars commenced its formation lap behind the pace car, heading towards the rolling start at 16:30 for 24 hours of racing. Luc managed to avoid misfortune as the leaders had a horrific accident as the field accelerate over the startline. This led to the first hour of the race being conducted behind the safety car, as the medical and safety services attended the scene of the accident. With the Exige up in 13th position, the race eventually began for real with green flags waving at the startline. After an uneventful 35 minutes, Luc headed for the fuel pits for the first scheduled stop, then into the main pits to hand over to Martin for his first driving stint. Martin rejoined and settled into a good race pace.

All was well on Red Motorsport pitwall after the team had smoothly completed the first re-fuelling and driver-change pit-stop. However after ½ hour the race officials warned the team of a noise infringement, team manager Paul Birch clarified the situation with race control before radioing Martin to come into the pits for checks. The Lotus exceeding the track's allowable limit by a single dB! When the car reached the pit lane it was obvious that the rapidly fabricated temporary exhaust tailpipe elbow had fallen off! Although a static noise test in the pit lane was passed, the scrutineers insisted on remedial action before the car could return to the race. The combined German and English crew of mechanics worked quickly to create a solution from nothing as the race continued. In all only 12 minutes were lost, as another noise reducing tailpipe was fitted, however as this had never been fitted to the car previously this led to an unexpected issue. The hot exhaust gases were now directed on to the rear bodywork, this was obvious as the car pass the team on the pitwall with blackening paintwork around the exhaust! A watching brief over the next few laps confirmed no safety issues, with damage limited to cosmetics. However the decision was taken to manufacture a new exhaust tailpipe extension. The regulations state the possibility of exclusion for repeated noise infringements and with the exhaust heat potentially melting the rear lights, which would be needed in the fast approaching darkness, the team planned another pit-stop.

Martin continued to drive his full stint and came in as planned for fuel and handed over to Matthew for his first stint, while the team worked to fabricate a new tailpipe extension. A solid and consistent stint was abruptly interrupted as one of the slower cars (Honda) struck the Lotus during an overtaking manoeuvre on the front right. With the suspicion of damage, Matthew radioed the pits and headed in. The team took this chance to action the exhaust tailpipe work, while checking the car for accident damage. The exhaust work entailing welding, which could only be carried out away from the pit lane and garage, the car was wheeled through the garage into the paddock area behind. Despite such involved work, the teams planning and expertise lost less than 10 minutes, including a driver change. Ex-British Touring Car driver Mark Fullalove took the wheel for his first stint, rejoining now 14 laps behind the leader due to the unexpected noise remedial work. The only "injury" sustained in its Honda encounter being an off centre steering wheel, but with the car handling fine. The time lost had dropped the team down to 29th position

The race had now entered darkness. The responsibility of the night stints being borne by the Lotus' drivers. Mark and Matthew completing two stints each with British GT star Gavan Kershaw's third night stint ending as a colourful autumn dawn broke. A professional and measured night had seen the team pace the Exige in a fast but controlled manner. The team's strategy and precise teamwork at planned fuel stops, complemented the Lotus' fast and reliable progress. The Lotus Exige driving into the daylight in fantastic 7th position overall. The car had completed over 340 laps in 15 hours trouble-free racing, but there still was another long 9 hours of hard racing to be completed!

The team continued with its planned strategy, stretching fuel stops to over 1 hour and 40 minutes of racing. This underlined the efficiency of the Exige's Lotus-developed supercharged 4-cylinder Toyota engine. With "only" a 70 litre fuel tank installed, rather than the maximum regulation 120 litre tank, the Lotus fuelling stops were still more than a match for the other competitors. The team, drivers and car performing in an measured rhythm throughout the morning. Only when less than 4 hours of the race remained did the team's thoughts turn to class and overall positions. With the solid, fast driving of Gavan and Mark over, the last three driving stints commenced with Matthew's final time behind the wheel. Despite this being his first 24 hour race (and in fact only his third motor race ever!), he had displayed controlled pace during the night (as all the Lotus drivers had), but this stint he was allowed to drive a little faster.

Within this session Matthew set the car's fastest lap time of the race and pushed the Lotus up to incredible 5th position overall. He then handed the car over to Luc, who continued the good work of the past 22 hours. With the end almost in sight the final fuel and driver-change stop took place, Martin climbing aboard and rejoining the race in 6th position. All teams had now completed fuel stops and it was the race to the 24th hour. At a time when most of the field of remaining cars were cruising (or limping) around happy to protect mechanical problems, Martin hustled the Exige around chasing the cars in front. The mechanical robustness of the Lotus allowed him to attack, catch and pass to claim 5th position overall.

At the chequered flag, Martin roared home just two laps behind the third placed car and only 11 laps behind the winning Porsche 911 RSR GT2. An excellent class win by over 44 laps (over 1½ hours!) from a BMW M3 CSL.

The team, drivers, sponsors and fans were delighted with such a strong finish for the Lotus Exige and headed to collect their well-deserved trophies at the prize-giving event. Later as the team headed home, there was just a little thought to a single decibel that cost the team 14 laps and what might have been a true giant-killing result!

Race report by Paul Birch