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Old 9 Jun 2019, 17:52 (Ref:3908820)   #65
Mike Bell
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Mike Bell has a real shot at the championship!Mike Bell has a real shot at the championship!Mike Bell has a real shot at the championship!Mike Bell has a real shot at the championship!Mike Bell has a real shot at the championship!Mike Bell has a real shot at the championship!
So, a quick resume of our 60s Endurance race, as it’s raining at the circuit now and I’m hiding from it.

Gareth started the Elva and fought his way up to 4th overall at one point, which was impressive, to say the least. Michael took over at half way and ‘nurtured’ the car home for 11th, winning class GT2 by nearly 2 laps from the Brit 26R of Alex Montgomery and Nick Sleep. The favoured Elans either broke or fell off, which is not unusual..... 5th in class and 30th o/a in the numerically big GT2 field were the Stephens family and their familiar 356, ahead of many 911s, all the MGBs and other supposedly faster cars. Excellent result as usual.

The two SLRs got good starts, but with the shiny one from several places higher on the grid. Both were started by the owners. The red car started to misfire at high revs on the straight after 30 minutes or so (usually pulling 7k by braking point), but the lap times were only a little slower, so Simon pressed on. John’s car was climbing up the order, got ahead of the Healeys and looked good for GT3 honours. One SC period during the first hour. Both cars then swapped to second drivers, Bill taking over the shiny one and me the red car. Almost immediately there was another short SC period, but I could already feel the misfire problem. For most of the lap it wasn’t a hindrance, but on the straight it was costing a couple of seconds. During the SC period the shiny car suddenly stopped on the side of the track. Bill refused ‘assistance’ and after a few minutes found the problem to be the low tension wire into the dizzy. He managed a ‘bodge’ repair and rejoined, but quite a lot down. From then on it was flat out to the end, apart from one more SC to recover a beached car. By now the red car was P2 in class, and able to slowly draw away from the Healey behind. Then, with less than 10 minutes to go, the class leading Healey spun at the end of the main straight, only rejoining the track after I was past. Talk about all your christmas’s coming at once!

So that’s why it all looked a bit confused on live timing, Gerard! We assumed that the under 2.5 litre championship podium would be Elva, 26R and red SLR, but the goal posts seemed to have moved again, and the GT160 was not included in the category. So 26R, SLR and first 911 home instead. The shiny Morgan still finished 29th o/a and 5th in the Under 2.5s, so some valuable championship points gained. With main opposition not entered or finishing much lower down the order, not the disaster it could have been.....

Next stop, Hungary!
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