|
With half the
race now run, it has been an action-packed 12 hours for the Care Racing
sponsored Prodrive Ferrari team.
Car 66 has been leading the GTS class for the last 4 hours, with a 6 lap
advantage over the Oliver Gavin led Chevrolet Corvette C5-R, and continues to
run strongly with no technical problems.
An unscheduled visit to the pits by Alain Menu at 0150 hrs, for investigation
into a possible engine misfire, was discovered to be a ball of tyre rubber stuck
in one of the car's air restrictors. The drivers are all double stinting, and
have not expressed any concerns.
It has been a rather more adventurous time for car 65 with spins as well as high
points for the drivers. Darren Turner earlier set the fastest GTS race lap
record of 3m52.223, but was forced to come into the pits for an extensive,
unscheduled stop just after the halfway point due to gearbox problems.
He had just taken over from Rickard Rydell who had reported gear selection
difficulties but these continued to deteriorate so the decision was made to
change the gears.
Colin McRae, meanwhile, is the only driver within the team to have completed a
triple stint. The Scot put in an extremely solid performance but unfortunately
had a spin just before he was due to come into the pits which cost him
approximately 40 seconds.
He commented that he was extremely annoyed with himself, to have spoilt almost
three hours of running with a spin, and that the triple stint was the hardest
thing he'd ever done in a car! He had, however, gained valuable time over his
nearest competitor, and the car had been well placed at 3rd in GTS before the
gearbox concerns.
|
|
