So close but miss-fire means a third at Silverstone

A sunny October day saw a field of 32 cars in the penultimate round of the European Endurance Race. The field had been boosted by the Honda Civic Type R of Dave Allen (2002 BTC-Production champion team manager) and Simon Harrison (2001 BTC-Production champion) in a Honda Integra Type R. Both cars and their drivers were being given a shake down prior to racing in Macau.

Qualifying late Saturday showed a problem with the re-engined VW Golf Mark 4 Turbo. "We were down on power. It was fine through the corners and slow parts of the circuit but on the straight we were being overtaken", explained Steve Wood.
Overnight the engine management system was revised, and a sensor moved that was making the engine run too lean.

The two hour race started at 2pm behind a pace car on the Silverstone National circuit. Right from the rolling start Steve overtook cars and by the first corner (Copse) he was up from 5th to 3rd in class. By the end of the second lap he had taken second and was racing to catch Allen who was only 3 seconds in front. On the 4th lap he took Copse very wide going across the grass and tarmac and lost 10 seconds but as Allen was soon to pit for 4 laps there was no need to push quite so hard. One problem though was the fire extinguisher, which had broken loose and proceeded to wreck the radio wiring so the drivers had no means of communicating with the pits.

At the half way point the Frazero liveried car came into the pits for the mandatory refuel and driver change. Stuart Scott took over and tried to consolidate the lead of the class but the car started to miss-fire especially around Luffield. For nearly 50 laps he coaxed the car round the circuit, trying to keep the BMW of Bates and Palmer behind him but he was eventually passed.
As Stuart commented, "I just had to get the car home, there was no point in ending up in the gravel".

On the penultimate lap the third placed car of Stephens and TVR racer Michael Caine over took him and finished just 8 seconds in front. As Stuart explained "Because of the lack of radio I didn't know they were overtaking me for second place otherwise I would have tried harder to keep Caine behind me".

"From 17th on the grid to 8th overall and 5th to 3rd in class was a real achievement"

The final round is at Brands Hatch in three weeks (November 2nd) and it should be a hard fought contest.