With the decision having already been taken to withdraw the CBT/Apex Jaguar XKR GT3 from the Britcar 24, it looked as though Stuart Scott’s domestic season was already over. However, the lure of competition proved too much for the Cambridge Business Travel boss and he hopped aboard the Class 6 VW Lupo Dti of Saxon Motorsport less than a fortnight before the race.

He would be sharing with VW specialist Michael Neuhoff, Historic racer, Marcus Mahy and Porsche racer Neil Primrose, whose day job is the drummer in Travis.

The tiny car was powered by a 1.9ltr turbodiesel engine – Scott’s Jag possessing a 4.2ltr supercharged V8 – but this was a serious entry and class honours was the goal. “Half of the mechanics here work for the Honda F1 squad,“  said Scott. “They’re off to Singapore once this is over.”

Two one-hour test sessions on the Thursday went well, and then it was straight into qualifying on the Friday morning. The one-hour daylight session would set the grid, leaving the night time two-hour ‘qualifying’ session as the time to ensure all drivers completed the mandatory three night laps.

Things couldn’t have gone better in the first session, the car completing 20 laps of the full Grand Prix circuit and finishing on 2:16.748 – 38th overall and, more importantly, first in class.

The good news continued into the evening, with the Lupo managing 38 untroubled laps and all four drivers safely completing the required laps. The VW hung on to its class lead and gained a couple of places overall. But this was an endurance event and, as any racer will tell you, qualifying is largely irrelevant.

The glorious weather continued into Saturday and the forecast was for more of the same throughout the weekend. For the first time, we could look forward to no rain and no fog – both of which have been significant features of previous editions of the race.

Stuart Scott had prepared a treat for the encouragingly large crowd gathered in the Silverstone grandstands, in the form of an aerobatic display by British Aerobatics Champion, Mark Jeffries. The CBT-sponsored Yak 52 defied gravity and logic with a sensational display that suited the occasion perfectly and delighted onlookers.

As 16:30 approached and the grid began to clear, Scott prepared himself for the start, having been given the honour of taking the wheel first.

Sadly, the start of the race was overshadowed by a horrendous crash involving the TVR Sagaris of Andy Neate and the Ginetta of Richard Dean. As the Lupo slowed to thread past the aftermath, its driver could see that this was a bad one; “I’d only been speaking to Andy in the garage a few hours earlier!”

The operation to extract the badly injured TVR driver consumed most of the first hour – but the marshals also had to put down a huge amount of cement dust onto oil dropped by a Mosler round almost the whole length of the circuit. All this time, the cars were circulating behind the safety car; but eventually they were let loose.

For Scott, it was a case of keeping to a steady pace and using the Lupo’s fuel economy to its best advantage. What this meant was that the VW initially dropped down the field to 42nd place, but then started to improve as other, thirstier, cars began to make their stops.

By keeping to a pace as close as possible to 2:30, Scott brought the car back up to 29th place before making his stop for fuel. This, again, was timed to perfection. The maximum driver stint was three hours and Scott arrived in pitlane, having refuelled at the special station, on 2 hours 59 mins and having completed 59 laps. It was now Marcus Mahy’s turn to take the wheel.

During the second, 50-lap, stint, the Lupo not only continued to climb – to 25th – but was now also leading the class after the previous leader hit trouble.

Unfortunately, however, problems were now starting to manifest themselves on the Lupo, too. “Neil’s just got in the car, but he’s come straight back in after a lap,” said a watching Stuart Scott. “The engine’s losing power above 3,500 revs, so they’re changing the airflow metre.” As he spoke, a very hot Marcus Mahy staggered past; “My water bottle didn’t work!” he gasped.

The problem resolved, the Scot took the Lupo back out; and the car’s progress continued, rising as high as 23rd during his stint. But on lap 159, the engine issue was back and a 15 minute unscheduled stop was required, during which the class lead was surrendered.

Michael Neuhoff took over at just past one o’clock, by which time Stuart Scott was tucked up in his motorhome, trying to get some sleep before his next stint at dawn.

Alas, when he returned, suited and booted, to the pits, he found the car in the garage, having the fuel pump replaced. “There’s so much cement dust out on track that you’re driving through clouds of the stuff all the time,” he said. “It’s probably clogged up the pump, causing it to fail. The team have decided to give the car a complete checkover at the same time.”

The early morning pit-time cost the team over three hours – over the course of several stops – but at no point did they consider throwing in the towel. Eventually, the car settled into another sustained period of pace and reliability; requiring just one more lengthy stop before the end. The Lupo even managed to set its fastest lap of the race – 2:17.443, less than a second off its qualifying pace – on its 383rd lap out of 437.

But the car made it to the end; taking the crowd's applause 34th overall and third in class. It may have been 166 laps behind the winner, but just finishing a 24 hour race is a victory in its own right.

“It was a great shame about the mechanical problems we suffered during the night,” reflected Stuart Scott, “but the boys never gave up and they got us home. They’re a great bunch of lads and the drivers gelled well, too.       

“I’ve thoroughly enjoyed my time with Saxon Motorsport and I wish them well with the future of this project.”

With that, it was time for a well-earned rest, and to reflect on a memorable weekend.