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Qualifying session 2
The conditions looked a lot more favourable for the second session, the track was dry and had been dried out by the BGTC and BTCS cars that had run before. The team noted that they had started on treaded tyres, but had soon all changed to full slick tyres. The team decided to put Richard Ince in the car for the first part of the session and he set a very quick time, of around 3:10.. This put is in the top 15 cars and the team were happy with such a good starting position. Then the driver change happened and it was apparent that the track was getting quicker as the times continued to tumble and the team slid down the times.. Mark then put in an even quicker lap and moved the team to a 3:09 time. Austin then had his stint in the car and although he set some quick times he couldn’t better the time of Mark and so the team would line up an excellent 23rd on the grid. The job had been done, with a decent qualifying platform to start from the race looked good. The team qualified as the 3rd quickest British entered car.
Saturday
No practice before the race, the car was checked and prepared for the grueling race ahead. The team carried out final training and dry runs of tasks that would happen throughout the race and drilled those until they were like clockwork. The team also prepared the car for the night time part of the race.
The race
Richard started in the car and initially the team dropped down a few places, but then started to pick those dropped places back. Meanwhile other cars were coming into the pits, to get bodywork damage repaired and also punctures repaired, which mostly seemed to occur due to the bodywork damage incurred. Ideally the team wouldn’t see the car in the pits for two hours... The team seemed to gain momentum and picked a number of places back up, which put them in the top twenty cars. After completing the fuel stops (every hour or so, depending on “Code 60s” or Safety Car periods) the drivers changes occurred every two hours and the team put into action their strategy of who would go in the car when. Code 60s were initially used to control the pace of the racing, each marshall’s post would display a sign indicating that a full course safety was in place and drivers should not exceed 60KPH, but were allowed to overtake slower moving vehicles. About one-third into the race the officials decided that this system was being abused and so introduced safety cars, under which no overtaking could take place. Depending on which safety car you were behind it was easy to lose one third of a lap quite quickly, of course there were also opportunities to pick up a third of a lap, if you were behind the same safety car. The team carried on it’s sterling work and the car ran almost faultlessly. The light bar fitting (for the night part of the race) was carried out in record speed and the eventual removal of this was also carried out in quick time and coincided with a major pit stop, thus minimal time was lost to this obligatory work. Unfortunately bad timing and luck seemed to largely count against the team as again and again our driver changes happened just prior to Safety Car periods ,whereas other teams were able to take advantage of these periods. The team did have a couple of unexpected stops, but once more rose to the challenges presented and carried out the work in a quick and professional manner. In the end the drivers brought the car home in 3rd place in the British class, a podium finish and very creditable 27th overall. A great race, well run, with some more lessons learnt! Needless to say most of the team had been up for about 30 hours, with team members grabbing a quick 1 or 2 hours sleep here and there to recharge the batteries.. Team RAM (Richard, Austin and Mark) were very proud to be the third placed British car, the overall winning team was a British entry and both that and the second placed British car were prepared and supported by JPR, who are effectively the manufacturer entered cars in the British championship, therefore Team RAM, with preparation and support provided by Richmond Racing were the highest place British privateer entry. The end result was no mean feat, especially after the logistical problems encountered on the Wednesday!
The next round of the Funcup Championship is at Snetterton.
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