Silverstone 24hr Report
The Silverstone 24hr - the first round for some time of the Silverlake C1 Racing series and it was a true tale of ups and downs for the RABsport team running both our own #432 and the customer #420 cars.
The ever faithful #432 RABsport C1 was piloted by customer drivers Gary Mitchell, Ian Mitchell and Adam Read. With no time to test Friday night qualifying was used as a test session utilising high fuel runs to get an idea of race pace and fuel usage for the race and ultimately putting us 43rd on the grid of 59. A good nights sleep was in order now before the big race.
Race day started early with a warm up session in the morning. A short run out for Adam read with a low fuel run saw our ultimate lap pace up to 7th, which was promising. With warm up out the way there was time to reprep both cars to ensure reliability for the 24hrs.
17:00 arrived and after a quick break the cars headed off to the grid, with Gary Mitchell taking the first stint. Gary made a short call on the grid formation lap to return to the pit for a clutch adjustment, which meant we started the race from the pitlane, however would not lose race time - a wise move.
As the race went on, from being 59th at the start First Gary, then Adam carved through the field to 21st place, a stunning start to the race! Stop one came and went, and unfortunately the team got caught out by a penalty, this was then coupled with some minor damage after a car careering off caused damage and had to come in for repairs. This dropped us to 38th Place - not ideal we though but time to battle again!
The clock ticked on, and as the night progressed into the early hours of the morning, some wise strategy calls and fantastic driving by the team saw us once again knocking on the door of the top 20, clawing our way back to 22nd by hour 13, the car running a dream and consistently hitting good times.
With a consistent performance we should have easily seen the top 20, however this wasnt to be.
For the last few hours the team were struck with somewhat bad luck - a small mechanical issue caused the team to pit out of sequence, followed by a pit lane speeding penalty saw us tumble down the order. The car however was still going well, and a finish alone is a tremendous result in a 24hr race…..
This wasnt to be!
23hrs 45mins into the race - Ian Mitchell was overtaking another car, giving plenty of room. The other car unfortuately lost control, and hit the #432 hard in the rear quarter, bending the rear beam and causing significant body damage, so much so it was not possible to continue. With 15 mins to go, and towback no longer available we had to retire the car.
The #420 car did well, with a largely clean race, bar a stop go penalty dashing their chances of a top 10, but leaving them with a commendable 21st Overall.
A bitter pill to swallow and a gutting end to the weekend but a learning experience for both drivers and crew, however sometimes the saying ‘thats racing’ is the only truth!
Thankfully the #432 is now being rebuilt, and we will return stronger (and hopefully luckier!) than ever!
A huge thanks to the C1 Racing club and the organising team, BARc and marshalls for putting on an excellent event. We look forward to many more!
RABsport Racing Team - Silverstone 24hr 2021
