A Class win, followed by an unexpected setback

Now and again my blog posts carry personal news rather than deep race analysis or my ponderings on the state of the world of motor-racing, and this is going to be such an article (eventually). Originally, I was thinking of how to share with you all the sense of achievement of a 992 class win in the Barcelona 24 hours, but then events took a somewhat unexpected turn.

I may be getting ahead of myself though. Regular readers may know that I have been helping out in the Red Camel Racing garage this year, assisting with tactical and strategy decisions during the Creventic 24H Series races. It hasn’t been a great season for us – starting with a disastrous broken engine in Dubai, followed by a distant second place at Mugello and disappointment at Spa and Monza with various issues providing only slim pickings in terms of championship points. The Estoril round was better, with a class win in the Qualifying Race followed by a second place in the 12-hour encounter providing evidence that we were able to challenge at the front of the 992 field.

The team arrived at the Circuit de Catalunya with high hopes – despite one of the strongest fields of the season so far. The Red Camel team consists of the family driving talents of Ivo Breukers, his two sons Rik and Luc, and the Swiss driver Fabian Danz, who regularly joins the squad for the longer races. I have explained in previous articles how our crew is made up of part-timers, none of whom is a qualified racing mechanic, but each of whom is filled with enthusiasm to show what can be done against far more experienced – and better-funded – rivals. Against such strong opposition as we had at Barcelona – from Willi Motorsport (Ebimotors), Red Ant, Duwo and HRT – mixing with the leaders would be a question of being quick in the pits as well as on the track.

To this end, the crew spent their evenings leading up to the race at Red Camel’s workshop practicing pit stops, and eventually getting the time for a change of brake discs down to just 70 seconds – at least in the quiet of the ‘practice pit lane’ in front of the shop!

The team arrived at the circuit on the Wednesday before the race, in order to participate in the “Track Day” session – establishing that the car was well set up for the race and the drivers were comfortable with it.

The Unofficial Private Tests on Thursday passed uneventfully, our best lap being half-a-second slower than the fastest 992 time, but we were very aware that the competition from Willi and Red Ant both had crews of all “Semi-Pro” drivers, whereas we had two “Am” drivers on our driving strength.

Friday was spent trying to optimise the set-up, but this meant heading down a couple of blind alleys, which was not helped by the arrival of rain either. The rain intensified for our qualifying session, with the result that only the first session (which had to be done by the “Am” driver) counted. Fabian Danz did a great job for us, but of course Red Ant had the benefit of being able to use a Semi-Pro, and promptly slotted their 992 on the overall front row of the grid!

We consoled ourselves with the usual platitudes – it’s a long race, grid positions are not important for a 24-hour race, consistency is more important than speed over an individual lap, etc., but inevitably it meant that there was some disappointment with only starting on the 9th row of the grid when our chief rival was so far ahead.

As usual though, we made our plan: we agreed the driver rotation, decided the points at which our ‘pit windows’ would open for fuel stops and driver changes, and knew how long the tyres, brake pads and discs would last before we would want to change those. As expected, the opposition was strong, although we were able to keep the pace of Willi Motorsport’s entry, the #903 Red Ant entry was simply too fast for us to keep up with. We kept with the plan though, pitted whenever the Code 60 periods fell in our favour, and cursed mildly to ourselves when things fell against us.

As the race entered its final phase, we found ourselves on fresh tyres with a ten-second deficit to the Red Ant car and plenty of fuel to play with. It got a bit messy at this stage, as Huub Eijndhoven at the wheel of the #903 desperately tried to keep Rik from overtaking. A late-race Code 60, caused by Jimmy de Breucker visiting the gravel in the other Red Ant car, enabled Eijndhoven to save a bit of fuel, with less than twenty minutes of the race to go. Jimmy De Breucker (father of Kobe, one of the crew of the #903), eventually got going again with eighteen minutes to go. Obviously, I was not an impartial observer in all of this, but to me Eijndhoven’s tactics were becoming increasingly questionable and it was with a sense of relief that Rik finally got past in what was to most observers at the time, the faster of the two cars. A race control message briefly announced that one of the several incidents between the two was under investigation, but was later revealed to need no further action.

For Red Camel, taking the chequered flag first in the 992 class (and in 7th place overall) was the cause of unrestrained – and in my view, justifiable, celebration. It had been a win for the entire team. Each of the drivers played their part: we had been consistent, our Am drivers had driven their fair share of the race (and then some), the refuelling had been done efficiently, utilising some, but not all of the Code 60 periods and our tyre and brake changes had been close to flawless throughout the 24 hours.

The tables and graphs show how we were not the fastest car out there, but we were able to get to the front at the right time by good teamwork and effective pit stops.

The graph above shows how we were able to beat the Willi Motorsport (#955) entry on pace - but we were slower than the Red Ant car (#903)

Below - a comparison of our four drivers against the four (Semi-Pro) drivers of Red Ant.

So far, then so good. We packed up the garage, cleared everything away and packed my bags ready to check into a city centre hotel, as I wasn’t flying home until the Monday evening. First, though, we would stop at the post-race party to say our goodbyes and thank the competition for a great race. On my way, I carelessly tripped up some steps, fell backwards and found myself unable to move my right leg. An ambulance was called, and instead of joining the rest of the team in celebration, I was carted off to the local hospital, where X-rays revealed that I had broken the top of my femur (basically a hip fracture).

Alone, in a foreign country and unable to speak the language, it was a problematic time. On the Tuesday afternoon, I was operated on, to have a nail and two screws inserted into my thigh. Already the following day, the nurses suggested that I get out of bed and sit in an armchair for a few hours, and on the Thursday I received a visit from a physiotherapist, who took me for a walk, with the aid of a frame, down the hospital corridor.

The following Monday, a week later than I originally intended, I was on an aeroplane back home and, although climbing stairs was a bit much for me still, I was able to sleep in my own home at last. And now, nearly a month later, I am getting ready to ‘get back in the saddle’ and commentate at the Formula Ford Festival at Brands Hatch. If ever there was a motivation to recovery, surely that must be it!