Scott Smart and Hugh Brasher finished Saturday's highly competitive Spa Francorchamps 6 hour race in a creditable 4th place in class.
The 6 hour event which ran as part of the Belgian Endurance Championship, attracted a seventy strong international entry headed by the likes of Ari Vos, Werner Daemen, Sebastian LeGrelle, Marc Fissette and Stephane Mertens. It is run by the 'endurance 4 fun' club.
The 6 hour event which ran as part of the Belgian Endurance Championship, attracted a seventy strong international entry headed by the likes of Ari Vos, Werner Daemen, Sebastian LeGrelle, Marc Fissette and Stephane Mertens. It is run by the 'endurance 4 fun' club.
The Team qualified in 9th position after a great effort by Scott Smart. Neither Smart nor Brasher had competed at Spa previously. Scott's lap was sufficient to push several of the regular endurance Teams ( LTG 57, Zone Rouge, etc) out of the top ten. The race rules are strictly Pro-Am, so each Team is allowed only one established 'star' rider. How that worked out with Mertens being paired
with Didier DeRadigues, we are not sure...
The race was held in dry conditions, except for a shower in the last fifteen minutes and at temperatures around 22 degrees C. It started at 14.30. Smart started and steadily climbed to seventh position by 30 mins.
As the early leaders pitted, the team rose to 2nd overall and held 3rd at the turn of
hour one when Smart handed to Brasher. Brasher held a steady helm up to the end rota 2, when he pitted at at 16.22 hrs in 12th position.
At 17.12 the race was stopped temporariliy (they dont use pace cars here anymore) and Smart reported higher than normal water temperatures. A small fracture in one of the oil cooler water pipes awas detected. Following this, the Team replenished the water at the following stop and repeated the process 2 stops later. Each pit/water stop cost 5 minutes, for cooling and replenishment. Apart from these blips in the proceedings, the remainder of the race was trouble free. The Team were happy with yet another Spa race finish with a pair of newcomers bringing in 15th overall and 4th in class.
It was great to be back at an endurance race at Spa and the whole Team is now looking forward to it's next outing at Cartegena in September.
No comments:
Post a Comment