Ford GT in the Spa 24 hours 2010

[GT101]

2 hours 20 minutes in now. Peter has just finished his stint. Another good steady one. When Peter brought the car in we were 21st overall. 1 place behind the Marc VDS Ford GT in 20th.

As you can see it's still hot in the car though the air temp has dropped a bit and there's been a few light showers but the track stays fine for slicks.
Matt Griffin has taken the car over with fresh fuel but staying on the same tyres.

Safety car has just gone out, Audi on fire apparently. Not great timing for us....

 

[GT101]

3 hours in. Remaining 20th overall. Matt is still in the car. The wet tyres are never far from the door....

 

[Joe Dozzo]

Thanks for the updates!!!

And remember, to finish first, you must first finish!

 

[GT101]

4 hours complete - The weather is very unsettled. It rains heavily on one part of the track then stops - then rains heavily somewhere else - this is typical of Spa.... So far the wets have stayed off the car.
Matt finished his stint having double stinted the tyres and he was doing his best laps just before he came in - the GT does look after these Michelins.

Alex has now taken over the car once again and remains in 20th overall. It's getting darker as you can see:

We just had a low flying hot air baloon pass overhead. What a way to get a view of the race.....

 

[PL510*Jeff]

http://www.total24hours.com/24h-spa/fr/videolive2.cfm

Excellent videocast. Raining. GT's still looking good. Go Blu!

 

[GT101]

5 and a half hours done, nearly a quarter of the way there...........

As Jeff says really raining now. Time to put the wets on:

Alex finished his stint but the car wouldn't restart so rather than risk getting stranded out on track the car was pulled back into the garage to change the starter motor:

Car now back to full health and back out on a wet track. Peter Bamford now at the wheel.

Three GTs still running;
99 Marc VDS 10th overall
98 Marc VDS 14th overall
71 RPM Mountune dropped to 24th overall

Thats all for now, time for dinner.

 

[GT101]

10.30pm so 6 and one half hours done. Properly dark and remaining wet as you can see below:

Note the fantastic Matech hospitality unit in the mid foreground. (Steve Nesta says Hi to all the Le Mans going forum members by the way)

Peter Bamford has finished his stint and handed the car over to Matt Griffin once again. No more starter issues.

Latest positions:
98 Marc VDS 11th overall
99 Marc VDS 12th overall
71 RPM Mountune 24th overall

GT2 BMW No 79 now has a one lap lead at the head of the field.

We have started building the camp beds in the garage........

 

[The One]

Keep those pics and updates coming, we get live feeds now and then. ( http://www.total24hours.com/24h-spa/fr/videolive2.cfm )They haven't showcased you guys yet. Look forward to them doing a little piece on the new car.

 

[GT101]

Well it's midnight in Belgium. Saturday is done and out of the way, just 16 more hours to run.

Matt has stayed in the car and just been in for slick tyres, the track is drying steadily. You can see the steam coming off the removed wets:

His pace has pulled us up a slot to 23rd, he's running a similar pace to the top 3. 160 laps now complete.

So the status is:
99 Marc VDS 10th overall
98 Marc VDS 11th overall
71 RPM Mountune 23rd overall

Cans of Red Bull freely available in the garage......

 

[GT101]

Twenty past 1am. Matt Griffin has just finished a monster double stint. Pulling us back up to 20th.

Dry track now but saftey car has just been deployed, unfortunately we've sent Alex out and he's got a loose wheel so has just come back in to replace the stud... which undoes lots of Matt's hard efforts . Still there's a long way still to go.

So the status is:
99 Marc VDS up to 9th overall
98 Marc VDS drops to 15th overall (rear lights problems)
71 RPM Mountune 22nd overall

 

[Joe Dozzo]

Hang in there, you're still running!

Please let the team know we're cheering them on from across the pond!

 

[GT101]

Approaching 3am. Alex has stayed in the car and is continuing to pedal quickly. We're back up to 20th now. The car is running cleanly which is more than can be said for it's appearance. You know how hard it is to keep a black car clean. We haven't even tried.

Before the race it was so clean and shiny:

Only one hour to the half way point.

In summary then:
99 Marc VDS 12th overall
98 Marc VDS 15th overall
71 RPM Mountune 20th overall

 

[GT101]

Half way. 4am. The endurance aspect of 24hr motorsport doesn't just affect the cars and drivers. The whole support crew, mechanics, chefs, trainers, team managers all play their part. A true team sport.

Elsewhere around the circuit the circus continues around the event. Personally I don't see the logic in having a band playing beside the track at 3 in the morning but here they are:

...singing cover versons of 1990s "hits"

Meanwhile Alex has finished a strong double stint climbing us another notch up the leader board. Peter B has taken the reins - now following the safety car after two cars off.

So here's where the GTs are at the halfway point:
99 Marc VDS 11th overall
98 Marc VDS 17th overall
71 RPM Mountune 19th overall

Strong coffee smells emanating from the pit area now....

 

[GT101]

Twenty to six in the morning. The sky is starting to lighten. There is an eerie quiet on track as the safety car is circulating after a coming together between Audi No50 and Ferrari No2 which looks like it means both are out of the race. We've just completed a driver change (Peter B out and Matt G in) along with tyres and front and rear brakes for a routine change. Used front brakes look like this after 13 hours of racing:

Presuming that 2 and 50 are out of the running the GT positions at 05:45 will be:

99 Marc VDS 9th overall
71 RPM Mountune 17th overall
98 Marc VDS 19th overall

Something tells me breakfast is on the horizon...........

 

[GT101]

7am. The sun has definitely risen and with it seemingly everyone's spirit. Matt Griffin is on a stellar double stint. He made good use of the restart and is lapping in the 2minutes 27 routinely whichh is top 10 pace. Our overnight starter motor and wheel stud problems have handicapped our potential but the drivers are just doing what race drivers do.... racing.

We gave Matt fuel only at the last stop:

So with "only" 9 hours to go this is the GT rundown:

99 Marc VDS 10th overall
71 RPM Mountune 15th overall
98 Marc VDS 25th overall

 

[GT101]

8am and 8 hours to go.

The sun is breaking through and Matt Griffin has been enjoying the fully dry track:

...posting excellent lap times which mean that the RPM Mountune GT is now in 14th overall.

The 98 Marc VDS car is out of the race - fuel problems so we hear. The 99 car however is doing a great job in 7th overall and 2nd in class.

Martin Bartek from Matech dropped by to see how we were getting on. Matt is out of the car now after his double stint and Peter is once again at the wheel for the next hour or so.

 

[fjpikul]

Good going. Keep it up!

 

[GT101]

10am. Slightly long break in transmission from me there. I just went to sit in the car to rest my eyes..... Anyhoo.... 6 hours to go and we're still plugging away. Alex has taken over from Peter for the time being. Funnily enough he's wearing the wrong race suit. Each driver has at least three suits and sets of Nomex underwear which they rotate during the race (something you don't really think about) and Alex is one size different to Peter - he obviously got the zip up anyway.

For reference a shot of our hard working drivers before this whole thing got started yesterday (was it just yesterday?):

Peter Bamford, Matt Griffin and Alex Mortimer - in that order

The order that interests GT fans is:
99 Marc VDS GT 7th Overall - 3rd in Class GT3
71 RPM Mountune GT 15th Overall - 7th in Class GT3

 

[GT101]

11.30 in the morning now in the very sunny and warm Ardennes. The drivers have a cool suit system that keeps their temperature down during the hot spells. Unfortunatley Alex had a coming togther during one of his night sessions - he was hit by a faster car trying to pass off line (on the wet stuff) who lost control. This caused mainly cosmetic damage to the right hand side of the car - this wasn't a major issue until the mechanics tried to open the RH door to install the fridge unit for the cool suits - the door won't open - if forced it could become more of an issue so a quick decision was made to press on regardless but with extra ventilation by way of a hastliy fashioned hole in the RH window. If you want to do this to your road car you just need a big mechanic with hard fists.

The car is looking rather second hand now:

The all important GT running order as I type is:
99 Marc VDS GT 9th Overall - 3rd in Class GT3
71 RPM Mountune GT 15th Overall - 7th in Class GT3

 

[The One]

Good morning from the east coast of the USA, went right to your fourm blog. Great to see you guys still in it. Bring it on home, to finish a 24 with a new car is a win.