Pole Position and a Class win at SPA

Another excellent result for the Hawthorns team supported by their preparation team, Neil Garner Performance Engineering. With Jay Shepherd as a permanent third driver, the team has up'd the anti in terms of qualifying times and the ability to get close to class two fastest lap times. We achieved a class two pole in qualifying, our first, thanks to Jay, but were a tad short on securing the fastest class two lap during the race, next time !!

Jan Person started the race and as usual, began to climb up the order. This was a difficult task as everything in front was a class one car and as Jay had secured a 12th place grid spot, the main task was to maintain that position for as long as we could. Jan was popping in some truly great lap times, 2.41/2.42's and on a couple of laps a 2.40, so he was really setting up a good lead over our class two competition. After one hour of consistent hard laps, Jan pulled in for fuel, it was to early for a driver change so off he went for another 15 mins or so, and again kept the pace we needed.

Rod took over at 1 hr 15 or thereabouts, and with another splash of fuel continued for the next 45 mins until the rear left tyre decided to call it a day. Unfortunately this happened on the high speed straight after Eu Rouge so at a painfully slow pace of 20mph, he carefully nursed the car back to the pits, some say it was his fastest lap but team manager, and Rod's wife, Diane, defended his performance by stating that most of his laps were a bit quicker !!!!!

The tyre was changed and quick repairs made to the body work and wheel arch which had suffered badly from the effects of the bust tyre, in time we would end up losing half the rear bumper and the whole of the left rear light unit but thanks to the intervention of Britcar boss James Tucker, we were not black flagged as he pointed out to the clerk of the course that we still had 2 rear lights for we had a top rear screen brake light that was working perfectly, clever people those Porsche designers !!

Jay took over after the tyre incident and immediately got us back on race pace, he put in a few storming laps in the low 2.38's in reaction to a very fast 2.37 lap time posted by our nearest class two competition, we then told Jay not to worry too much as the chasing car was a lap down on us, still, they got the message that we could up our game when required. Thus far, the race had been dry from the start but there was as always at Spa, the threat of rain, and not long after the start of Jay's stint, down it came. The vast majority of other teams called for wet tyres but Jay decided that he could keep a decent pace on slicks as he was sure that the rain would stop and that given 15/20mins the track would start to dry out again. HE WAS PROVED RIGHT !! great call, having said that, he was masterful in the wet conditions and on slicks, quite brilliant in fact. The track started to dry and Jay was soon back on race pace but we were running very low on fuel. A splash and dash was called for by Neil Garner and as Jay had again built up a significant lead, we were able to pit, fuel and get back out in front of all the other class two competitors. Jay continued to the chequered flag, maintained a full lap advantage, and secured a first in class race win.