Build

Unchanged from North Weald sprint and Brands Hatch Test.

Mechanical Performance

The track was extremely slippery, experiencing a knife edge balance between understeer and oversteer on the corners. Thanks go to David Balderson who advised reducing tyre pressures to get more grip in the final session. As a result I was able to enter the corner and as I experienced understeer and the front end beginning to slide, I was able to add a small amount of power and put the rear into a controlled oversteer slide, balancing the car around the corner.

Having to keep the revs up in the corner to maintain the balance with power, the closely spaced gears meant that there was little additional power to accelerate along the next straight, even in the next gear.

Results

On the practice run, I pushed too hard coming on to the main straight and ran wide across the gravel. But just like Nigel Mansell at San Marino in 1990, I kept my foot down and powered back onto the track and still managed to post second fastest time !

In the timed runs, I am very pleased to say that I won the race ! Against the odds, as beforehand I had expected all of the cars to have higher performance than the Mustang. In particular the Porsche 996 had much better handling and power to weight ratio. I was helped by the driver going off the track on the final timed session.

1st Alex Peters 94.25 secs – Ford Mustang GT	2nd John Brookes 94.74 secs – Porsche 996
3rd Peter Hubbard 96.44 – Marcos GT	4th Robert Wadsworth 96.94 secs – Lancia Delta 037
5th Stephen Riddle 97.85 secs – Ford Mondeo ST220	6th Phil Jones 101.89 secs – Marcos GT
7th David Bennett 109.92 secs – Marcos GT