Brunswick Bursts into Britcar!
The last event of the season was really intended to be a fun event for Brunswick Endurance Racing, a way to sign off after an impressive season in which both the team's Alfa Romeo 156 and Lotus Elise had turned heads in the Endurance racing paddocks of UK and mainland Europe.
The EERC (European Endurance Racing Club) one day meeting at Donington would consist of an evening race, with qualifying only a short time before the race itself. Brunswick would field their Lotus, driven by regular Rachid Bouzouba and Peter, and their Alfa, driven by Dave Smith (with whom Peter shared the car at the Nurburgring 24hrs in June) and Dave Ashford.
The day proved to be a classic crisp sunny Autumn day, with clear skies but a cold wind blowing down the main straight. This good weather almost threatened to disrupt the event: the MSA rules that night time racing must be preceded by night time qualifying, in order to give drivers the opportunity to become acclimatised to the track in darkness. With such sunny skies, darkness did not fall until late, and the race distance had to be shortened to allow time for qualifying.
With a quick half hour practice session in the late afternoon, Rachid was able to run a few laps to get back in the groove before handing over to Peter, who completed just three flying laps before returning to the pits. "I was happy with the car, after all the changes we made to improve the handling at Brands Hatch, so I figured we'd be better off saving the tyres for the qualifying session."
With the the sun having set, the circuit was thrown into darkness and the qualifying session could begin. Since only the first driver's times would count (strange rule!), the team elected Peter to go out for three flying laps to set the grid time, which he did in style by snatching pole position in Class 2 with a 1min 18.341sec lap, good enough for 5th fastest overall!!
"Actually I was a bit annoyed," he said afterwards. "I set that lap time on the first flying lap and the tyres were still not fully up to temperature on the cold track, particularly the right hand tyres, which compromised our speed through the Craner Curves. I know we would have been into the low 1:17s but I was blocked by several slower cars at critical points on the next two laps."
Nevertheless, the Lotus would line up on the grid just behind four of the Class 1 cars: the Mosler MT900R (Short/Pearce), the Ferrari 360 (Adams/Ward), the BMW M3 E30 (Grant/Mott), and the Ferrari 360 (Back/Catt). The next Class 2 car behind the Brunswick Lotus was the BMW M3 E36 (Redhouse/Wright).
Rachid then took over as required by the rules, in order to familiarize himself with the night-time conditions, always a challenge no matter how many ancilliary headlamps are bolted onto the cars! Just two laps into his stint, disaster struck as the gearbox refused to cooperate and stuck in fourth gear!
With only minutes to spare between qualifying and the race, the team sprang into action as Rachid brought the car into the pits, the same problem having been seen at Spa earlier in the year. However, this time, the fix proved to be ineffective and with glum faces, the team had to accept the car would not take the start. "This is a bitter blow" said Peter. "The car is undoubtedly competitive; we've been embarrassing much quicker machinery all year, and to suffer a small glitch like this when there is no time to sort it due to the race format is cruel."
Meanwhile the Brunswick Alfa was out on the grid (2nd in Class 4 behind the MG ZR of Hammersley/Dunlop having set a best time of 1:28.573). The race got underway just after 7pm and the Alfa was able to stay out of trouble, taking advantage of two safety car periods (each necessary to recover a a car that had crashed) to move to the front of the class. During the second safety car period, Dave Smith dived into the pits to complete a strategic driver change, losing less time in this way. However, a problem with the lights at the end of the pit lane prevented several cars from rejoining the track, and the Brunswick Alfa was one of those cars that lost a lap as a result of this malfunction.
Nevetheless, as the race drew to a close, the Dave Ashford hauled the Alfa up to third in class, and the team could be happy with the fastest lap in Class 4 (1:28.584). The MG ZR of Hammersley/Dunlop took class honours.
"It has been a real test of character this season for all of us," commented Giles Groombridge, Brunswick team boss. "We've had some great highs but also a few too many lows with the Lotus. Still, it was supposed to be a learning year for the team, and we achieved what we wanted in both the British GT championship and the 24 hours at the Nurburgring by competing and running ahead of the more experienced and well-funded teams. We will be back in 2004 with a very exciting project indeed. Keep checking either the Brunswick website or Peter's site for updates through the winter!"
A final word is needed to thank our sponsors, i-TRAK, the lost luggage tracking specialists, who have been with us throughout 2003 and will undoubtedly return in 2004. Thier support has been invaluable and we are pleased that their association with us has resulted in unquestionable benefits for the company.
