BRITCAR: Silverstone 3hr July 19th 2008

A blustery Saturday in July saw my introduction to the wonderful world of Britcar. Having convinced my wife that we should drive out to the Northamptonshire countryside for a picnic, we pitched up in the local beauty spot of, er, Silverstone.

On arrival, it was good to see that the Moslers were packing out the front row.The KRM car of Kevin Riley and Ian Flux edged pole by a quarter of a second over the McInerneys. The Topcats Mosler was a further second behind.

The rolling start saw the Moslers lead out a thirty-five car pack which hammered past. Soon enough, the Moslers were pulling away from the rest of the field, the Prosport being the best of the rest.

All too soon, the Moslers were even pulling away from each other with Ian Flux setting a scorching fastest lap the seventh time around the International circuit. Retirements were hitting hard early on, though, with the British GT refugee Beechdeen Aston out on lap two and Tim Hood's TVR Sagaris on lap eight.

The bad luck was ramped up on lap thirteen. A spinning Porsche was collected by an advancing Jaguar and the ensuing safety car period bunched the field up. When the green flags unfurled, the Eclipse Mosler was climbing all over the KRM car and Sean McInerney took them for the lead on the following lap.

And it only got worse for KRM; only sixteen laps into a race expected to last 100+, Ian Flux parked the car up at Ireland as the power drained away. “I considered nursing it back to the pits," he said, " but decided it was safer to take the walk”.

So, the Eclipse Mosler took the lead and seemed to be running well, pulling out a near-four second lead over the Topcats car. Meanwhile, Millard’s Prosport was still best of the rest, nine seconds adrift in third.


As the pit window opened towards the end of the hour, Taylor brought the second placed Mosler in whilst the Eclipse car stayed out longer. The Chad Ferrari leap-frogged Topcats into second, with Andrew Beaumont now running in fourth. Sean McInerney later pitted from the lead and father Michael had the lead back after the front runners had all made their first stops.



By the half way point, Michael McInerney was looking good and took advantage during another safety car period to take a second stop. And he retained the lead, over a minute in front of the Topcats car. Beaumont brought that in later during another safety car period for its second stop but seemed likely to need a top-up to get them to the end.


Into the final hour, the Eclipse car came in for its last stop and Topcats lapped up the gap, bringing Michael McInerney's lead down to less than a second. But they was running somewhat faster than the Topcat car and soon began to bolster their advantage.

Beaumont brought the Topcat Mosler in with less than fifteen minutes to go for a splash and dash, still managing to keep hold of second place on their exit from the pits thanks to the lead they'd built up over the bundle of Ferrari's bumbling behind.

So, I saw three Moslers take the green light three hours previous and two of them take the chequered flag. First to do so was the Eclipse Mosler, comfortably in front of the Topcats car with the Bamford/Griffin Ferrari in third. Good to actually see a Mosler take a win, given that I haven't actually seen that since the Donington Belcar race in 2007 that started off this whole shebang of a blog.

Rictus grin attached, I beat the retreat for home. And then.... arriving home and pouring over the TSL timings website (like you do) I found that the McInerneys had been hit with a 180 second penalty for 'pit lane infringements'. That pushed them back into second and promoted the Topcats team into first.

Still glad to see a Mosler win, but it seemed a curious state of affairs. I got in touch with the Topcats team boss, Warren Gilbert, who told be that as they were short of pace and second place was the best they could have hoped for, they were happy to take the win.

Unsurprisingly, Sean McInerney was less happy. Confident with their better pace and race strategy, the win would have been theirs except for that penalty. "We were told that we were 1min and 4 seconds short on one of our mandatory three minute stops", Sean told me. "This was completely incorrect and we had video and timing proof to show this was the case".

Naturally, they appealed only to be told that they were seven minutes too late to do so. Sean was rightly frustrated; "Even though the penalty had been agreed by all, including the MSA stewards, as being wrongly applied, they would not alter the results".

So, still another Mosler 1-2 at Britcar, albeit not quite the order which was expected. Next stop Snetterton in August - I wonder if my wife fancies a picnic in Norfolk...?

Photos (c) Peter May

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