Mallory Park Guild of Motor Endurance event.
It was 7am on Friday the 16th May. It was Mallory Park circuit. It was bloody raining!
The Guild of Motor Endurance 6 hour event is a challenge for two car teams of the same make. In our case that meant two Marlin Sportsters with crews of Andrew Curtis and Mike Coombes plus myself and Stuart Logan. We also had the benefit of a very experienced team manager /friend Stuart Annabel, who controlled our changes/timing and pit signals. The field totaled 52 cars with a huge range of performance from an 850 c Reliant powered Liege up to 6 litre V8's.
The objective was to cover 240 laps of the 1.35 mile circuit in 6 hours at an average speed of 54mph. "An absolute doddle" I hear you say. Well not when you have to complete 4 car/driver changes every hour to remain penalty free. Plus fuel stops back in the paddock. Plus that bloody rain, that worsened as the morning went by. Suddenly it looked like a very big challenge indeed!
We figured that a pace somewhere north of 60 mph should keep us on course ands compensate for driver and/or car changes. Andrew set off for the first stint in his 2.5 BMW powered car and was lapping well at the desired pace. Something many cars were not able to do as the conditions made pure horsepower academic. Some lurid slides for us all at an oil dressed Edwina's curves raised the heartbeat somewhat and several cars left the track as conditions worsened. Red flags on a few occasions meant adjustment to the laps required as team manager’s juggled logistics to mitigate point’s losses.
Sadly for us, during the second hour, one of the victims of conditions was Andrews’s car encountering oil on the approach to the Hairpin. The resultant "off" saw irrecoverable damage to the front suspension so we were down to one car/two drivers with a loss of 10 points per hour. With a typically positive attitude, Andrew and Mike were more concerned about the team impact than the damage to their car. In reality though, it was now near impossible to gain the best manufacturer team award. Despite this, we were still determined to put in the best performance possible and enjoy the day.
We pushed the pace and in the four hours of wet conditions were never overtaken and passed every car encountered. There were no comparative times to see but we must have been up with the best on pace thanks to a very communicative chassis and excellent wet grip from our standard road spec 205 section Dunlop Sport 01 tyres.
The last two hours saw a drying track and the higher powered cars began to use their advantage. A 6 litre V8 Cobra replica powering down the main straight is an impressive sight and sound!
We completed the event but at the time of writing just where we finished is yet to be announced. Suffice to say that we thoroughly enjoyed what was a tough event and are
confident the Marlin marque was positively seen. Circa 10 cars failed to finish through crash damage or mechanical failure. The final "winners" were Team Lotus running a pair of Elise's.
Thoughts now turn to the GOME main event in September that this year goes through the French and Italian Alps, then south to the finish in Rome.
We can't wait!
Pete Crowther