Pembrey Five Hour Round Two Race Review
With forty four cars starting this past Saturday at Pembrey, the number was apparently the largest ever grid assembled at the Welsh circuit. Indeed, a significant step forward too for the C1 Club, a significant increase from the fifteen car entry that took to the same track for its maiden meeting last year.
There was no celebratory Felinfoel for Bastard drivers Lowe, Cox and Bucknell after Friday’s testing, as it was an early evening as Saturday was race day. The car was looking good and drivers were ready for the second round of the Trade Team Citröen C1 Challenge, five hours of close and competitive racing was ahead.
Infamy! Infamy! They’ve All Got It In For Me!
The #BastardGate saga raised it’s head again this round as the team were told by a MSA official to obscure the name. The reason of ‘watershed’ was given. At Rockingham last month we were told to remove the name by a marshal, a directive we were told handed down by the Clerk of the Course. But here at Pembrey, the directive was the MSA.
Having been in touch with the C1 Racing Club subsequent to Rockingham, it has been confirmed that we can still use the Inglorious Bastards team name and include it and any website URL on race suits too. This has been agreed at the highest levels at BARC and I think, disseminated to the Clerks. Alas, the tape was removed before the race as the Clerk of the Course agreed to with the C1 Club officials and hence overruling the MSA pit person who had demanded the name be covered.
How The Race Unfolded
All three drivers put in some good times in qualification, placing the team P16 of 44 cars on the start grid. The sun was shining and it was an eventful first few hours, increasing position from P16 to P9 before recieving at one minute ‘Stop and Go’ penalty for Lowe exceeding track limits. That dropped the team back to P27. Fighting back up to P9, a mandated pit with driver change and refuel dropped the position back to P17. Once again we fought back up to P9 and then had to pit, change driver and refuel for a second time. We rejoined P16.
Having the last pit under a Safety Car, the nominated driver to end the race was Bucknell. Running in P10 with just under an hour to go, the team finally finished P8 with a 00m54s gap to P7. A full time analysis is available as .PDF from the TSL Timing website.
So, P8 in the 5 hour C1 race at Pembrey was another really strong performance and that’s includes the 1 minute Stop and Go penalty for exceeding track limits. The Stop and Go penalty lost us approximately 1m25s, which could have probably mandated P5.
Drivers Comments
"Great fun, hot day. I was pretty wrecked after two hot hours in the car. The last fifteen minutes were tough. Big smile after that race."
"A solid time and the car felt good. It was a fantastic race. Hard and fair racing for the full five hours. Great fun."
"Great race. Outstanding driving by virtually every team."