1st Position in June 2010 6 hour race! by Mike Gadd

My first thoughts as I rounded the 1st corner after starting my 2hr stint
was the car was skittish. It felt like the back wheels were disconnected
from the car and I was driving across ice. Bouncing hard through the 2nd part of the chicane my head bouncing for what would be the first of many times to come off the door frame I started to remember how it felt driving the prelude. Taking the downhill hairpin for the first time since June I was surprised to get a little tire squeal. I wasn’t getting that last time
but these tires have 4+ hours use on them so maybe that's why. As the
race continued I soon acclimatized and was able to control the car no problems at all.

I new I was starting my stint with a 4 lap lead over the DC5 won by the stellar performance of Simon and Tom, and I was anxious to maintain as much of that as possible. I hated the thought of being the one responsible for losing us 1st place and letting everyone down but knew it was a real possibility.

I was on perhaps my 4th lap and just getting up to race pace speed I guess when I rounded the top hairpin and spotted the DC5 in my rearview. I was surprised when I matched his speed through the hairpin and down through the kink the bottom hairpin and the top giving me confidence that our speed differences wouldn’t result in a rapid erosion of our lead and the thought crossed my mind that perhaps Simon and Tom faced the DC5s best drivers and that fortunately I was left with their worse?. I caught myself trying to calculate how fast he would have to be per lap to erode our lead and put us in 2nd place.

Then suddenly as I approached the last corner the Rire roadster in front of me exploded spurting oil all over the track as it flew straight off the track across the dirt spinning as it did and ending up with its ass against the bank. I was fortunate to be just far enough away from him to miss the line of oil he had left while at high speed and as I regained my line, glancing in the rearview before taking the corner just in time to witness the DC5 lose control as it hit the oil, slide off the track a long ways across the dirt stopping just shy of the right side bank and almost at the corner!

I knew the SC would be out but I literally still had a completely full tank so didn’t pit.

I lined up behind the SC which let us pass one by one until we were all in race order behind it. I chuckled to myself that having just got my A license that I knew exactly what to do

On each lap we would drive slowly past the guys with brooms soaking up the oil precariously close. Unfortunately I realized on the very first SC lap that miraculously the DC5 had instantly extracted himself from the dirt and perhaps only lost at most one lap!- damn

Simon showed me a +5 as I passed the pits. He looked happy.

Once the SC left it was back to work as the field quickly spread out.
Nobody was more surprised than me when a while later I found myself coming
back upon the DC5! I was about to lap him! As I did it didn’t take long
to realize he still wasn’t matching my speed and I was to lap him again in the next hour. Additionally I would lap several of the B class cars time and time again.

An hour into the race and Simon showed me a +6 as I passed the pits - he looked very happy. As was I.. Tom was telling me to slow down. They were confident of our lead but I knew Id have to pit for fuel and wasn’t sure if the DC5 had to or not to finish the race. I wanted a good lead to take no chances. It was frightening how slowly the fuel was used up during the SC but how much I was using up afterwards.

Curiously, and it was a strange situation that showed the subconscious bias that grows with the marshals who see a b class car and assume its going faster, as they would blue flag me on corners as I approached with a B class car behind me that I was lapping! After the third blue flag and the third time I let a B class car pass only for me to then have to pass him a corner latter as he was going too slow - I stopped taking head of the blue flags unless I knew for a fact the car behind was far faster. It appeared to me that several of the B class cars were very erratic with their speeds. They would pass me then I would pass them, then I’d lap them, then they would pass me and so on.

Time was going by and I hadn’t seen the DC5 for a while. I assumed they had pitted for a refuel and confidence started to grow that there may be no way now they could regain the lead. Then I saw him a little ahead of me. After a bit of a battle (And a tight overtake at the hairpin) I passed him with a big smile on my face.

Simon showed me a +7 but now both him and Tom now frantically telling me to slow down!

20 mins to go and my fuel levels are low. I started to calculate in my head how many laps a fuel stop might cost us and if fully refueled the DC5 could catch up. I didn’t know what their race strategy was or if they had a super GT driver scheduled for the last 20 mins.

I wanted to catch up with the DC5 again. I wanted to lap them just one more time before pitting as I knew a pit stop for a splash and dash would cost us laps.


Trying to force myself now to conserve fuel and drag out the splash and dash time as late as possible while maintaining our lead so kept an eye on the rearview for them. I just wanted to need to do a splash and dash - no more than 10L, or one lap time lost.

I reasoned that I should slow to conserve fuel until I see the DC5 behind me. At that point I should pit for as min amount of fuel as Id need to finish. Unfortunately I still couldn’t see the DC5…and It was not easy to force oneself to maintain a slower pace but I did my best.

15 mins to go and I’m driving on fumes. I press the horn as I pass the pits to give them a 2 lap warning I’m coming in. Still no DC5. I pit to be greated by a smiling Tom and ask him to give me a splash. We knew that we could get 20L in within a 1:13 lap so we stopped at 15 L and I headed back out. Still no DC5, so that meant at worse case we lost one lap to them - best case we didn’t lose any.

It was about this moment that I knew we had won. I knew now it was mathematically impossible for the DC5 to beat us now. But…I was still lapping B class cars and as we had only 3 cars in our class I new without finishing high overall some might say we really were just lucky rather than competitive - so I maintained my pre splash pace, fast but cautious - just backing off a little.

Unfortunately this almost caused me to crash as I glanced at my gauge at the wrong moment looking up to find myself half way through the chicain totally off line and going too fast. A B class car that was bumper to bumper with me for the last lap was close but on line. When I realized where I was and my speed and off line position I knew I was in very deep shit. There was no way I could turn I just didn’t have enough grip. I did the only thing I could do and took the only line that would provide some grip - hopefully enough, that I can regain control from, that was to go straight over the chicane across the track straight over the right hand chicane rumble strips and dirt bouncing violently onto the track in a full out of control slide towards the bank. I knew I had to remain totally calm and that the biggest danger was an over correction. It took all my self control to trust that a gentle small correction might just give me enough grip back to just make th e corner without coming off. After the bounce I was sliding viciously, I corrected and the car surprisingly reacted. I felt some grip return momentarily and my steering inputs start to take effect then I felt the moment it started to overcorrect and grip began to be lost, I started to slide the opposite way. I don’t know were I found the nerve but I just gave it the deftest, lightest of re-corrections and much faster than I thought I was back in control and speeding down the downhill with the B class car behind me keeping a slightly larger distance away. Im sure he couldn’t believe what he had just seen because I couldn’t believe it was possible to recover from what I recovered from. Lesson learn - never give up and when the shit hits the fan relax don’t tense up and give it the lightest of touches!

5 mins to go and Im growing more and more anxious. I knew only a crash now would cost us the race and Im trying to drive cautiously.

The prelude clock now says 4:00 Im coming up on the finishing line. I don’t know if the race will be extended given the 15 mins SC time but low and behold there’s a chequered flag! It was one heck of a moment!! We won!
Not only that but we did well against the B class cars too.

This race more than any other taught me its not just about speed its more about planning, race strategy, refueling strategy, team work and car prep.

A great day one of lifes important moments our first win!