24-hour race marathon
Heroic efforts by the evo team in the EERC Silverstone 24-hour race gained a creditable final placing, humbling the TopGear team in the process
It was a feature made in heaven. We’d enter our Nissan 350Z Sport Maxx racer in the EERC Silverstone 24-hour race, RJN Motorsport – old hands at endurance events like this one – would prepare and look after our vehicle during the event and the evo editorial team would gain the invaluable experience of marathon team racing and sleep deprivation rolled into one. What could possibly go wrong?
Jethro Bovingdon took the seat first and a driver change was made every one-and-a-half hours, limited by the 80-litre fuel tank.
In the early hours fog descended, necessitating tedious 40mph laps and, later, 17 hours into the marathon, the Nissan boiled-up like a kettle. The clutch, too, was making a clattering noise, but with tlc from the RJN crew and sympathetic driving, it all held together.
Richard Meaden was piloting the last stage and he jubilantly punched the air as he crossed the line.
After 24 gruelling hours we finished a creditable 3rd in class and 15th overall, with 506 laps under our belts, beating the TopGear team of Hammond, Clarkson, May and The Stig into a cocked hat, not that we’re crowing....
Read the hour-by-hour account in next month’s issue (issue 111), on sale 17 October.
